# Why was the Willie Horton ad racist? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 18, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881 "2004-10-18T19:32:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/1 "2004-10-18T19:32:32Z")
My asking this question was sparked by a mention of Willie Horton in the “Dirty Tricks” thread. Since 1988, it has been widely claimed that the use of Willie Horton in Bush I’s campaign against Michael Dukakis was an appeal to racism. How so? The facts behind the Horton incident are chilling: Willie Horton was a convicted rapist and murderer. In the mid-80’s, when Dukakis was governor of Massachusetts, the state had a system of allowing prisoners “furlough” from prison, essentially, an unsupervised vacation day. Horton, on one such furlough, raped and murdered a woman. The accusation against Dukakis was that he vetoes a bill that would have stopped those furloughs, and as such, was soft on crime. Now, it is true that Willie Horton was black. However, isn’t his case a valid illustration of what was wrong with Dukakis’s criminal-justice policies? What made the mention - even the visual display - of Willie Horton a racist thing? ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/2 "2004-10-18T19:57:12Z")
IIRC, it was because there were other criminals who abused the furlough system (many of whom were white). It was Horton, though that became the sole symbol of the dangerous criminal released by Dukakis. You could argue that the massage was that Dukakis was soft on crime (and that WAS the point of the ads), but it was made to seem especially dangerous that he was soft on BLACK criminals. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/3 "2004-10-18T19:58:56Z")
The ad used a black boogeyman to terrify whitey into voting for Poppy Bush. That’s what it was. That’s all it was. It had nothing to do with any legitimate policy issue. It was a racist scare tactic, pure and simple. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/4 "2004-10-18T20:01:24Z")
Nobody ever called him “Willie,” btw. He was always called William. “Willie” was just a snide innovation by those who made the ad. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/5 "2004-10-18T20:14:09Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > The ad used a black boogeyman to terrify whitey into voting for Poppy Bush. That’s what it was. That’s all it was. It had nothing to do with any legitimate policy issue. It was a racist scare tactic, pure and simple. Well, that brings up two questions: (1) Were there any other criminals (aside from Horton) who went on to commit heinous crimes while out on furlough? (2) If the answer to #1 is yes, then was the Bush campaign required to find a “white” criminal to bring the issue up? IOW, why would it be OK to use a “white” criminal but racist to use Horton? Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/6 "2004-10-18T20:17:40Z")
Spare me. He’s a convicted murderer and rapist, and you’re concerned that a nickname was used? It’s an affront to dignity, sure, but **Willie** Horton has shown in his life that he’s not a dignified man. I think the true racism here is that some people can’t see Horton as a rapist and murderer. They only see a black face, and don’t care about the content of his character. If that isn’t racism, what is? ---
**Author:** ![Stonebow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Stonebow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stonebow)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/7 "2004-10-18T20:24:51Z")
> [@Mr. Moto](#): > > I think the true racism here is that some people can’t see Horton as a rapist and murderer. They only see a black face, and don’t care about the content of his character. I agree. Though I’m unsure of which side of the political spectrum you are condemning with your statement. Look, it’s been shown that using the ‘Black Boogeyman’ works as a political ploy. Bush I was not the first, and won’t be the last to use it. The ‘Hands’ spot run by the Helms campaign, the push-polling implying that McCain had fathered a black child… guess who won in these races? Unfortunately, there is a segment of the population that can be driven to the polls by using their fear and resentment of Black Americans as a goad. This fear is wholly independent of the life station of the Black person in question. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/8 "2004-10-18T20:29:11Z")
Critics of the Bush campaign also contended that the photo of Horton used in the ad (in which Horton sported a big Afro and menacing glare) was selected deliberately to evoke a calculated response among whites. Whether there were any less threatening photos of Horton available, I don’t know. FWIW, there was a play presented in DC a few years back called “Fixin’ to Die: A Visit to the Mind of Lee Atwater.” (Atwater, the RNC chairman who authorized the ad, had died a few years earlier). The play was a ficticious series of soliloquies by Atwater. Musing over the Horton ad, the ficticious Atwater at one point declared, “We probably should have found a white guy.” ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/9 "2004-10-18T20:31:12Z")
> [@Diogenes the Cynic](#): > > The ad used a black boogeyman to terrify whitey into voting for Poppy Bush. That’s what it was. That’s all it was. It had nothing to do with any legitimate policy issue. It was a racist scare tactic, pure and simple. Permitting prison furloughs is a legitimate policy issue. If there was another criminal on furlough that committed worse crimes that did Horton, who was he? And if there was not, then why wasn’t Horton the best example of the wisdom of shutting down the furlough program? - Rick ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/10 "2004-10-18T20:34:05Z")
> [@F. U. Shakespeare](#): > > Critics of the Bush campaign also contended that the photo of Horton used in the ad (in which Horton sported a big Afro and menacing glare) was selected deliberately to evoke a calculated response among whites. Whether there were any less threatening photos of Horton available, I don’t know. It’s standard practice in campaigns for your literature to feature a picture of your candidate in perfect pose, and the opponent in some awkward, eye-popping moment. Why would the Horton ads choose to not use this time-tested technique? - Rick ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2004, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/11 "2004-10-18T20:52:59Z")
Assuming you’re expecting me to respond, I never argued that the ads were out of line, merely recounted what was said. > [@Bricker](#): > > It’s standard practice in campaigns for your literature to feature a picture of your candidate in perfect pose, and the opponent in some awkward, eye-popping moment. Why would the Horton ads choose to not use this time-tested technique? > > - Rick ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/12 "2004-10-19T14:20:57Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > It’s standard practice in campaigns for your literature to feature a picture of your candidate in perfect pose, and the opponent in some awkward, eye-popping moment. Why would the Horton ads choose to not use this time-tested technique? The Horton ad relied on this legitimate attack ad method, and then took it to new heights. The picture of Horton, according to Larry McCarthy, the ad’s creator, was chosen to make him look like “every suburban mother’s greatest fear.” Is race a part of that? Does the Pope crap in the woods? Look, the Willie Horton ad did not invent racism. But it was designed from the get-go to prey upon the widely held yet irrational fear of white people being attacked by black criminals. We’ve all heard statistics about how black men are more likely to be sentenced to the death penalty for murdering white people than for murduring another black person. The Willie Horton ad was intended to capitalize on that suppressed, racist view of how some crimes are worse than others. Apparently, some reseach bears this out. According to [this](http://www.insidepolitics.org/ps111/independentads.html), “subjects who were exposed to news broadcasts about the Horton case responded in racial terms.” Is that just some kind of bizarre coincidence? Are we really to believe that the Republicans dumped the names of all those people who committed crimes while on furlough in Massachusetts, and just happened, by pure chance, to draw out the name of a black man who attacked a white couple? If you buy that, I have a bridge to sell you. The issue of furloughs is of course a legitimate issue. Bush did another ad, “Revolving Door,” in which people dressed in prison getups walk towards a jail fence, enter a revolving door, and walk right out again. An attack ad, yes, but I have never heard anyone complain that that ad was out of line in the same way that the Willie Horton ad was. There are attack ads, and there are attack ads that prey upon the seemy underbelly of intolerance in America. “Revolving Door” is an attack ad, “Willie Horton” counted upon the race of the attacker inflaming opinion against Dukakis. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/13 "2004-10-19T15:29:07Z")
Lee Atwater, as he was dying (I guess he was in the “bargaining” phase of dealing with death), admitted they picked Willie Horton because he was black. 1991 was before this big ol’ internets thingie, so I’m having problems finding a cite right now. I’ll keep trying, though. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/14 "2004-10-19T15:34:43Z")
Actually, googling “Lee Atwater death confession” turns up tons of stuff that mentions it, without being directly about it, but I did find these: [http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/Deathbed%20Confessions.htm](http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/Deathbed%20Confessions.htm) [http://www.deanesmay.com/archives/000147.html](http://www.deanesmay.com/archives/000147.html) ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/15 "2004-10-19T19:31:27Z")
Look, the challenge is simple. Was there a better candidate for the attack ads than Horton? Was there another Massachusetts criminal of another race whose crimes on furlough during the Dukakis administration were worse than Horton’s? If so, I willingly concede racism in the Horton ads. If not, I don’t. It’s that simple. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/16 "2004-10-19T19:37:09Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Look, the challenge is simple. Was there a better candidate for the attack ads than Horton? Was there another Massachusetts criminal of another race whose crimes on furlough during the Dukakis administration were worse than Horton’s? If so, I willingly concede racism in the Horton ads. If not, I don’t. It’s that simple. Actually, it’s not even that simple. Just because there was another (white) candidate for the attack ads does not prove the Horton ad was racist. It implies that it might be, but that’s about all. **bup** : Got any REAL sources for the deathbead confession? If it’s true, I’d expect to find it in one of the national newspapers. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/17 "2004-10-19T19:46:34Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Actually, it’s not even that simple. Just because there was another (white) candidate for the attack ads does not prove the Horton ad was racist. It implies that it might be, but that’s about all. > > **bup** : Got any REAL sources for the deathbead confession? If it’s true, I’d expect to find it in one of the national newspapers. If there is a white candidate who committed worse crimes, that certainly creates enough evidence in my mind that choosing Horton was motivated by racial concerns. I agree it’s not “proof,” but it delineates the point at which I will stop arguing. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/18 "2004-10-19T20:35:33Z")
The already-linked statements by the very people who created the ads that they chose a black subject intentionally is _not_, to you, evidence that that’s what they intended? Okay, keep arguing if you like, but you’ve already lost. Sheesh. [Wikipedia is your friend:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dukakis) > [@](#): > > Al Gore was the first candidate to publicly raise the furlough issue, in a debate held in New York prior to the Democratic primary in that state, although Gore never mentioned Horton by name. Bush did mention Horton by name in a speech in June 1988 and his campaign brought up the Horton case repeatedly. An independent group, the National Security Political Action Committee, aired an ad entitled “Weekend Passes” which used a mug shot image of Horton, who is African American. That ad campaign was followed by a separate Bush campaign ad, “Revolving Door,” criticizing Dukakis over the furlough program without mentioning Horton.\*\* Dukakis was unable to refute criticism of his veto of a bill passed by the Massachusetts legislature to limit the furlough program\*\*, and his refusal to apologize to Horton’s victims. So the policy had already been in place for some time, and Dukakis simply continued it. [Link](http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0158_Dukakis__Willie_Hort.html): > [@](#): > > The Massachusetts inmate furlough program actually began under Governor Francis Sargent in 1972. But in 1976 Governor Dukakis vetoed a bill to ban furloughs for first-degree murderers. It would, he said, “Cut the heart out of inmate rehabilitation.” This being an anti-Dukakis site, it fails to mention Sargent’s party affiliation. You can Google it in private. [Another link, judge its credibility as you wish:](http://staff.wcasd.k12.pa.us/teachers/tswift/About%20me.htm) > [@](#): > > The furlough program which caused Dukakis so much strife was not even initiated by him. The program was created under Republican governor, Francis Sargent, in 1972. In 1973 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared that first-degree murder inmates must be eligible for furloughs. This was often conveniently forgotten by the paper, the Bush campaign and the media. The fact that the Massachusetts program differed little from the federal program under the Reagan/Bush administration was not common news either. However, Dukakis’s lack of punctual response to the federal program did not help refute Republican attacks. [This is an interesting factoid:](http://www.commentarymagazine.com/Summaries/V87I2P15-1.htm) > [@](#): > > Other state governments and the federal government have them, too, and murderers have been furloughed in many of these jurisdictions, including by the federal government under Reagan/Bush and by California when Reagan was governor. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/19 "2004-10-19T20:36:05Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > If there is a white candidate who committed worse crimes, that certainly creates enough evidence in my mind that choosing Horton was motivated by racial concerns. I agree it’s not “proof,” but it delineates the point at which I will stop arguing. Is there a particular reason to assume that the purpose of the ads was to show the criminal who committed the worst crimes, rather than the criminal most likely to swing the vote to Bush? In other words, is the purpose of a political ad _information_, or _persuasion_? It seems disingenuous to suppose that those who produce such propaganda (on both sides) are constrained by a search for truth. Respectfully TRT ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2004, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881/20 "2004-10-19T20:46:10Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > **bup** : Got any REAL sources for the deathbead confession? If it’s true, I’d expect to find it in one of the national newspapers. As I pointed out, the internet in 1991 was mostly usenet groups. There weren’t any newspapers. Here’s another cite: [http://www.truthonrace.com/greetings2.html](http://www.truthonrace.com/greetings2.html) (search on “Pretty soon after the Bush victory, Lee Atwater”). To me, this OP is a GQ, not a great debate. If you don’t believe that Atwater himself calling the strategy racially motivated makes it racially motivated (or if you try to move the goalposts again without taking any responsibility for finding the facts out yourself), I don’t give a damn. It’s no longer a debate. It’s you being stubborn because you believe what you want. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-the-willie-horton-ad-racist/269881.md?page=2)