Unbelievably vile.

[solarbird]

New York State GOP flyer: Vote Republican or darkies will rape your white wife. Apparently, they've decided, "Y'know what? Screw the black vote. We'll win with the racists." Unforgivable.

Comments

[banner.livejournal.com]

Umm, I don't see any part in there about black men raping white women. That's a white man's hand. Why does everyone always have to find some way to call republicans racist every chance they get? That's just insane. Like the whole 'jungle drums' or other BS stuff the Dems keep coming up with. Poor Andrew has gone around the bend and I don't think he's coming back.

[partywhipple.livejournal.com]

I don't think Republicans are racist. No more than democrats at least. But that hand is darker than mine and I'm half black. It's not a white guys hand.

[banner.livejournal.com]

Well it's not darker than mine, and I'm as white bread as it gets. Mine often look like that. It's not pigment, it's grease and dirt and stuff like that. What you get if you do work with your hands. But black? Please. Not even close. It's obviously not black to me, but then I hang out with a lot of black guys every Thursday night at the bike meet's. Not to mention a few ex's out there.
This whole thing is just reaching.

[devichan.livejournal.com]

Agreeing that it's not a black hand. This isn't racist. This is, however, classist. Grease and dirt and stuff like that... from the people on the wrong side of the tracks.

[loopback.livejournal.com]

Of course, as the text in the analysis indicates, it may not be a 'black man's hand', but it's a hand whose skin tone is measurably and notably darker than the woman's face in the photo.

"Dark skinned types will have their hands all over the pretty white women if you vote democrat".

I think that sums it up reasonably well.

[sylvan.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think it was intended to be as a Middle Eastern hand-- playing up the terror aspect. I went to violent crime/terrorism, not sex crime. Whatever the color/condition of the hand may be, it is clear that it is hateful, fear based propaganda and should not have any place in politics.

*sigh* and I thought it was bad here in Washington.

[spazzkat.livejournal.com]

What's the Republican take on what the link is between the image and the copy of that ad? I'm honestly interested in knowing.

I'm not seeing how the image is representitive of Democrats destroying family values.

[britzkrieg.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is a black man's hand.

But no, I don't think rape is the implication. More like, "nigger-lovin' Dems will silence your voice."

Still, the subtext is offensive.

[loopback.livejournal.com]

Given the history of how black men are portrayed in america, it is not out of line to think that there is a strong sexual overtone to the ad. The standard stereotype is of the Black Uncivilized Native with the Huge Penis who is completely Ruled By Lust For White Women, after all.

[partywhipple.livejournal.com]

Hey Hey Hey! I may be an uncivilized black native, have a huge penis and ruled by lust for white women but...

Wait, what was the fourth thing?

[banner.livejournal.com]

Wow, if you want to see racist, look at some of the replies you got. A few of THOSE are pretty racist.

[partywhipple.livejournal.com]

Hey now it could just be darkies will gag your wife. Or something. I have no clue it's either offensive as hell or doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Or both. Who's running the GOP in NY? Not the brightest bulbs in the box methinks.

[lyricae.livejournal.com]

Are we looking at the same picture? My hand is darker than the one depicted and I am most certainly white. When I saw the picture what I saw was a woman (typically the representative of family) being silenced. My interpretation of this ad is that the woman represents family values which will be silenced. That was ALL I saw. I didn't feel any threat to my safety in any way. It is unbelievable to me how very much it seems that people are looking for a way to tie racism into things in every way possible. Racism is a very pervasive problem in our society without a doubt, but lets fight it where it exists and not conjure it where it is not intended.

[solarbird]

I see a middle-eastern hand. There has been a running theme of transplanting old racist memes against black people to middle-eastern people in certain segments of the population (note I am carefully not pointing fingers here, I'm just saying it's been happening), and this appears to me to be another iteration of that - but this time, by a party committee rather than jackasses with too much time on t3h internets.

I mean, if you've seen the historical iconography of racist politics, I don't see how you can miss it. This ad is all but a cut-and-paste exercise of historical racist propaganda. But even though it's (probably) not a black person's hand, people who are aware of the history of this sort of thing will spot it - and what it's playing to - immediately, and people who are sensitive to racist politics will react accordingly. (Hence, saying "ah, screw it" to be black vote.)

[solarbird]

But even though it's (probably) not a black person's hand
To clarify: I don't know the race of the hand model, and by saying that "I see a middle-eastern hand," I'm not saying, "I think the hand model is an arab." I'm saying that the iconography is clear to me, and how they're depending upon it to resonate also seems very clear to me, and are as I describe above.