It's Race Not Crime!

In the article Executing Hortons Racial Crime in the 1988 Presidential Campaign by Tali Mendelberg, suggests that during the 1988 electoral campaign the race card was utilized to shift the views of citizens regarding equality using such ads as the famous case of Willie Horton, a black man who entered the house of a white couple where he committed murder and rape. This ad clearly shows Horton as a threat to society especially because of his race. This ad is terrifying and it was created to attract people to vote against "crimes" like these. Menderlberg claims that even today the race card will always be used and implied during elections to influence people's decisions and attract votes in their favor as long as they don't get caught.

It is rather hard to ultimately stop the use of the card race but compared to the 1988 elections, today it doesn't seem as obvious as it did back then. This is not to say that "we expect race to fade away from electoral politics anytime soon now that it has worked itself into the fabric of the party system" but that it will continue to exist throughout time. Mendelberg seems to regard race as something necessary for electoral campaigns "to rely on racial appeals for political advantage, and they do so because of the structural imperatives of American politics". Mendelberg seems to lose hope and seems to regard the electoral campaigns as a game using strategies such as race to attract votes.

Overall, race will continue play a part in electoral campaigns and in American politics. Racism will never disappear. It is hard to completely dissolve racism in politics but it is something that will continue to exist in elections.