"Hands," sometimes known as "White Hands," was a controversial political advertisement that aired on television during the 1990 United States Senate election in North Carolina by the political campaign of Jesse Helms criticizing his opponent, Harvey Gantt, for being in favor of racial quotas. The advertisement is considered to be an important factor in Helms's narrow victory over Gantt and was written and produced by Alex Castellanos. [1] [2]
The advertisement shows the hands of a white man in a plaid shirt reading and then crumpling up a job rejection letter while a voiceover says, "You needed that job, and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of a racial quota. Is that really fair?" The advertisement compared Helms to Gantt by saying that Gantt was "for racial quotas" and that Helms was against them. [3] [2] In particular, it accused Gantt of supporting "Ted Kennedy's racial quota law." [4]
James Cleveland "Jesse" Owens was an American track and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games.
Affirmative action refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking to include particular groups based on their gender, race, sexuality, creed or nationality in areas in which they are underrepresented such as education and employment. Historically and internationally, support for affirmative action has sought to achieve goals such as bridging inequalities in employment and pay, increasing access to education, promoting diversity, and redressing apparent past wrongs, harms, or hindrances.
Racial quotas in employment and education are numerical requirements for hiring, promoting, admitting and/or graduating members of a particular racial group. Racial quotas are often established as means of diminishing racial discrimination, addressing under-representation and evident racism against those racial groups or, the opposite, against the disadvantaged majority group. Conversely, quotas have also been used historically to promote discrimination against minority groups by limiting access to influential institutions in employment and education.
Jesse Alexander Helms Jr. was an American journalist, media executive, and politician. A leader in the conservative movement, he served as a senator from North Carolina from 1973 to 2003. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001 he had a major voice in foreign policy. Helms helped organize and fund the conservative resurgence in the 1970s, focusing on Ronald Reagan's quest for the White House as well as helping many local and regional candidates.
Reverse discrimination is a term for discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, in favor of members of a minority or historically disadvantaged group. Groups may be defined in terms of ethnicity, gender identity, nationality, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.
In American politics, the Southern strategy was a Republican Party electoral strategy to increase political support among white voters in the South by appealing to racism against African Americans. As the civil rights movement and dismantling of Jim Crow laws in the 1950s and 1960s visibly deepened existing racial tensions in much of the Southern United States, Republican politicians such as presidential candidate Richard Nixon and Senator Barry Goldwater developed strategies that successfully contributed to the political realignment of many white, conservative voters in the South who had traditionally supported the Democratic Party rather than the Republican Party. It also helped to push the Republican Party much more to the right.
William R. Horton is an American convicted felon who, while serving a life sentence for murder, was the beneficiary of a Massachusetts weekend furlough program. He did not return from his furlough, and ultimately committed assault, armed robbery, and rape before being captured and sentenced in Maryland where he remains incarcerated.
The 1990 United States Senate elections were held on Tuesday, November 6, 1990. The Democratic Party increased its majority with a net gain of one seat from the Republican Party. The election took place in the middle of President George H. W. Bush's term, and, as with most other midterm elections, the party not holding the presidency gained seats in Congress.
Harvey Bernard Gantt is an American architect and Democratic politician active in North Carolina. The first African-American student admitted to Clemson University after attending Iowa State University, Gantt graduated with honors in architecture, earned a master's at MIT, and established an architectural practice in Charlotte with a partner.
Racism in the United States comprises negative attitudes and views on race or ethnicity which are related to each other, are held by various people and groups in the United States and have been reflected in discriminatory laws, practices and actions at various times in the history of the United States against racial or ethnic groups. Throughout American history, white Americans have generally enjoyed legally or socially sanctioned privileges and rights which have been denied to members of various ethnic or minority groups at various times. European Americans, particularly affluent white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, are said to have enjoyed advantages in matters of education, immigration, voting rights, citizenship, land acquisition, and criminal procedure.
Reverse racism or reverse discrimination is the concept that affirmative action and similar color-conscious programs for redressing racial inequality are a form of anti-white racism. The concept is often associated with conservative social movements and the belief that social and economic gains by black people in the United States and elsewhere cause disadvantages for white people.
Affirmative action in the United States is a set of laws, policies, guidelines, and administrative practices "intended to end and correct the effects of a specific form of discrimination" that include government-mandated, government-approved, and voluntary private programs. The programs tend to focus on access to education and employment, granting special consideration to historically excluded groups, specifically racial minorities or women. The impetus toward affirmative action is redressing the disadvantages associated with past and present discrimination. Further impetus is a desire to ensure public institutions, such as universities, hospitals, and police forces, are more representative of the populations they serve.
Alejandro "Alex" Castellanos is a Cuban-American political consultant. He has worked on electoral campaigns for Republican candidates including Bob Dole, George W. Bush, Jeb Bush, and Mitt Romney. In 2008, Castellanos, a partner at National Media Inc., co-founded Purple Strategies, a bipartisan communications firm. Castellanos is also a regular guest commentator on Meet the Press and a contributor for CNN.
"Going to Meet the Man" is a short story by American author James Baldwin. It was published in 1965 in the short story collection of the same name.
Jesse Louis Jackson is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997.
The Journal of Social, Political, and Economic Studies is a quarterly journal published by the Council for Social and Economic Studies. It was founded in 1976 by anthropologist Roger Pearson, and was originally published by The Council of American Affairs, an American representative in the World Anti Communist League. It is now published by the Council for Social and Economic Studies, of which Pearson was the president as of 1982. It has been identified as one of two international journals which regularly publishes articles pertaining to race and intelligence with the goal of supporting the idea that white people are inherently superior. Notable contributors to the journal include Jack Kemp, Jesse Helms, and Robert S. McNamara. In 1982, U.S. President Ronald Reagan wrote a letter to Pearson personally thanking him for the most recent issue of the Journal, which was never disavowed by the White House. The White House did, however, request that Pearson stop using the letter.
The North Carolina United States Senate election of 1984 was held on November 6, 1984 as part of the nationwide elections to the Senate, and coinciding with the 1984 presidential election. The election was fought between the Republican incumbent Jesse Helms and then-incumbent Democratic Governor Jim Hunt. Helms won the election, the most expensive non-presidential election in United States history up to that point, by a margin significantly reduced from the margin that Helms achieved in 1978.
The North Carolina United States Senate election of 1990 was held on November 6, 1990 as part of the nationwide elections to the Senate. The general election was fought between the Republican incumbent Jesse Helms and the Democratic nominee Mayor of Charlotte Harvey Gantt. Helms won re-election to a fourth term by a slightly wider margin than the close election in 1984.
The North Carolina United States Senate election of 1996 was held on November 5, 1996 as part of the nationwide elections to the Senate, and coinciding with the 1996 presidential election. The general election was a rematch of the 1990 election: between the Republican incumbent Jesse Helms and the Democratic nominee Harvey Gantt. Helms won re-election to a fifth and final term by a slightly wider margin than in 1990. Following this election every senator from the Class II senate seat only served 1 term until Thom Tillis narrowly won re-election in 2020.
White identity is the objective or subjective state of perceiving oneself as a white person and as relating to being white. White identity has been researched in data and polling, historically and in social sciences. There are however polarized positions in media and academia as to whether a positive white racial identity, which doesn't diminish other racial groups, is plausible or achievable in the Western world's political climate.