{"id":7032,"date":"2012-02-07T00:02:23","date_gmt":"2012-02-07T08:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=7032"},"modified":"2012-02-07T00:02:23","modified_gmt":"2012-02-07T08:02:23","slug":"republican-racism-asian-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/07\/republican-racism-asian-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican Racism Asian Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

As campaign season rolls along, Republicans everywhere have been using dog whistle language, and sometimes direct statements, to demean minorities.  Republicans seem unable to function without the politics of fear and hate.  One Republican candidate for the US Senate faced a terrible dilemma.  He could not attack black people, because Michigan has such a large black population, so he went after Asians instead.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"7GOP-Hate\"…Michigan Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra<\/strong> (R) aired his first campaign ad of the cycle Sunday night, and Asian-American groups are crying foul.<\/p>\n

The spot accuses Sen. Debbie Stabenow<\/strong> (D) of helping China by increasing the national debt\u2026<\/p>\n

…Claiming an opponent will send or has sent jobs to China is hardly a new threat in Michigan politics. Democrats have used such attacks<\/a>. One of the most famous ads<\/a> of the 2010 cycle, from the third-party group Citizens Against Government Waste, featured a Chinese professor of the future talking about the collapse of the United States.<\/p>\n

But the broken English and stereotypical music in Hoekstra\u2019s ad have provoked a backlash.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, really dumb,\u201d Republican strategist Mike Murphy said over Twitter<\/a>. \u201cI mean really.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Michigan chapter of Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote, a nonpartisan group, called the ad \u201cvery disturbing\u201d in a statement. A member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights called the ad<\/a> \u201cblatantly racist.\u201d <\/p>\n

A group of Detroit black ministers joined in, arguing that the spot<\/a> is \u201cno different than him having a black person speaking in slave dialect.\u201d… [emphasis original<\/em>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <Washington Post<\/a>><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the ad.<\/font><\/p>\n