[1/7] As part of our 2020 ad tracker project, here is a breakdown of the worst #DogWhistle ad of the week.
Find out more about this campaign and if politicians in your district are using racist ads to get elected with our tracker: 2020adwatch.com
[2/7] Team Trump is out with a digital campaign that is a direct echo of the infamous racist, dog-whistle ad from Geroge H.W. Bush’s 1988 campaign, colloquially known as the “Willie Horton” ad.
bit.ly/3kMsL1V
[3/7] The Trump ad attacks Biden for staffers who donated to a Minnesota bail fund, which they claim “helped release African-Americans from jail.” Bush used a similar coded racist argument in the 1988 ad when he attacked Dukakis with similar messaging.
[4/7] Both ads then name and show images of Black people while the narrator discusses heinous crimes. This is a strategy used to stoke racial division in the electorate without explicitly naming race.
[5/7] The Trump campaign also tweeted out the still images with the same intention of manipulating voters. This is a reinforcement of the racist- and often deadly- notion that Black Americans are inherently dangerous and should be treated as criminals.
[6/7] As Americans, we have the chance to reject the poison pill of this racist division and demand a U.S. that works for all of us. Racism and fear-mongering is all the GOP have to offer, but those are not solutions to the many issues are country is facing.
[7/7] Want to dive deeper into the history of the use of racist dog-whistles in presidential politics? Check out our short explainer video.
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.