I don’t think anyone is criticizing the political message as being racist. You are correct in that what people are criticizing is the way the message is presented.
Where the disagreement lies, is in the use of the subtext - that is, the way in which the message is presented plays on stereotypes (which are unflattering) concerning the “yellow peril”.
To make an imperfect analogy: consider an ad in which the message is that the government should regulate Wall Street more stringently in the wake of the financial meltdown. Nothing offensive about that “message”. Now consider that the ad features a hook-nosed Jew identified as a banker speaking an exaggerated, fake Yiddish accent rubbing his hands in glee over ruining hard-working “real Americans”. Offensive, or not?
Still waiting for someone to explain how this is either A) offensive and racist or B) not offensive or racist, but somehow different from the commercial in question.
The Simpsons did the “Americaland” thing pretty funnily I thought, in the episode where they went to Japan. Funny =/= Not Racist. And Racist =/= Not Funny. In the Hoekstra ad you have (mildly) racist as well as unfunny. Also significantly off-target politically, as the point he is making doesn’t make any sense with the imagery he’s using.
I’d have to know more about how Americans are perceived in China. To my mind, that imagry, while a stereotype, is a more or less positive one - the “Marlboro Man” cowboy thing. I dunno if (or how) the “White peril” is percieved in China itself, and so what sorts of images trigger - and are intended to trigger - a negative reaction, by tapping into Chinese fears of certain foreigners.
In short, using a stereotype may, or may not, be an attempt to arouse bigotry. Selling breakfast cereal with a “Lucky Charms” leprauchan, or selling hardware with pictures of a hard-working, thrifty Scot (Canadian Tyre), or for that matter cigarettes with the “Marlboro Man”, isn’t offensive even though it employs stereotypes. The argument is that the particular employment of stereotypes in this ad are intended to tap in to previously-existing negative stereotypes (specifically, the “Yellow Peril”).
Assuming there is a difference, that’s the difference.
The Chinese “cowboy” equivalent wouldn’t be a bicycle riding rice paddy worker. You think the Chinese romanticize peasant farmers like we romanticize cowboys?
Likewise, the stereotypical image of an “American” wouldn’t be a cowboy. You’d get somebody who could only speak English, would should it in a vain attempt to be understood, and behave (by local standards) boorishly.
Would that be funny? Sure. But it wouldn’t be accurate and would be considered by some people to be offensive.
Pete is such a tool - he’s fooling nobody.Biking thru rice paddies? pidgin english? dragonn ladies and gates to the forbidden city looking like an ad for SPA time. All bad enough, AND to put it in a SUPER BOWL AD? he’s a wooden shoe, born in Gronigen, so who paid for that? his friends in Ada?
To be honest, if a Chinese politician wanted to portray an American stereotype that was threatening to Chinese audiences, they’d probably go with an African-American guy talking about spreading drugs to China or something touching on a theme that militaristic Americans want to attack China. Stuff in that flavor. Even though it would be farcical to our eyes, I think some kind of Huggy Bear character talking about threatening Chinese people with drugs would be pretty racist. The military threat stuff, I don’t think so.
Is there anything about this ad that is not racist, xenophobic and and stereotyped? Perhaps the mocking of the opponents name was not racist. Asians are poor and ride bikes. Asians speak broken mock English. Asians want to take our jobs (like they don’t need jobs of their own, they need other people’s jobs). On and on. Interesting to see who is claiming there is nothing racist about this ad.
I question whether anyone of good faith, reasonableness, and adequate intellect could possibly look at this ad and NOT see it as racist and/or xenophobic. It’s truly mind-boggling that person A can call it racist and person B say anything but “Duh!”
Seriously, the non-stereotyped thing that jumps out is her accent. She sounds like a Californian. It seems pretty clear to me that they avoided any kind of Chinese accent because they figured people would call that racist, but if they just did the broken English, the hat, the rice paddy and the Chinese-sounding music and underplayed the accent, people wouldn’t mind so much. That seems like the kind of thinking you get out of a committee of Hollywood or marketing dopes. Instead we’re left to wonder if the people who made the ad think that Chinese people who speak choppy English can do pitch-perfect accents. However I fail to see the stereotype with regard to the bicycle. I know car ownership in China is kind of low and has been growing quickly, but if I see an Asian person on a bike I don’t think “that’s such a stereotype.”
No, that’s not racist. Compared to the rest of the ad, it’s genius.
I doubt there’s more than a few people that long for the days of sharecropping vs the vast number who want to ride the open range.
Americans romanticize the idea of “farming” and an old-timey pastoral, agrarian ideal but we don’t romanticize the farmers themselves. For all the stereotypes about being down to earth, humble, and hardworking, we also consider them poorly educated, uncultured hicks with hardly 2 pennies to rub together.
So fine, if there was instead, an obese American farmer shotgun in hand “thanking” China for screwing up, chewing on a tobacco leaf and sucking down white lightning out of a jug labeled ‘xxxxx’ while lecherously eying his slack-jawed son (or daughter), that would only be funny and not offensive?
I just want to keep reminding people that this quote is on the website that the ad urges you to visit.
“We take your jobs.”
Honestly. It ACTUALLY says that.
Here’s a hint: China is not taking ‘our’ jobs. Chinese people are working in factory-cities for very little pay, to live in crowded dorms, work 12 hour shifts 6 days a week, for a few thousand dollars a year. You want that kind of a job? Go ahead and move to China.
Well, if you aren’t going to read the thread and watch the ad and consider things from a point of view that is not your-head-up-your-butt, what else can we do to lead this horse to water and make it drink?
We get it. You don’t think the ad is racist. Or offensive.
Its always nice to have these kinds of topics as they easily illustrate who the racists are on this board. Keep defending the racist you guys! Show that ignorance!
Who cares? This is a thread about Pete Hoekstra and his Yellow Peril ad. Even if you post 30 ads from random Chinese pols showing Americans in a racist manner, it wouldn’t somehow make Hoekstra’s ad non-racist.
