Or: The GOP – they really don’t seem to like much of anybody!
Last week, I wrote a post asking the GOP to just shut up about black people, a post which got a surprising amount of attention across the web.
In the aftermath of that, I found myself wondering: “Huh. Who is the GOP going to demonize and belittle next in this election cycle?”
And I knew: Asian-Americans. A post began to form itself in my head, one I intended to write sometime this week.
I mean, they’ve demonized and belittled gay people already:
Michele Bachmann: “If you’re involved in the gay and lesbian lifestyle, it’s bondage. Personal bondage, personal despair, and personal enslavement.” (She said this 2004, but it got a re-airing this summer).
Michele Bachmann’s husband Marcus: “We have to understand: barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined. Just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn’t mean that we are supposed to go down that road.”
Rick Santorum: Families headed by gay parents lead to “great dysfunction.”
So ok. They hate the gays. Check.
And they’ve demonized and belittled Latinos:
Newt Gingrich: “We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto.” (He said this in 2008, but again, it’s been re-aired).
Mitt Romney has promised to veto the DREAM Act (a bi-partisan effort to resolve the issues facing the children of undocumented immigrants).
All the candidates have completely waffled (and Romney threw in disdain for good measure) on the question of Puerto Rican statehood.
So. Latinos? Good for what are considered their generally conservative social views, but otherwise: Bad for America! Check.
And of course, women, of all colors.
Rick Santorum, regarding wanting to ban abortion even in cases of rape: “We have to make the best out of a bad situation.”
Ron Paul: We should differentiate between “honest rape” and, you know, lie-y rape.
Rick Santorum (again – he’s a peach, ain’t he?): “Look at the political base of the Democratic Party: It is single mothers who run a household. Why? Because it’s so tough economically that they look to the government for help and therefore they’re going to vote. So if you want to reduce the Democratic advantage, what you want to do is build two parent families, you eliminate that desire for government.”
The entire GOP field: “Among the major GOP candidates… not a single one has handed over the title of campaign manager to a female.”
Women – lying bitches who don’t deserve compassion in the face of rape, who foolishly buy the lies peddled by Democrats because they’re so needy with their slutty single-parent families, and don’t really need to be in politics. Check!
AND BLACK PEOPLE - omg! So not-working and gullible and that one in the White House is so worthy of being strung up! Not American. Check.
After all of this (and the anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-poor people, anti-union, anti-anyone-not-white-male-straight-and-wealthy palaver as well) clearly, the Asians were next up.
I was going to call the post forming itself in my head:
“Dear Asian-Americans – Look out, I think they’re coming for you.”
I will admit, however, that I was stymied by an inability to figure out just what the slurs might be. It’s the burden, I suppose, of being the “model minority” — you face discrimination and othering and bigotry, but it comes wrapped in words that are meant to sound like compliments. “Good at math” being one example. “Tiger mom” being another.
AND THEN THEY FREAKING CAME. And good lord, how could I have been so stupid?
I refer, of course, to the ad run not by a Presidential candidate, but by Michigan candidate for US Senate Pete Hoekstra, during the Super Bowl.
Of course! Asians are, first of all, Not American. They are Chinese, and they Want Your Economy.
They are Chinese, but in a really oddly Vietnam-y way, one which will remind you that not only are they Not American, they are Inscrutable, and Peasant-y, and Very Very Dangerous.
They are also oddly interchangeable, because the scuttlebutt is that the woman featured in Hoekstra’s ad (in which she says she’s Chinese in pidgin English while bicycling along a rice paddy in a conical hat) isn’t even Chinese-American. It’s just scuttlebutt at this point, but I would be willing to bet that Hoekstra’s campaign didn’t necessarily make a point of looking for an authentically Chinese-American person to use for race-baiting purposes.
Soooo, it’s been a super long walk to get here, but:
Dear Asian-Americans: I am so sorry that I didn’t warn you about the GOP. I could see it coming — I just had no idea how fast the Racism Train was running.
Oh, and PS: To anyone wanting to suggest that Hoekstra’s ad can’t in any way reflect on the Presidential campaign, as he’s not running for President, I say that unless and until the GOP’s Presidential candidates publicly condemn the racism (and homophobia and misogyny) in their midst? They own it. Simple as that.
Crossposted at Emily L. Hauser In My Head.
Racism is not a problem for the people Hoekstra’s talking to–it’s a bonus. That’s why GOP legislators hardly ever say anything when one of their colleagues says something insanely racist: In the Republican Party, they can’t afford to throw away the “racist vote.” Republican politicians will only decry it if they’re pressed on it.
It’s not a good long-term strategy for a party in the U.S., but they don’t think long-term.
Apology accepted, ee. How were you to know? And, Ron Paul’s supporters released this ever-so-charming attack ad against Jon Huntsman that reeks of racism against Asian Americans.
You are right. It’s gonna get ugly for Asian Americans this campaign season.
Not that you didn’t know already, AsianGrrlMN, but welcome to being Black in American politics. Whether its the Yellow Peril, dirty disease riddle immigrants sneaking over the border, or the Magic Negro in the White House – this will be the year for a full blown Bigotry Parade on national TV. That GOP convention in Tampa is going to look like a Klan Rally.
I’d wager that the Super PACs are going to through out every racial stereotype they possibly can against Obama. We have yet to be truly offended. Hell, the Republicans will probably throw out bigoted crap so outdated most of us will have to do a Google search just to be fully offended.
I know, Cappadonna. The GOP will sink as low as they need to go to satisfy their base. And, here I was bemoaning the fact that we are usually the invisible minority.
Ooh & OMG. I’d forgotten that ad. Sheesh – how was I to know? Other than the writing on the fucking wall? (But seriously, how awesome would it have been if I had posted “Dear Asian Americans – Look out, I think they’re coming for you” before the Super Bowl? I’d be like an octopus that predicted the world cup of racism!)
I love this so hard.
Nice try, but typical.
And if you believe they did it, you have been taken for a ride and have not done your homework.
This ad should let every Black, Latino and Asian conservative talking head know what these jokers in the GOP really thinks about them and why minority bloggers on the Left often call them ‘Toms’ and ‘sellouts’.
And its a almost a yearly ritual in conservative politics – put out some ridiculously racist bull and get free air time apologizing and defending it at the same time. Remember this little gem from last year’s California special election?
The problem with this GOP foolishness is that it may win the heart of the redneck faithful but turns off moderates and reasonable conservatives. So thank you, Pete Hoekstra for handing over the election to the Democrats on a silver platter.
That’s why I’m hoping against hope that somehow Newt scratches and claws his way to the nomination (a girl can dream can’t she?). Because then all the GOP’s ugly bigotry will be out in all its glory for everyone to see, with no way for their flunkies to sugar coat it or sweep it under the rug.
I’m sure glad the GOP decided we Democrats needed more people in our tent. Who’s next? How about the disabled? Or perhaps they’d just like to go ALL IN and just target anyone on Social Security? I look forward to all of these newly branded “UnAmerican” Americans being in our fold.
The GOP tent is shrinking so fast it has begun to look like those doll sized display tents that camping stores once had to show you what the full sized tents would look like when they were pitched.
GOP has gone so far outside of the average American’s reality that they should star in a new version of Twilight Zone. Personally, I think the more extreme they get, the better it will be for PBO and Dems.
I know people can get into ‘extreme sports’ and all that but extreme politics will not be pretty. Americans like their sports but most don’t actually like to see blood in the floor.
Just before I came here to ABL this afternoon, I was reading a couple sports blogs. On one of them, this post was linked:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/philosophicalfragments/2012/02/06/jeremy-lin-and-the-soft-bigotry-of-low-expectations/
I think it adds something to this discussion, that the writer of the linked post is taking notice of an Asian-American guy who is playing in the NBA, and calling out his accomplishment thus:
And it speaks to me of progress in areas we have not yet seen much of. (I did camera for NBA games and pregame shows for several years a while back.)
By small steps, despite the overt and covert racism far too much of America still clings to, things are changing for the better.