Cook County officials in the Chicago area are in a rush to adhere to Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act, where there is a requirement for voting offices to translate all written election materials, registration forms and ballots to minority groups that adhere to the thresholds provided by the law.
With the growing Asian population and the abundance of different Asian languages that need to be translated for voting purposes, the time crunch is on for the primary election on March 20. The Asian voting population is a definite group that holds power because of the large demographic and voting possibilities. It’s more important than ever to include the Asian voters in campaigns that will attract them to particular candidates.
However, a recent political ad shown during the Super Bowl did the exact opposite and instead, it has caused outrage from Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Former U.S. Representative, Pete Hoekstra led a campaign entitled “DebbieSpendItNow” in which he criticized U.S. Senate seat holder, Debbie Stabenow. Detroit News quoted Hoekstra as saying the ad, “Is to show ‘our economic competitors benefit when we make reckless spending decisions here in the United States’ with the greatest beneficiary today being China.”
However, people are in outrage over the ad both Democrats and Republicans. Stabenow was quoted by Detroit News as saying, “Pete Hoekstra should be very embarrassed by his ad and its divisiveness.”
A statement released by the nonpartisan Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote group’s Michigan chapter was quoted as saying, “It is very disturbing that Mr. Hoekstra’s campaign chose to use harmful negative stereotypes that intrinsically encourage anti-Asian sentiment.”
Reverend Charles Williams II of Detroit’s King Soloman Baptist Church joined with a number of Detroit pastors to try and pull the ad stating, “The Asian woman speaking in this video would be no different than him having a black person speaking in slave dialect. If Pete Hoekstra does not see any wrong in this commercial, he doesn’t deserve to be in the race.”
The political ad in question depicts a Chinese woman riding a bycicle passed rice paddy fields and then goes on to talk in a heavy Chinese accent saying, “Debbie spends so much money American money. You borrow more and more from us. Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie Spenditnow.”
Check out the ad for yourself and feel free to leave a comment.
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