That Ad is Racist.

It's okay reporters - this is grounded in historical facts

It’s okay to call something that is demonstrably racist, racist just as it’s okay to call something clearly a lie a lie. And for journalists it’s not just okay to call out lies and racism it is absolutely necessary. Even if you don’t get an answer from those in power (and on the public payroll) the questions should be repeated over and over and over again.

Last week Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds released racist television ad that made countless nonsense claims and had nothing to do with the Iowa.

Someone else can deal with fact checking her; I want to talk about the racism. Within the first 15 seconds of the 30 second spot, Reynolds leverages obvious racial tropes and stereotypes. Some as old as Western European colonization of the Americas and the brutal slave trade, others repackaging old fears in new racist bogeymen.

Reynolds is facing reelection this year. Her opponent is Democrat Deidre DeJear – Iowa’s first Black woman of any party to top the gubernatorial ticket.

The ad opens with Governor Reynolds seated in a café watching a television. On the set is Missouri Representative Cori Bush. She says exactly one phrase: “defunding the police has to happen.” Then Reynolds turns toward the camera and says, “…has the rest of the country lost its mind?” – Rep. Bush, muted, is still visible on the make-believe TV in the upper right corner of the scene.

In rapid succession the viewer sees footage of Chicago police officers on a street where a car is on fire, then a literal sign with WELFARE in all caps flashes on the screen and then an arial view of a tent city (menacing background music lets us know this must be a dangerous homeless camp) as Reynolds makes the false claim that the US has open borders (this too is lofted to drive fear among the white people and to be clear the US does not have open borders).

Welfare Queen, Black women’s scary sexuality

Reynolds erroneously and bizarrely says that that people are being paid not to work as the welfare sign flashes on the screen. Bush is a stand in for DeJear who is meant to be stand in for all Black women. This racist conflation isn’t new. 

“Welfare queen” is the Reagan era slogan that is a clear racist attack. The welfare queen leans on white fear over Black women’s sexuality and that they have more children to collect more money from the government.

Black women historically have been portrayed as hypersexual – deviant even.

The authors of Jezebel at the Welfare Office How racialized stereotypes of poor women's reproductive decisions and relationships shape policy implementation reviewed data from welfare office interviews found that Black women were asked about birth control and family size to the point of making poor women sign paperwork that they acknowledge if they have another child it won’t be covered by TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families – through US Department of Health and Human Services) benefits.

A 1996 survey of national polling data found that white Americans responded to “racially coded language” and further they disapproved of “welfare” as something received, as they saw it, by African Americans.

They All Look Alike

This epithet has been around forever and has been launched at Black people as well as other ethnic groups in the US – notably Hispanics and Asians and in the UK among South Asian (Indian) populations. It is meant to dehumanize individuals and cover for white people’s mistaken recall of would-be criminals.

Law enforcement use of facial recognition software: the program cannot tell Black people apart. This isn’t new. In 2020 the ACLU highlighted the wrongful arrest of Robert Williams, a Black man, by Detroit police in the front yard of his suburban home in front of his wife and kids.

Reynolds deindividuating Black women – Bush and DeJear as interchangeable – reveals her implicit bias of her own racism.

Defunding the police

Defunding the police in the hands of the GOP becomes code for racism and white nationalism. Policing – meaning the entirety of the criminal justice system including laws, law enforcement agencies, court and detention systems – generally the carceral state – has its roots in slavery and importantly as backlash during reconstruction.

White people were so terrified that newly freed African Americans would attain power, money and land. Abolition through the emancipation proclamation didn’t end white supremacy in the US it just forced entrenched white systems to get legislatively and legally creative to control Blacks.

There is a success story in defunding the police taking place in Des Moines right now. Over the last six months I have been following the Des Moines Public School system after they removed police officers from its high schools.  With the $750,000 saved from that contract with Des Moines Police, DMPS hired twenty-five full time staff trained to help students and families to avoid entering the juvenile legal system altogether.

Laura Belin, journalist and publisher of Bleeding Heartland aptly noted in her article that political ads don’t happen on the off-chance. Every image and word are scripted to convey a candidate’s message.

And, the party’s. Shortly after that ad was released old tweets from Kollin Crompton, the Iowa GOP spokesman, surfaced. The Tweets were made under a former twitter handle that was active until 2020 and used among Iowa GOP staffers in various text volleys. Crompton’s tweets dated 2014 are laced with the n-word, referring to friends as ‘my n-word’ – to be clear, Crompton is blindingly white (like me).

I called Crompton to see how he felt now about those tweets especially in light of his high profile position in the Iowa GOP and by extension the GOP overall (first in the nation remember?). The first time I got his voicemail. His mailbox was full. On second try he answered but when I said my name he promptly hung up.

In 2015 during the run up to the election then candidate Trump had a long and well documented history as a racist. In 1972 he and his father were sued for housing discrimination against Black people in New York City. Then he called for the death penalty of the so-called “Central Park Five” taking out a full page ad in the New York Times.  The five boys – Black and Hispanic – were wrongfully convicted of the rape of a jogger in Central Park. Trump’s ads helped shape public opinion against the boys, perhaps tipping the scales against them altogether. Oh, and don’t forget his racist birtherism claims against President Obama.

Legacy media – controlled by white men of privilege – failed to hold Trump accountable for his deplorable racism during the run up to 2016. When the Des Moines Register didn’t endorse him he called them “fake news” – his favorite phrase against Iowa’s paper of record.

Fast forward to a stage at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, 2021. Kim Reynolds, Donald Trump, Iowa Representatives, Ashley Hinson and Marionette Miller-Meeks and Senator Chuck Grassley took the stage before a sea of MAGA red wearing fans. Trump gave his full throated support to all present including Reynolds – as he touted his Big Lie. On that stage too was another man. His name? Mark Fincher. Fincher is a right wing member of the Oath Keepers who was in DC on January 6th.  Fincher is running for Arizona Secretary of State.

I am still waiting for that story to be reported.

It’s okay to call something that is demonstrably racist, racist just as it’s okay to call something clearly a lie a lie. And for journalists it’s not just okay to call out lies and racism it is absolutely necessary. Even if you don’t get an answer from those in power (and on the public payroll) the questions should be repeated over and over and over again.