As Seen On TV. In 1994.
The Arizona Republican Party got a well-deserved internet mocking for the crime of Lazy Google Image Searching this week. Vice News discovered the party's website featured a publicity photo for Margaret Cho's 1994 sitcom "All-American Girl" -- touting the message that Asian Americans are just one of the many diverse groups who love the GOP and and its principled rejection of affirmative action.
The now-removed page had a list of many groups, with a representative photo over each category, although most of those photos are no longer visible in the archived version:
Yes, they created a page labeled "People," with all sorts of demographic categories and a photo to illustrate each, all so they could say we're actually all the same:
The Arizona Republican Party does not seek to divide its membership along racial, ethnic or gender lines. As a political party, Republicans offer a universally appealing perspective on the proper role of government -- one based on a genuine recognition of individual equality, fairness, and justice for all. We believe it is unfair to demand special rights for certain races, push policies that favor members of one group over another, or single out certain ethnic or social groups with the promise of special favors or political privileges.
Do you belong to one of these groups, voter? STOP THINKING THAT MAKES YOU SPECIAL! NO PRIVILEGES FOR YOU! Unless maybe you're a veteran. Then we'll praise you as much as possible while privatizing the V.A. No special privileges, after all.
And of course, there's those Typical Asian Americans, fresh from a 1994 cast photo:
The Arizona GOP removed the photo and issued an apology through spokesperson Torunn Sinclair, who said, "As soon as this was brought to our attention, the page was taken down. This was obviously a mistake, and we apologize." Sinclair also told the Arizona Republic that the entire state party website was being redesigned, which would explain why we can no longer find that photo of Stepin Fetchit we were sure used to be there.
Margaret Cho, who's no fan of Republicans, told Vice,
“I find this similar to when I was a kid someone told me that Simon Lebon’s name was “Mike Hunt” and so I went around school saying ‘I love Mike Hunt’ and even wrote it on my locker,” Cho said. “I didn’t bother to research and paid the price of a dodgeball to the face. They got some bad information and ran with it. They deserve a dodgeball to the face."
For you olds and maybe a lot of you youngs, Simon Le Bon was the lead singer of the band Duran Duran. Despite also sounding like a character from Barbarella, "Simon Le Bon" is his real name. "Mike Hunt" is actually the name of Donald Trump's White House Communications Director. Cho also commented on Facebook about the error:
With the removal of the "People" page, virtually all the photos on the Arizona GOP website are now of white people (and overwhelmingly men), a far more representative depiction of the state party.
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[Vice / AzCentral.com]
