African American Republican Group Airs Political Ad Evoking Emmett Till Tragedy

A political organization founded by African American supporters of Republican President Donald Trump is reaching out to voters with a shocking campaign ad airing on urban radio stations in several cities.

“We have ads running in Little Rock, Arkansas, St. Louis, and Kansas City,” says the founder of Black Americans for the President’s Agenda, Vernon Robinson.

The controversial ad preys on fears historically linked to allegations made by white women accusing black men of sexual misconduct. The ad is in response to the recent case involving Dr. Christine Blasey Ford who accused recently-confirmed Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh, of misconduct when they were in high school.

To listen to the ad, press play.

Robinson says he selected Little Rock because it was the “lowest-priced urban radio market where a Democrat is on the target list.” Democrat Clarke Tucker is challenging Republican French Hill for Arkansas’ 2^nd Congressional District seat.

Ebony Harding-Kendrick listens to an urban contemporary station in Little Rock, heard the political ad, and recorded it.

“It plays into every fearful stereotype we have as Black people: incarceration, lynchings…” says Harding-Kendrick. “It’s coonish.”

One of the country’s leading scholars on public opinion, race, and politics, African American public opinion and political behavior is Dr. Shayla Nunnally, a professor at the University of Connecticut.

She says, ““This ad implicitly plays on the intersectional identities of Black women as mothers concerned about criminal justice issues of their sons, from a historical perspective of protecting them from the Jim Crow-like, extra-judicial practices that were employed largely against Black men to frame them as guilty (without due process) and possibly lynch them in the interest of protecting white womanhood.”

With less than a month until the midterm elections, the group is expected to air more advertisements.

“The two media markets in Missouri were chosen because it is a close Senate race,” says Robinson. Incumbent U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri, is locked in a tight race for her third term with Republican Josh Hawley, the state’s Attorney General.

According to Robinson, who co-founded Black Americans for the President’s Agenda, the group’s strategy is to flood urban contemporary radio airwaves with ads opposing Democrats. He says the strategy was first used in Missouri and has been used “successfully several times there over the last 16 years.”

The “Emmett Till” ad, however, omits a key demographic says Dr. Nunnally.

“For a Black political agenda in today’s society, consideration of Black issues does not have to fall squarely or foremost based on the outcomes of Black men,” she states. “That is, in a fuller picture of Black politics, the political agenda can include many experiences and more devoted attention, including those of Black women.  This ad, unfortunately, misses this nuance in an apparent effort to heighten and siphon Black votes from the Democratic Party, the party that has as much as 90 percent of Black Americans’ support.”

And, Robinson admits that he and his group hope to chip away at that 90 percent.

“We want to communicate in a medium that Black voters know and trust…urban contemporary radio reaches black voters who vote,” Robinson explains. “The only time hip-hop voters have gone to the polls was 2008 and 2012. Consultants tell Republicans not to communicate with Black voters because you upset them. And, the Republican brand has been destroyed in the Black community.”

Will this latest ad nudge African American voters toward Republican candidates on November 6^th? Robinson points to past successes, but voters will have the final say regarding this latest ad loaded with a historical narrative filled with stereotypical messaging.