"Mitt Romney’s “Barack Obama is a Lazy Negro Who Ain’t Working” Ad" - "I would suggest that folks not sally forth and engage Romney regarding the racial invective present in his “Obama Isn’t Working” campaign theme."

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Alter Net
Racial Aikido: The Genius of Mitt Romney’s “Barack Obama is a Lazy Negro Who Ain’t Working” Ad
May 31, 2012


By Chauncey DeVega

Editor and founder of the blog "We Are Respectable Negroes" which has been featured by the NY Times, the Utne Reader, and The Atlantic Monthly. Writing under a pseudonym, Chauncey DeVega's essays on race, popular culture, and politics have appeared in various books, as well as on such sites as the Washington Post's The Root and Popmatters.

Racial Aikido: The Genius of Mitt Romney’s “Barack Obama is a Lazy Negro Who Ain’t Working” Ad


Some excerpts :

Any effort to call out Romney’s use of racial stereotypes would play into the politics of white racial resentment and white backlash that came in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. The associated and invented language of “the race card” and “reverse racism” are based on a premise that white supremacy is a thing of the past. Since the election of Barack Obama, the right-wing media and other elites have been able to push this narrative even further–white people are now oppressed, and despite all available sociological data that suggests otherwise, anti-white racism is now a plague upon the land. To attack Romney’s campaign slogan is to fuel the howls of white victimology.

In the age of conservative “colorblindess,” racism is defined by intent. This is a function of the personalization of race prejudice wherein racist social structures and institutional arrangements of power are conveniently ignored. Racism is universal. It is no longer a sin unique to white people. Consequently, the intent behind a person’s words and deeds trump both the context and consequences of their actions. If Romney were to deny that his ad was “racist”–which Romney would most certainly do–one of the evasions would be that “he did not intend it that way.” The same deflection would be flipped around on the critic who pointed out the problematic nature of Romney’s appeal to Obama’s imagined laziness in order to win over white voters. In keeping with the colorblind/reverse racism script, Mitt Romney would now become a victim, as the act of calling someone a “racist” in post-Civil Rights America is a bigger sin than racism itself.

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Mitt Romney’s “Obama Isn’t Working” campaign is a smart bomb aimed at white Independents (and other right-leaning fence-sitters) who can be mobilized to vote against Obama by carefully constructed appeals which simultaneously play on racial anxieties, but carefully avoid naked racism. Ultimately, Mitt Romney is vulnerable on many issues such as his gangster capitalist roots, insincerity, aloofness, religion, the Tea Party GOP’s failed economic policies and obstructionist behavior, as well as being the flag carrier for a party on the brink of demographic suicide. Romney’s flank is also exposed because he is the nominee for a political party that is possessed by Culture Warriors whose views are outside of the American mainstream. These are weaknesses to be exploited.

However, I would suggest that folks not sally forth and engage Romney regarding the racial invective present in his “Obama Isn’t Working” campaign theme. To do so, would be to fight on Romney’s chosen terrain. Nor would such an engagement offer up many political gains. The cause would be noble; the battle would still be lost.

Once more Mr. Romney, well played, very well played indeed. You are a worthy foe.

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