*Mayor Lori Lightfoot has slammed a conservative super PAC for altering her skin tone to appear darker in an ad that uses “racist tropes” to disparage the city of Chicago and its Black residents.
The new attack ad is aimed at Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and opens with a clip of Lightfoot giving a speech at the City Club of Chicago in April. In the ad, her complexion appears darker than it appears in the original video.
Lightfoot says in the clip, “This will be the summer of joy in Chicago.” The ad then “cuts to sounds of gunshots, screams and scenes of shadowy figures in the streets shooting,” per NBC News. The ad was run by the People Who Play By the Rules super PAC, and also features the message: “Chicago violence is coming to the suburbs”.
“News flash. I’m Black and I’m proud. Everyone knows it. No need to use cheap tricks to darken my skin and try to scare voters with false narratives about Chicago,” Lightfoot said in a statement to NBC News.
READ MORE: Chicago Police Dispatcher Slams Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Handling of Crime Wave [VIDEO]
She responds.
@chicagosmayor claims a campaign AD from
@DanProft ‘s PBR made her skin darker. Lightfoot also says the violent footage isn’t from Chicago. pic.twitter.com/2U3iClWpPR— Amy Jacobson (@AmyJacobson) August 24, 2022
The super PAC is fronted by conservative Dan Proft and funded by billionaire GOP financier Richard Uihlein, according to the NBC News report.
Per the outlet: “The ad takes aim at Pritzker over a bill he signed eliminating cash bail. The law, which has drawn criticism from some state’s attorneys, goes into effect next year, does away with cash bail in the state but allows judges to keep suspects behind bars based on risk and danger to the community.”
Proft denied Lightfoot’s claim that her race was darkened in the ad.
“That is insane — and par for the course from inveterate race hustlers like Lightfoot and Pritzker trying to misdirect attention away from the fact that she has turned the city over to repeat, violent predators and he aims to do the same statewide with his elimination of cash bail,” Proft said in an email, as reported by NBC News. “Their contention is completely untrue and patently absurd. We did nothing to her pigmentation just as we did nothing to pigmentation of our pasty blowhard of a governor. The video of Lightfoot was pulled from the web from her City Club speech.”
Hollywood-based Republican Fred Davis, an ad maker, believes there was no ill intent in the way Lightfoot’s skin tone appears in the video.
“That was a very dramatic darkening, but I bet you it was nothing but color correction,” Davis said. “Anybody that’s a professional in our business — that’s the last thing you would do is make somebody’s skin darker. That’s just a no-no. I don’t even know who did it. It’s just not true, unless they’re just the sleaziest people on the block. I bet they’re not.”
John Rowley, a Tennessee-based Democratic ad maker, noted: “Any political content producer and consultant with a shred of judgment wouldn’t darken or black a mayor’s skin dramatically like this spot does”
Rowley added, “Even if an editor or colorist darkened an image for effect, five to 10 other people should have noticed and stopped it well before airing.”
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