Hillary's Racist Tactic

A poster just brought up the issue of HIllary Clinton's campaign darkening a picture of Obama for one of her ads, so let me address this issue. The Clinton campaign is using the same tactic that was used by Time Magazine on O.J. Simpson, which uses the fact that people are more comfortable with lighter-skinned people than with darker-skinned people. By making Obama appear blacker, the campaign was trying to psychologically nudge people away from voting for Obama. Certainly one could say this is a racial thing, but in fact this is something that occurs among Africans and those of African decent as well, where preference is given to those with lighter skin over those with darker skin. It is something which Claude McKay develops thematically in his novel Banana Bottom, in which he portrays the hierarchy that exists among people on Jamaica based on skin color -- the lighter the skin tone, the more political and social power one has. Both Time Magazine and the Clinton campaign cynically used this fact to influence people's opinions about an African American. In the case of O.J., he was "more guilty" if he was darker, and Obama is "less worthy" of being voted for if he's darker. In this sense it certainly is a racist tactic.





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In light of the posting left by Matthew Tabor, let's look at a series of pictures of Obama and compare and see if the picture has been darkened (the Clinton Camp is saying it was accidental, but what would you expect them do do? Admit it?).

The first picture is the controversial comparison. The rest I just pulled off the net. There is some variation, probably due to makeup, but still, the Clinton Ad picture is still the darkest by far.