Immigrants’ List Civic Action, a pro-immigrant group, launched a new ad focusing on President Donald Trump’s anti-Asian rhetoric during the COVID-19 pandemic, reported Miami Herald.
The 60-second ad titled “Words Matter” will air in battleground states such as Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin and has also been posted online.
The ad features headlines highlighting anti-Asian racism during the pandemic and includes multiple clips of Donald Trump referring to the virus as “Chinese virus” or “kung flu.”
The ad states that “Trump’s rhetoric adds fuel to the growing fire of hatred being misdirected at Asian Americans.”
“Tell Donald Trump words matter,” the ad reads at the end.
“The point of ‘Words Matter’ is to highlight the kinds of racist rhetoric that Trump is using when he calls the coronavirus ‘kung flu’ or calls it the ‘Chinese virus,’” Ira Kurzban, an immigration lawyer and founder of Immigrants’ List Civic Action, told NBC.
He says that the group chose to create an ad focused on the Asian American experience because Asian Americans are “often overlooked in elections.”
The group also plans to release more ads appealing to other marginalized groups, including Latinx Americans and Arab Americans.
Kurzban hopes that these targeted ads can help motivate people of color and immigrants to vote in the upcoming election, especially in swing states where Trump won by a small margin.
“We’re trying to get people out to vote because we believe if new Americans vote, we will have a new person in the White House in January 2021,” he said.
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