DISGRASIAN OF THE SUPER BOWL! Pete Hoekstra’s Racist, Anti-Chinese, “We Take Your Jobs” Ad
Soooo much happened during the Super Bowl. And, no, I don’t mean with the football. That was a lot of low-scoring farting around, too many lame field goals, a last-second Hail Mary not-so-full-of-grace, and supermodel Gisele Bundchen being delightfully, pettily un-super while cameras captured the whole thing. The game itself kinda felt like a bad drunken hook-up with a dude you’re not that attracted to that just won’t end. (Not that I know anything about that. Ahem.)
What I’m really talking about of course is this crazy racist campaign ad that aired in Michigan during the game for U.S. Senate hopeful Pete Hoekstra (R), directed by the same guy who got Christine O’Donnell to publicly confess, “I’m not a witch”:
The ad for Hoekstra–a hot mess of Vietnamese mise-en-scène standing in for China, California Girl-speak poorly disguised as bad Engrish, and some requisite chinky background music–managed to piss off Dems and Republicans alike with its creepy, unabashed Fear of a Yellow Planet storyline. (Though everyone’s favorite race-contrarian Michelle Malkin didn’t seem to mind it. But this is the same person who defended the internment, so, you know.)
And let’s not overlook the website that goes along with the ad! It makes the TV spot look kinda tame by comparison. Called debbiespenditnow.com (a hoek-y play on the name of Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the Democratic incumbent), it’s crammed with just about every Asian cliche imaginable. Oriental fans? Check. Dragons? Check. Red lanterns? Check. The Great Wall of China, a clay teapot, and everything written in that Chinese takeout font? Yep. It’s almost as though the Hoekstra campaign’s daring a half-blind person to stumble upon the site and try to order dinner from it.
Contrast that with Hoekstra’s other campaign site, titled petespenditnot.com [Is he serious with this shit?--Ed.], which is, frankly, a total snooze:
Now THIS is America: one old white dude talking to another old white dude
Rather than backpedal after the overwhelming criticism, Hoekstra’s defended his TV ad, saying “there’s nothing racist” about it and maintaining that the only people stereotyped are Stabenow and “the liberal Left.”
Then there was this whole kerfuffle about the Asian chick in the ad being called “yellow girl” in the HTML source code on Hoekstra’s site. Hoekstra’s team must have thought this, at least, was a little racist–they’ve claimed it was a typo–seeing as how they quickly changed it to “yellow shirt girl.”
Speaking of the girl in the ad, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell gave her a stern talking to on his show, sounding eerily like a Hardass Asian Parent when he said, “I’ve done things in show business…that I’m not proud of, but I’ve never done anything that I’m ashamed of.” All that was missing from his speech was a menacing shake of a feather duster and/or fly swatter.
The actress’ identity hasn’t been made public yet, although it’s just a matter of time–I’ll say this, if you do a little Internet sleuthing, it’s not that hard to figure out–though I actually feel sorry for her. She’s young, this was stupid, and it’s going to haunt her for a long time. Because the Internet never forgets, and Asians never forgive!
But the real villain here is Hoekstra. This ad is exactly the kind of pernicious shit that dupes people into believing we “yellow people” are all just a bunch of greedy foreigners trying to put real Americans out of work.
“We take your jobs”? Nah. We just don’t want racist dickheads like Hoekstra to take them either.
To that end, Senator Stabenow’s started a money bomb campaign in response to Hoekstra’s ad. Hoekstra spent $144,000 on his Super Bowl ad. If you hated it, consider contributing to raise the same amount for Stabenow’s campaign.
[Detroit Free Press: Pete Hoekstra defends Super Bowl ad featuring Chinese woman amid claims of racial insensitivity]
[Mediaite: Lawrence O’Donnell Targets Asian Actress In Hoekstra Ad, Calls For ‘Dirty Politics’ Boycott]
Filed under: 2012 Senate Races, Anti-China Sentiment, Anti-Chinese Sentiment, China, Chysteria, Debbie Stabenow, Fear of a Yellow Planet, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Michigan Senate Race, Pete Hoekstra, They Took Our Jobs, We Take Your Jobs, Xenophobia, Yellow Girl, Yellow Peril, Yellow Terror
Jen does her homework fer shizzle, i ain’t seen research this good since grad school. Arianna, if yer reading this. offer ‘Cher’ a job with a high six figures
If you ever figure out who the actress is, I’d be interested to see a disgrasian exclusive interview.
The loud GONG sound at the beginning of the commercial was a nice touch too…..because ya know, nothing sez ASIAN more than a loud GONG!!!!.
google “Miss Napa Valley”.
She went to my high school. What a Disgrasian.
Oh and she’s in Teach for America.
Dude………..everyone involved with this campaign should be kicked in the no-nos.
[...] Accompanying the television ad is a website called debbiespenditnow.com (a horrible pun on Stabenow’s last name), which is chock full of Asian cliché. Disgrasian says the campaign site’s “Chinese take out font [dares] a half-blind person to stumble upon the site and try to order dinne… [...]
I wanted to ask who exactly though this was a good idea to broadcast on live tv but I realize that a moot point: Most of the US media think it’s ok to mock and stereotype Asian people and see nothing wrong with it. Sad, really…
But on the bright side, that counter-campaign raised over $160,000 as of 2/13, so there’s that…
[...] question of Asian fonts came up because Pete Hoekstra’s controversial attack ad featuring an Asian-American actress speaking broken English directed viewers to this [...]
[...] those racist-alicious ads from Michigan senatorial candidate Pete Hoekstra, the ones where the docile, limpid eyed, [...]