If you’d asked me in 2016, at the height of the alt-right’s political strength, whether there were any ads in the GOP’s future involving white women, black men, and sexual menace, I might have shuddered and said yes.
I would not have guessed that those ads would focus on the threat to black men from white women.
The Trump era is full of surprises, my friends.
The spot below wasn’t produced by GOP Rep. French Hill’s campaign. It comes from an outfit called Black Americans for the President’s Agenda led by West Virginia state rep Jill Upson. Lotta ground covered here in 60 seconds. First comes a tribute to due process in the Kavanaugh saga, then a sudden detour into, er, white women’s supposed propensity to lie about sexual assault by black men. Then a warning that whites — specifically, white Democrats — are gearing up to bring back lynching. (Metaphorical lynching? Actual lynching? Unclear.)
Oh, and then a straightforward recommendation to black men to stay away from white girls because you know they’ll end up crying “rape” sooner or later.
Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast.
And it’s all being done to promote a white conservative in the deep south, in the name of a reactionary president whose own track record on black men wrongly accused of sexually assaulting white women isn’t the best, as he might say.
Hill himself wants no part of it, please note:
Some may have heard an appalling ad on the radio. I condemn this outrageous ad in the strongest terms. I do not support that message, and there is no place in Arkansas for this nonsense.
— French Hill (@ElectFrench) October 18, 2018
Perhaps this is the secret ingredient to rapprochement between black voters and Republicans that’s been missing for so many years, though. The two sides lacked a common enemy to unite them and now they have one: Dirty, lying, scheming, diabolically racist white girls. Works for me.
Anyway, here it is. The most spectacularly incendiary anti-#MeToo propaganda you’ll ever hear.
This is a real radio ad currently running in Arkansas in support of Republican Congressman French Hill on radio stations targeted to the African American community. I don't even have words to describe it. pic.twitter.com/vpzt1nGPlc
— Ben Tribbett (@notlarrysabato) October 18, 2018
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