Hey African Americans, Ben Carson is targeting you. He has a radio ad out now that's intended to reach urban demographics. Uh oh.
You know what this means.
Dammit.
And of course it's as bad as you think it would be because it's EXACTLY what you think it is.
In case you weren't sure just how out of touch Ben Carson is with the Black community, you are DEFINITELY going to be sure now. From the article:
Carson himself doesn't rap in the 60-second radio spot, which will play for two weeks in Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Detroit, Birmingham, Alabama, Jackson, Mississippi, Memphis, Tennessee, and Little Rock, Arkansas. A rapper named Aspiring Mogul raps, "Vote and support Ben Carson for our next president and be awesome," over clips of Carson remarks about freedom and personal responsibility.
Those cities? Those are some Black ass cities. I see what you're trying to do Ben Carson. But let's be honest here for a second, okay, Uncle Ben? This ad isn't going to make anybody vote for you. In fact, it sounds like exactly what would happen if a white person was trying to make a rap ad. Maybe it's a class thing. Maybe Ben is so out of touch with the very community he's seeking that he doesn't even know that he looks worse than Jeb Bush doing this. Sure, Jeb would do this and it would be racist. But at least he could feign ignorance.
By the way, making a hiphop ad doesn't make him out of touch with the Black community. THINKING that you're going to get the voters most likely to vote for you, ie UBER conservative Black people, with a hiphop ad does. He has NO clue how to reach the very people who are most likely to vote for him. And I guarantee those people will not be swayed - if they'll ever even hear - a rap ad. Ben better take his ass to somebody's church and fight that fight with The Clark Sisters and Israel Houghton.
But nope. Ben called up somebody and said, "hey, I'm trying to get Black votes in the south…oh and Detroit, there's lots of Black people there right? Can you make me a rappity ad? Black people like rap right? In my day we listened to Bach and Brahms…and Shalamar. But now they're all into the rap. So let's do us a rap ad? That's not a bad idea is it, guys?"
Since I imagine that most of Ben Carson's staff is white people, I'm thinking they were like, "Um, I don't know? But we know it can't be racist if YOU do it Ben!"
Also, can somebody get Aspiring Mogul on the line so we can ask him who he really is? I'll be mad as hell if it's Smitty. But hell, a check is a check, right?
"Vote and support Ben Carson for our next president and be awesome!"
If I can do a bit of theorizing here, I'm guessing "Aspiring Mogul" got hit off the phone and was like, "oh hell naw!" Then he thought about it and was like, "this nigga won't know if I gave him anything decent or not. I'll just give him some throwaway track my cousin Mookie made on Fruity Loops and say a few words that rhyme. What rhymes with Carson? Oh, right. Awesome. Sweet. This shit is almost too easy. BEN I'M ALL IN!"
That's what I'd do. Then Ben threw in the word "freedom" which I think all Black folks are attuned to. If I'm walking down the street and somebody yells out "freedom" from 100 yards away, I can't lie, I'm gonna turn around and say, "where's the freedom!!?!?!?!"
It's a shit ad. But it's also the exact type of shit ad you'd expect Ben Carson to drop if he was trying to reach Black voters in some of the Blackest cities in America. Notice that ad isn't coming to DC, NY, or Chicago.
Then again, if Ben Carson releases a drill ad, maybe he can get it in Spike's movie.
Thanks, Obama.