Wow.
LANSING, Mich. — A coalition of black ministers in Detroit called Monday for U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra to apologize for his Super Bowl ad featuring a young Asian woman speaking broken English to describe the impact of the Democratic incumbent’s economic policies.
The request came a day after an Asian-American group called the ad “very disturbing.”
The Michigan Republican began taking heat after his ad targeting Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow as “Debbie Spenditnow” ran statewide Sunday during the Super Bowl. Some detractors said the ad was racially insensitive, while national GOP consultant Mike Murphy tweeted that it was “really, really dumb.” Foreign Policy magazine managing editor Blake Hounshell called the ad “despicable.”
“The Asian woman speaking in this video would be no different than him having a black person speaking in slave dialect,” Williams said in a statement Monday. “If Pete Hoekstra does not see any wrong in this commercial, he doesn’t deserve to be in the race.”
The 30-second ad created by media strategist Fred Davis of California-based Strategic Perception Inc opens with the sound of a gong and shows the Asian woman riding a bike on a narrow path lined by rice paddies.
Stopping her bike, the woman smiles into the camera and says, “Thank you, Michigan Senator Debbie Spenditnow. Debbie spends so much American money. You borrow more and more from us. Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie Spenditnow.”
The scene then shifts to Hoekstra telling viewers near a cozy fire, “I think this race is between Debbie Spenditnow and Pete Spenditnot.”
Hoekstra defended the ad, calling it a “home run” during an interview Monday with Detroit radio WJR-AM’s Paul W. Smith. He said it’s only “insensitive” to the spending philosophy of Stabenow and Democratic President Barack Obama.
Here she is, ladies and gentlemen… the girl that Pete used to try to scare the living crap out of whitey.
Good God. This isplay the “Gong” whenever you see Long Duk Dong on the screen dippiness and it’s not even a ham-fisted attempt at comedy.
The only difference is, it’s 30 years later and you would think we’d know better. At least ONE person would know better and go “Uh… dude. Let’s talk about this.”
But he APPROVES THIS MESSAGE! This isn’t even a Pac! This is a guy who probably looked at it on his phone after a nice round of golf, laughed his fat neck off and went on with his day.
I am white, but Jewish, and I am not cheap. You also don’t want me balancing your books.
I have met Southerners with thick accents that happen to be very smart even though they sound like “Larry The Cable Guy”
So please, everybody still not living in the 1950s, or even the 1980s, even though Pete is white and very, very stupid, please don’t stereotype us the way he does you.
I am guessing Pete probably doesn’t believe in evolution, but for f***’s sake, dude, could you evolve? Just a little bit?
