Joe Biden's new ad is problematic when it comes to how it talks about China [See Staff Post]

[Avengers23]

Sure, let's give Trump and voters an external enemy to focus on instead of directing the blame to his administration's incompetent, bumbling approach to address the current coronavirus crisis. The man literally said he wouldn't take responsibility for this, and instead you put out an ad focusing on China? Did Biden miss the yellow peril so badly that he had to remix it and bring it back for the boys in 2020?



This is the guy to whom we're pinning our hopes? Jesus H. Christ.

 

[Poodlestrike]

So, here's the deal.

Firstly, the new thread title will stand. We wrote it because, on review, the ad is in fact pretty problematic. We can discuss that fact, get into the why of it, but there's not really any shying away from the issue. Yes, you should be free to critique the Chinese government for any number of fuckups and atrocities, but it's important to be careful in your language to avoid bringing Chinese *people* into the condemnation and also to avoid sinophobic tropes. This all falls under xenophobia, which can lead to racist attacks of the kind we've already been seeing because of Trump.

Second, this fact is going to upset some people. It's important to be sensitive to our Asian members in this thread, and in other threads frankly. There is room to disagree about the intentions and success of the ad - there is not room to disagree on the rest.

Because of the original framing of the thread, we're rebooting and banning any hostile accusations towards Asian members. Going forward, we will be banning anybody downplaying the xenophobia or the effect it can have on people.

 

[Regulus Tera]

Problematic is quite an understatement. It's straight up racist.

 

[Xaszatm]

The ad definitely does not help the current rise in anti-Asian sentiment in the US

 

[Orb]

Just add it to the pile of reasons why I won't feel an ounce of shame for refusing to vote for Biden. This campaign is a fucking disaster.

 

[Kabuki Waq]

Man Biden is going to give Trump another 4 years. So 40,000 Chinese visitors are now the scapegoat?

 

[AlteredBeast]

I wouldn't trust the Chinese Government with a 10 ft pole. Same as the Trump Administration. The ad seems fine with me: highlight Trump's bungled response, and call out China's government for hiding the truth and not reacting fast enough.

The "letting 40,000 people from China" doesn't strike me as xenophobic as much as, "Trump claims he disallowed travel between China and the US, and then didn't"

 

[Equippedwithtowel]

Yellow Peril - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

every few decades without fail

look at the pictures below if you think this is an inflammatory comparison. it's obviously not as explicit as WWII propaganda (at the moment) but this same rhetoric flared up in the Reagan bush era over fears of Asian economies surpassing the US.

 

[Lentic]

A few images from the ad:

This is the language it uses. "The Chinese"

 

[ArkkAngel007]

I think the context is clear that it's directed at the government of China and not on those who share any heritage of that country, but continuously falling back on "The Chinese" is extremely problematic and further stirs up the xenophobia. It may not have been the intent, but that's the reality.

 

[Poodlestrike]

So, anyway, my personal 2c on this... yeah, it's not great, to employ some understatement. I get why they'd think it's effective, but the potential for blowback on innocent people is just too huge, IMO. Should pull the ad and apologize.

 

[boontobias]

The Chinese?

Dehumanizing language 101

 

[Jimmypython]

They should have used "Chinese Government"

 

[Jonnax]

The thing I don't get with all these people saying it's China's fault: what does that actually change?

Are they going to get sanctioned? Because that seems as absurd as trying to sanction America.

 

[MisterAnderson]

I feel like the ad would have been fine if the Chinese government wasn't constantly referred to as "the Chinese". Like...why not just say "China"?

 

[Tukarrs]

The "letting 40,000 people from China" doesn't strike me as xenophobic as much as, "Trump claims he disallowed travel between China and the US, and then didn't"

Click to shrink...

The implicit understanding by that quote is that if Trump stopped those 40,000 travelers from China, we wouldn't be having a crisis. The transmission source of COVID19 in the US came mostly from Europe, not China.

 

[Absolute]

They've been calling them "the Russians" for the last 70 years.

 

[tATu]

I personally don't see how this ad focuses on China. For me it was clearly focusing on Trump's complete failure to react properly to the virus

 

[DukeBlueBall]

I watched it and didn't think it was that bad in comparison to the anti-China stuff coming from Trump admin and UK.

It was correctly Trump focused.

 

[fauxtrot]

Fuck Biden Reason # 9573159

 

[Maxim726x]

I think the context is clear that it's directed at the government of China and not on those who share any heritage of that country, but continuously falling back on "The Chinese" is extremely problematic and further stirs up the xenophobia. It may not have been the intent, but that's the reality.

Click to shrink...

Yes.

But of course, this could have been easily remedied by adding 'government' to the ad.

I saw it earlier and internalized it as such. I honestly didn't even notice it was missing, but now that I see it it's a huge omission. The criticism is justified.

 

[sphagnum]

There is no good reason for the ad to use "the Chinese" so much. If they really felt like they had to make this ad, they could have replaced "the Chinese" with "Xi Jinping" or "China's government" every time.

 

[OG YOLOwen]

Man it's so gross when entire groups of people are unironically referred to as "the X"

I have no doubt that the CCP mishandled the situation, as have most western countries, but I think it's a little socially irresponsible to use such dehumanizing language.

 

[dlauv]

This seems to be moreso criticizing Trump's administration being slow on the draw to close travel (despite Trump's claims) than any kind demonizing the Chinese although I can see the window for that. It also pushes back on "Beijing Biden," which is a campaign paid for by conservatives in bed with Chinese oligarchs.

 

[Cow Mengde]

I feel like the ad would have been fine if the Chinese government wasn't constantly referred to as "the Chinese". Like...why not just say "China"?

Click to shrink...

Yup, this is exactly the problem. If it was The Chinese Government, that's perfectly fine. When you use The Chinese, that's where it gets the side eyes from me.

 

[Deleted member 14377]

Sacrificing China and Chinese Americans to own the Republicans

 

[sphagnum]

They've been calling them "the Russians" for the last 70 years.

Click to shrink...

And that was also a stupid thing to do.

 

[Avitus]

A few images from the ad:

This is the language it uses. "The Chinese"

Click to shrink...

"The Chinese" clearly refers to the government in this context IMO but people will take it the wrong way, of course.

 

[AlteredBeast]

The implicit understanding by that quote is that if Trump stopped those 40,000 travelers from China, we wouldn't be having a crisis. The transmission source of COVID19 in the US came mostly from Europe, not China.

Click to shrink...

I agree with that. A much better ad would have said, "Trump's balooyed ban on travel from China was both ineffective, as much as it was xenophobic. The source of America's outbreak is from Europe, where Trump refused to restrict travel from until it was far too late."

 

[Fart Master]

They should have used "Chinese Government"

Click to shrink...

The Americans? Plenty of people say that here. I legit don't get this argument...

 

[Snake Eater]

Pathetic ad, this Biden campaign team is a joke

 

[Equippedwithtowel]

also if the Biden campaign is demonstrating a willingness to perpetuate false narratives about COVID to attack trump that should be worrying

there are so many legitimate avenues the fact that they are implicitly bending the facts (re: source of transmission) should be worrisome to people who want Biden to win (which is also me, regrettably)

 

[Deleted member 6582]

The problem wasn't Trump holding China accountable for numbers it was ignoring literally everyone else who said it was a big fucking problem.

 

[Deleted member 2761]

Okay, so since I was wrong about this thread not opening up again, so I apologize if some of you already took the time to read this on the PoliEra thread.

With regards to the ad, I'd just to like to reiterate that the bulk of US infections came from Europe. Politicizing an ineffectual travel ban to China (which is not advised by medical and scientific experts ANYWAY) with the implication that tens of thousands of potentially diseased Chinese travelers came into the country, if it has no useful factual basis, accomplishes little but continue a narrative that has harmed those of East Asian descent in the United States.

We can go on and on about the intent of whether or not this is racist, but functionally, Asian folks are being hurt all the same.

 

[aznpxdd]

USA is so fucked, we gotta choose between 2 old racist white dudes? Sigh.

 

[Musubi]

God this election cycle is going to suck all the life out of me. And I'm sure Joe nor his team will offer an apology of any kind for this.

 

[Sordid Plebeian]

Yeah that's pretty blatantly racist

 

[ChippyTurtle]

There is no good reason for the ad to use "the Chinese" so much. If they really felt like they had to make this ad, they could have replaced "the Chinese" with "Xi Jinping" or "China's government" every time.

Click to shrink...

CCP would work better.

 

[Chairmanchuck (另一个我)]

The Americans? Plenty of people say that here. I legit don't get this argument...

Click to shrink...

People dont use "The Americans" when they talk about the american government.

Furthermore the ad paints a totally false narrative that chinese travelers/chinese natives who came to the US were the source of Covid in the US, which in turn also "points fingers at them"...

 

[Arkanim94]

"a return to normalcy"

 

[BringBackSonics]

Not like this Joe, I can understand what he is trying to do here, but not like this. It's already hard being an asian in this crisis.

 

[LifeLine]

Here comes the swing right,

 

[Pet]

Sacrificing China and Chinese Americans to own the Republicans

Click to shrink...

Republicans aren't getting owned. This is supposed to be an anti-Trump ad but I think it's going to accomplish being 1% anti-Trump and 99% anti-Asian.

The Americans? Plenty of people say that here. I legit don't get this argument...

Click to shrink...

And you never will.

 

[Cow Mengde]

USA is so fucked, we gotta choose between 2 old racist white dudes? Sigh.

Click to shrink...

Last election was between a racist white dude and a racist lady.

 

[Kabuki Waq]

The ad honestly seems like a desperate attempt to copy Trumps way of getting the racist vote. Or at the very least get voters to unite against a perceived common enemy.

 

[Pet]

The ad honestly seems like a desperate attempt to copy Trumps way of getting the racist vote. Or at the very least get voters to unite against a perceived common enemy.

Click to shrink...

Some group of analysts somewhere ran the numbers and decided the harm this will do to his voting numbers is less than the benefit it will accomplish in other voting groups.

Somehow I'm not sure they factored anti-Asian sentiment into that equation.

 

[Khanimus]

Good fucking lord.

 

[Canyon]

Is this a case like Bill Clinton in that instead of shifting left he's going to the right?

 

[Dierce]

So I guess Biden's ad meant to target republican leaning voters doesn't appeal to the left? Wouldn't have guessed it.

 

[Cranster]

Out of context it does seem bad. The wording should definitely be changed to "Chinese Government" though as it can be easy to misconstrue the ad as attacking Chinese people instead.

I've even had to clear it up with my own family that it's not the fault of people from China but rather their government that this got out of control worldwide.