Is a pro-Romney ad racist? Five questions to ask yourself
In the presidential election, it’s not a matter of whether racism will appear in campaign messaging, but when. President Obama is running for reelection with the support of the majority of black and Latino voters. Mitt Romney is challenging Mr. Obama with an almost exclusively white constituency behind him. Both candidates will raise and spend unprecedented amounts of money on political advertisements, as will their respective parties and allied super PACs.
A crucial question is: How will we know when pro-Romney ads are potentially racist? It’s not always so easy to recognize.
Reasonable people will disagree about whether an ad appeals to race in an innocuous or outright racist way. This is why we developed the Index of Racist Potential. It is based on the content of more than 1,000 political advertisements we analyzed that were sponsored by candidates in federal election contests from 1972 through 2006 and that included at least one candidate of color (black or Latino). The index measures the degree that a given ad has the potential to evoke – consciously or unconsciously – voters’ stereotypical attitudes about people of color, regardless of the intent of the candidate or campaign team.
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1. Does the ad reference racial stereotypes?
2. Does the ad show a Obama's image alongside a racial stereotype?
3. Are all the people surrounding a Romney white?
4. Does the ad create an 'us' vs. 'them' racial contrast?
5. Is the audience where the ad runs mostly white?
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/2012/0723/Is-a-pro-Romney-ad-racist-Five-questions-to-ask-yourself/Is-the-audience-where-the-ad-runs-mostly-white