I showed one of my social psychology classes in Spring 2008 the Willie Horton ad from the 1988 Presidential campaign (available on YouTube), and asked them if they viewed the ad as racist. The class was diverse in ethnicity but not age–the students were generally too young to remember anything about the 1988 campaign. After viewing, the consensus was no, it was not a racist ad.

I did tell them that at the time the ad was widely viewed as racist, and that in addition to the target of the ad, Dukakis, expressing outrage, the Bush campaign also distanced itself from the ad.

An another ad controversy was a 2008 ad for Hillary Clinton known popularly as the “3 a.m.” ad (also on YouTube).

The MSNBC program Hardball featured a discussion in 2008 about whether the 3 a.m. ad was racist. The reaction from the commentators (including a faculty member) suggest that both race and gender were playing a role in the interpretation of this ad.

Margaret L. Signorella