Tolbert: Racially Charged Mailer Links Ferguson To Voting Against GOP
by October 24, 2014 5:10 pm 213 views
A new mailer is going out in Arkansas that is apparently targeting African American voters with highly racially charged messaging linking the violence in Ferguson, Mo. to voting against the Republican ticket.
“Enough! Republicans are targeting our kids, silencing our voices and even trying to impeach our President,” reads the mailer from a group called Color of Change. It shows a picture of a young African American with his hands in the air as if surrendering to police.
“The people we elect on November 4th will be in charge of our police departments. If we want to end senseless killings, like Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, we need to vote,” says the mailer with images from the Ferguson protests.
Color of Change is a 501(c)(4) organization which states it “exists to strengthen Black America’s political voice.” The group apparently has significant ties to the Democratic Party. James Rucker of MoveOn.org left to found this group along with Van Jones who worked as the Special Advisor for Green Jobs for President Obama.
Their mailer appears to aid an overall Democratic strategy to turnout African American voters in key states this year. The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported on a similar campaign piece that went out in Georgia where there is also a close Senate race this year.
“The strategy was not composed on the fly: During a Democratic National Committee meeting in Atlanta in August, party officials discussed the need to use Ferguson to inspire the base,” reported the AJC.
A report in the AJC in August quoted DNC Committeewomen Janet May on the Ferguson situation saying, “if we can’t take that scenario and roll it into a message for our party, we just need to pack it up and go home. Because we have been grasping for a message.”
Another campaign piece in North Carolina shows a picture of a lynching urging voters to re-elect Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan.
Also – Arkansas House Democratic Minority Whip Rep. Eddie Armstrong has joined in this messaging in a video he posted to Facebook after the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down the voter ID law.
“In the name of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown, I challenge young people to go out and rock our vote on October 20th through November 4th,” says Armstrong in his video.
The full mailer can be seen at this link.
