As more than a few people have pointed out on X this week, three attack ads from 43rd Legislative District candidate and We Heart Seattle Executive Director Andrea Suarez appear to have darkened the skin tone of her opponent, Shaun Scott. In the ads, several clips of Scott speaking at events, as well as a copy of his author photo on Amazon, appear darker than the source material. In one of the ads, the skin tone of a white woman setting a car on fire during protests in 2020 appears unaltered from the source video.
Jonathan Choe, a fellow with a right-wing think tank called the Discovery Institute, donated his video editing work on the ads to Suarez’s campaign, according to public disclosure records.
Example 1: Original image
Example 1: Suarez ad version
Example 2: Original image
Example 2: Suarez ad version
Example 3: Original image
Example 3: Suarez ad version
Example 4: Original image
Example 4: Suarez ad version
The Stranger asked Suarez if she darkened Scott’s skin on purpose. She dodged the question and said she was “glad my videos are getting attention because Shaun would be a disaster for our state and a very unpopular carry forward of lawlessness and harm because of vu’s [sic] stupid defund the position [sic] efforts he helped push.”
When The Stranger asked a second time, she accused Scott of not playing by the rules, pointing to campaign finance complaints against him filed by a Republican-leaning lawyer who files a lot of PDC complaints.
When The Stranger told Saurez she was not answering the question, she said Scott was a “very beautiful man” and it was “ludicrous” that people were suggesting that “if his skin was darker in one video vs. another (which imo even more beautiful- Sudanians, Ethopians, as example) that it sheds him in some less than or ‘scarier’ (a comment made on X) … and THAT is racist thinking.” All of that is sic.
She continued: “And to suggest it was an intentional edit ‘to make him scarier’ means you are saying he’s scary in the first place and on that point he most definitely is a dangerous policy maker harming our most vulnerable…. And that IS scary to all of us if elected.”
She said she approved the videos, but we’d have to ask Choe about his editing techniques. Choe did not respond to a request for comment.
Darkening the skin of Black candidates is an age-old trick that plays on an audience’s implicit racial biases. In 2015, Stanford researchers determined many attack ads from 2008 Republican Presidential candidate John McCain significantly darkened former President Barack Obama’s skin color, noting Obama’s skin appeared darkest in spots attempting to connect Obama to criminal activity. By contrast, McCain’s face was lightened in some ads. To measure the effect, researchers showed study participants different images of Obama and asked them to complete word puzzles like “CR_ _ _” and “LA _ _.” Those shown darker images were more likely to complete the puzzles with negative stereotypes about Black people.
It’s not hard to find other examples. In 2020, Republican US Sen. Lindsey Graham’s reelection campaign posted an ad that digitally darkened the skin tone of challenger Jaime Harrison. In 2021, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’s skin appeared darker in attack ads. In 2022, Wisconsin Republicans were accused of intentionally darkening a Black senate candidate’s skin, and Georgia Republicans were accused of doing the same to Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. A conservative Super PAC darkened former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s skin in 2022. New Mexico Republicans were accused of race-mongering for darkening white hands in a tough-on-crime ad.
Locally, mailers sent out in the 2020 race for Washington’s 28th state senate race darkened and greyscaled an image of Democratic state Sen. T’wina Nobles while lightening the skin of Republican state Sen. Steve O’Ban. In a different but similarly racist ad, former King County Council Member Kathy Lambert depicted Girmay Zahilay as a maniacal, socialist puppet master. Zahilay was the only member of color on the council at that time, but she singled him out among all the other progressives on council to attack as the “socialist” on the nonpartisan body.
Andrew Ashiofu, chair of the WA Stonewall Democrats, publicly called out one of the Suarez ads on X. When reached by text, he said the fight to combat racism is on the ballot in the 43rd District. “How you run a campaign shows how you will be as an elected official,” he says.
When asked for comment, Scott said in a text that his campaign was proud of its endorsements and “unwaveringly focused” on getting a win for the progressive groups that believe in his vision.
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Horrible if true.
But be very careful with these accusations. It could very well be the software and not anything nefarious. I did a test.
I took the original photo of Example 4 and downloaded it, and opened it in Pixelmator Pro v. 3.6.10 on a Mac.
Then in ‘Color Adjustments’ I clicked the ML Enhance button. ML = Machine Learning.
It made Shaun’s face darker especially around the neck, as well as the sky and background. My result looks pretty much like the “Suarez” version in the Example 4.
I now very much doubt the veracity of these allegations.
@2 but you noticed the darkening effect. If you were creating a political ad would you have gone with the edited image or a more accurate representation? Even if Suarez/Choe did exactly what you did they still chose to run the edited image and it’s a stretch to imagine that was a wholly innocent mistake.
@3: 100% The human in the loop with any technology is the decided & accountable.
3: Point well taken
The simple fact that anyone connected to the Discovery Institute is connected to her campaign is more worrying to me than the possible racism. That is not to say that the racism isn’t disgusting, it’s that the Discovery Institute is a far right, Christian nationalist group, that pushes the BS pseudo-science of intelligent design. They are far from the classic conservative Republican my father was, and are some of the folks Goldwater warned about.
@6: Have you watched Jonathan Choe’s videos? He is going up to the homeless and checking on them in their tents and working with police to get help as needed. Let’s be fair about this. Jonathan is not a racist.
Andrea “I’M A DEMOCRAT!!!!” Suarez is fucking terrible. And her statement on skin tone and beauty is pretty creepy.
@7 You might want to look into the circumstances of Choe’s departure from KOMO before you exonerate him of racist intent. Just a suggestion.
I have no doubt they did this, but the question is why? Shaun Scott is already “black” enough for racists to hate him, and a ham-handed action like this just calls attention to itself.
Hillary faced the same accusations in 2008. Is Hillary a racist? Clearly she is not.
https://www.factcheck.org/2008/03/did-clinton-darken-obamas-skin/
The article’s conclusion applies here as well:
“We’re not mind-readers, so we can’t say whether or not the makers of this ad intended to engage in “race-baiting” or were “using racism to win” as some Obama partisans are claiming. Based on evidence at hand, we find those claims to be unsubstantiated. And the many potential differences between source footage, encoding manipulations, and other variables only make it less likely that any such attempt could be proven.”
@10: If you ask why, you haven’t proven intent. If that isn’t answered, you can’t remove the shadow of the doubt.
@7: So noted.
Phoebe, dear, everyone knows that Crypto-Republicans are just as horrible as regular Republicans.
@13 what policy position does she hold that makes her a republican? Her main offense is having the gall to go out and clean up trash. Her positions are much closer to that of the democrats than Shaun Scott who is an avowed socialist and not a member of the Democratic Party. I’m sure Scott will win because the local Dems have done such a great job of beating down on Suarez but I see this as yet another example of how far left politics have shifted in Seattle and especially the 43rd.
@13 “Her main offense is having the gall to go out and clean up trash”
She doesn’t clean up trash she throws away the possessions of people living in the streets in areas that happen to be inconvenient to local ghouls like Ari Hoffman. But more to the point she actively associates with and is respected and platformed by local Republicans:
https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/09/09/op-ed-andrea-suarez-is-a-republican/
She’s just smart enough to know she has to claim (D) to have any chance of winning in Seattle, and our electoral system where candidates don’t have to be endorsed or supported by the party they just assert they “prefer XYZ party” allows her to do so. She’s a grifter to the core.
@15 holy shit 1312. She talks to people who have differing political viewpoints and attempts to work with them? You’re right she’s awful. We all know in Seattle you either abide be the progressive orthodoxy or you’re a facist. You’re only proving my point with your lame takedowns. Look Scott is going to win because Suarez can’t overcome the insanity in the 43rd but she’ll continue to do more good for this city than Scott. He’s the true grifter and sending him to Olympia will be amusing to watch because people there won’t put up with his bs
@15 “She talks to people who have differing political viewpoints and attempts to work with them?”
You can’t possibly be this naive
I’m sorry Disctrict13refugee dear, but anyone associated with The Discovery Institute is a horrible person and hence a Republican.
@16 I know that’s weird for you but let’s see how far Scott’s uncompromising brand of everyone who doesn’t agree with him is a racist or facist gets him in Olympia.
@17 Having Choe shoot a video is hardly an endorsement of the Discovery Institutes platform. I still have yet to see someone point out an actual policy position of hers that is so awful, it’s all personal attacks and guilt by association. Meanwhile Scott’s actual platform is full of truly horrible ideas like rent control, destabilizing our energy grid, abolishing the police and massive tax increases.
@18 your theory is the candidate who appears at Republican events and fundraisers and posts selfies with fringe GOP candidates like Semi Bird, and who was rejected by the state Democrat Party, is the true Democrat not the candidate endorsed by all the Democrats? Bold take.
“Scott’s actual platform is full of truly horrible ideas like rent control, destabilizing our energy grid, abolishing the police and massive tax increases.”
Rent control: Biden wanted to implement national rent control (https://www.cato.org/commentary/joe-bidens-rent-control-plan)
Energy grid: don’t even know what you mean by this
Abolishing police: not part of his platform
Tax increases: you mean support for a wealth tax and ending corporate loopholes, more mainstream Dem positions?
https://www.betterwashington.org/platform
@11 “Is Hillary a racist? Clearly she is not.”
She has pushed very racist concepts like the “superpredator kids” innuendo in connection to the 1994 crime bill:
“Unpacking the Racially-Charged Term “Superpredators”
In the ‘90s, racialized terms like “wilding” and “superpredators” conjured moral panic, which justified the Crime Bill and other similar propositions.”
https://daily.jstor.org/unpacking-the-racially-charged-term-superpredators/
“In fact, Hillary Clinton [..] is responsible for linking “super predator” to the 1994 bill.
During a 1996 campaign speech for President Bill Clinton, the then-first lady used the term to describe “gangs” of kids without empathy, while crediting the crime bill’s allowance for more police officers for a reduction in crime, gangs and drugs.
“We need to take these people on, they are often connected to big drug cartels, they are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called super predators. No conscious, no empathy,” Clinton said, according to a video recording provided by C-SPAN.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/24/fact-check-hillary-clinton-called-some-criminals-super-predators/6021383002/
@19 I guess we’ll get at least 2 years to see if you’re right. As for his policy on police I think this speaks for itself
https://www.cascadepbs.org/2020/06/time-abolish-seattle-police-was-yesterday
averagebob dear, everyone in politics was racist in the 90’s. It started with the Republicans (Willy Horton) and donald trump (The Central Park 5) but the Democrats unfortunately played along.
@18 Suarez has no positions or thoughts of her own. I asked her what she thought about the state’s huge problems with funding education. First she said that she acknowledged she would need to learn a lot on the job. Yikes. Then she basically parroted a Seattle Times editorial on the topic.
Scott, on the other hand, wrote a very well-researched article about the history of this state’s education funding, showing how we got to this crisis and discussing how to address it.
Suarez is woefullly unprepared to be a legislator.
In his last election, Scott accused his opponents supporters of painting racist slurs on his yard signs… This guy is a race-baiter. Don’t fall for it.
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@20 – Superpredator,is a spot on description of these “children”
https://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2024/10/11/police-arrest-four-teen-suspects-connected-to-nearly-80-violent-crimes/
Regarding the darkening issue – I do think Choe is an embarrassment to Asians and a complete douche but it’s pretty easy to see that the entirety of the image is darker, not just the face.