Outrage deepens: Asian actress identified in the html code on Hoekstra’s website as “yellow girl."
Despite charges of racism and Asian bashing, Rep. Pete Hoekstra is standing behind his controversial, racially charged Super Bowl commercial. Republicans and Democrats alike claim that the US Senate campaign ad featuring a young Asian woman talking in broken English is offensive and racially insensitive.
Speaking with Fox News on Monday afternoon Hoekstra denied charges that the ad is racist, saying "There's nothing in here that has a racial tint at all...”
The ad appeared in Michigan television markets during Super Bowl 2012, and features an Asian woman riding a bike along a rice paddy. The Asian actress stops her bike and speaks to the camera: "Thank you Michigan Senator Debbie Spend-it Now. Debbie spends so much 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 Spend-it Now."
Hoekstra is then shown on screen and he adds, "I'm Pete Spend-it Not Hoekstra and I approve this message." Pete Hoekstra is running for U.S. Senate in Michigan. Hoekstra's opponent is Sen. Debbie Stabenow, whose last name Hoekstra changed to "Spend-it-now," in an apparently failed attempt at political humor.
Republican political consultant Mike Murphy, who worked for former Michigan Governor John Engler, tweeted Sunday: "Pete Hoekstra Superbowl TV ad in MI Senate race really, really dumb. I mean really."
Politico reports Michigan-based GOP consultant Nick DeLeeuw aired his grievances on Facebook: “... shame on Pete Hoekstra for that appalling new advertisement. Racism and xenophobia aren’t any way to get things done;” and Alicia Ping, an Asian-American GOP commissioner in Washtenaw County, Michigan, dubbed the advertisement “incredibly racist.”
The online site The Shanghaiist found the campaign spot to be both “creepy” and “racist.”
To add insult to injury, and further the perception of racism, the Asian actress appearing in the controversial commercial is identified in the html code on Hoekstra’s website as “yellow girl.”
Watch the ad. What do you think? Leave a comment - express yourself.
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