Racially Coded Political Ads
The racial equity topic for March takes us back several months ago, during the political campaign between Senator Ron Johnson and then Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes. If you saw any of the TV ads or heard any of the radio ads from Ron Johnson, you already know they became increasingly focused around Barnes wanting to “defund the police and release violent felons without bail”.
These statements, of course, were not true and instead were pulled out of context and reassembled for Johnson’s campaign to create fear and confusion among those who supported Barnes. The imagery used in these ads along with the misinformation, seemed to catch Barnes and his team off-guard because they did not have an effective response in those final months and weeks leading up to the November election.
Here is a 30 second attack ad that was used in the campaign last year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW850wtmFvg
These ads were specifically designed to focus on the fact that Mandela Barnes is Black and because of that, he is dangerous and can’t be trusted to keep our communities safe from criminals. Barnes was actually photoshopped in one of Johnson’s TV ads to make his skin color appear darker than it really is. Johnson’s campaign chose to run blatantly racist political ads and in this current state of culture wars, the ads were effective and helped him win.
This false and misleading messaging is not only damaging to Barnes’s political aspirations, but also to our work as MOSES members and our cause of criminal legal system reform. When one political party is perpetuating racial stereotypes that MOSES is trying to break down in order to rebuild an equitable legal system, those unfair biases create a greater uphill battle for all of us.
In that 30 second ad, Mandela Barnes’s name wasn’t even mentioned until the 15 second mark. The first half of that ad is solely focused on fear mongering and the assumption that because Barnes is Black, his beliefs only align with these other Black politicians that are shown. Even though Barnes did publicly respond to this specific ad, stating he did not want to defund the police or abolish ICE, the damage had been done.
Question for Discussion:
After watching the video, what are your observations about the ad and how it worked? How do you think it plays on racial basis or any other tactics that made it effective for the purposes of Johnson’s campaign? You can raise your virtual hand if you’d like to share.