Racial Appeals in Elections

Mendelberg makes the claim that electoral campaigns even in this day and age will use racial appeals if they can get away with it. These racial appeals, however, will never be explicit, they will be implicit and can only have their desired effect if the viewer does not realize the message has a racial connotation. Mendelberg gives the famous example of the Willie Horton ad, which was used in the 1988 Bush v. Dukakis presidential election. The ad never made any explicit claim to race, but viewers who had racial predispositions against African-Americans were being primed. Mendelberg ends by saying that as long as these racial appeals continue, electoral campaigns will not be able to "bridge the nation's racial chasm."

Is it possible to completely stop racial appeals? Maybe, but it would be difficult and as long as people stand to gain from them, they will be used. A better question would be, how can we mitigate the effectiveness of racial appeals? I think the response to the Willie Horton ad shows how it can be done. Jesse Jackson was late with his claim that the ad had racist elements and Dukakis never made an effort to recognize the racial appeal in the ad. Had Dukakis spoken about the ad and had Jesse Jackson criticized it earlier, the media would have had more time to analyze the ad and condemn it. When people realize the ad is racist they start to reject the appeal.

A more recent example would be George Allen's gaffe in calling an Indian-American staff member of his opponent, Jim Webb, a "macaca." In the video clip which can be viewed on YouTube, he doesn't seem to be explicitly bringing race into his message, he even says: "macaca, or whatever his name is." He even welcomes "macaca" to America, despite the fact he was born in Virginia and even attended our very own UVA. After people found out what "macaca" meant and its use by colonialists in Africa, it severely hurt Allen's reputation and he eventually lost.

It seems to me the best way to combat racial appeals is by making them explicit. By discussing any implicit racial ads or speeches, the racial message is brought to the forefront and can no longer prime people's racial bias. If we cannot get rid of racial appeals altogether, this may be a good second best.