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Adam Serwer explains why McCain's recent anti-Obama Britney and Paris ad played on racial prejudices, but not in the way you think:
But what's garnered the most attention is the juxtaposition of Obama with two white women known for their sex appeal. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo compared the ad to the infamous Harold Ford "Call Me" ads that ran in 2006, and Rick Perlstein of the Campaign for America's Future concurred that the ad was playing off stereotypes about black male sexuality. The New York Times and CNN's Jack Cafferty also saw parallels with the Ford ads. The critics are correct in noting that a racial dimension is certainly present. The problem is that they interpret the ad as channeling fears of miscegenation, when in fact it is operating on an entirely different but utterly familiar racial dynamic: the idea that black success, by definition, hurts white interests.
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