News, Column: Campaigns flood us with reductive racial rhetoric. How can we push back? : detailed suggestions and opinions about Column: Campaigns flood us with reductive racial rhetoric. How can we push back? .
Election seasons always leave me feeling cynical, as someone who cares more about social and racial justice than which party is in control.
No matter how much progress our public discourse seems to make, political advertisements and mailers reveal just how crude this conversation remains. Each year we are bombarded with appeals to white nationalism, fear-mongering, and bold, unspecific promises to advance racial and social justice.
This year we had Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel participate in shameless, xenophobic red-baiting against Democratic opponent Jay Chen, trying to paint him as a communist in their contest for the 48th Congressional District. Never mind that Chen is a Taiwanese American.
A nationwide mailer from former Trump senior advisor Stephen Miller’s white nationalist nonprofit paints the very concept of racial equity as discriminatory toward whites and Asians. Council hopeful Traci Park’s ads featured racially coded language about crime and homelessness side by side with platitudes about diversity and cuts to people of color smiling and nodding.
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