It's been a notable week in sports in the Asian community. Surrounding two stellar performances by Jeremy Lin was the big game, where a 30 second commercial will cost you $3.5 million – the Super Bowl. Now unfortunately there weren't any big time Asian players like Lin. However, there was another competition that's heating up that did involve the Super Bowl. There's a race going on for the United States Senate in Michigan, and one of the candidates decided to spend money on a local Super Bowl commercial – one that paints Asians as a national threat in the cheesiest and ignorant way possible.
Pete Hoekstra is trying to paint Democratic incumbent Senator Debbie Stabenow as a spender. A woman who spends so much, that it weakens the American economy, which causes America to borrow from China, which strengthens the Chinese economy. Then these Chinese people will take American jobs. He did this with his commercial featuring stereotypical Chinese music against a generic rice paddy background. It stars an Asian woman who, by her accent and tone, sounds - and in reality is - American and could speak well-formed English. However, the words are curiously broken up, with a bit of incorrect conjugation, in a way to imply that she's a foreigner. Dated and hurtful Asian stereotypes at its worst.
It's amazing that Hoekstra's campaign still has the video up on YouTube, and the site attacking Stabenow – adorned in Chinese writing, Chinese flags, and Stabenow's face on a Chinese fan – is still live. I guess Hoekstra already said in the commercial he endorsed the message, so he might as well go down with the ship. Except, he feels he did the right thing and has yet to apologize. Impressive and foolish, considering the overwhelming opposition.
James Fallows, national correspondent for the Atlantic, wrote that the Chinese should be respected but not feared (and called the ad idiotic). Many of Hoekstra's fellow GOP members have condemned the campaign, as have several organizations like the NAACP. There's also fear that this ad could stir up emotions similar to those that caused the death of Vincent Chin in Detroit, a Chinese American beat by autoworkers angry at the rise of the Japanese auto industry.
The only person I've seen kind of defend Hoekstra is the only Pilipino I've ever disowned from my race, Michelle Malkin - I mean seriously, how can you defend the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II? She doesn't praise the ad, but goes about supporting its financial message and downplaying the racist undertones of the ad. Not really surprised there.
It's sad enough that these governmental races far too often involve personal attacks and fear mongering, but to explicitly point out a race of people as a problem is just straight up wrong. The only positive thing I get out of this ordeal is that it was almost universally seen as an offensive and boneheaded move, regardless of race or political affiliation (and the creation of decent parody videos). If only the kind of people who are okay with this weren't running for public office.
