The Real Baltimore

 

Kim Klacik is a Republican running for Congress in Baltimore, and she has a few things to say. Warning: pearl clutchers should have pearls handy before watching this campaign ad:

While Nancy makes selfie-videos of her $30 a pint designer ice cream, Kim Klacik is shaking up her old home town. Sometimes the revolution that arises is not the one the elites were staging. A race worth following. Donate here.

As you were.

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  1. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Good commercial overall. The one thing I would say is that having a pretty girl in a red dress and high heels talking about “walking the streets of Baltimore” might not deliver the message she intends.

    • #1
  2. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    “Name a blue city where black people’s lives have gotten better. Try. I’ll wait.”

    Badda-bing!

    • #2
  3. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Good commercial overall. The one thing I would say is that having a pretty girl in a red dress and high heels talking about “walking the streets of Baltimore” might not deliver the message she intends.

    Typical patriarchal recidivism. 

    • #3
  4. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Sisyphus (View Comment):
    Typical patriarchal recidivism. 

    To be recidivism, wouldn’t I have to have stopped for awhile?

    • #4
  5. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    Simply great infomercial!

    “The one thing I would say is that having a pretty girl in a red dress and high heels talking about “walking the streets of Baltimore” might not deliver the message she intends.”

    I strongly disagree. By wearing a nicely looking dress, she is essentially subliminally saying to black people ” I did this and you can too!”. By wearing that outfit it’s a message of hope.

    She is going after black people who want to aspire to better lives, and showing them how it is done, and that it is possible. That is a powerful message.  Black can do much better and can be fully integrated into society. That is her message. 

    • #5
  6. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Sisyphus (View Comment):
    Typical patriarchal recidivism.

    To be recidivism, wouldn’t I have to have stopped for awhile?

    I stand corrected.

    • #6
  7. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Unsk (View Comment):
    She is going after black people who want to aspire to better lives, and showing them how it is done, and that it is possible. That is a powerful message. Black can do much better and can be fully integrated into society. That is her message.

    I like your interpretation.

    • #7
  8. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Good commercial overall. The one thing I would say is that having a pretty girl in a red dress and high heels talking about “walking the streets of Baltimore” might not deliver the message she intends.

    I thought the same but I hope she knows her audience better than I.  I am bright enough to know she has no interest in my white  opinion or vote in her 60+% black city.

    • #8
  9. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Good commercial overall. The one thing I would say is that having a pretty girl in a red dress and high heels talking about “walking the streets of Baltimore” might not deliver the message she intends.

    I thought the same but I hope she knows her audience better than I. I am bright enough to know she has no interest in my white opinion or vote in her 60+% black city.

    You don’t think that white voters in the current climate would welcome a candidate with this message?

    • #9
  10. namlliT noD Member
    namlliT noD
    @DonTillman

    Her Twitter version of this ad, posted yesterday, has 3.7 million views.

    This is a big deal.

    • #10
  11. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    I think this is a great message. 

    Until blacks stop voting enmass for Dems they will be ignored.

    I’d vote for her.

    • #11
  12. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Sorry, but my first thought was that “Kim” used to be (and really still is) a man.

    • #12
  13. Sisyphus Member
    Sisyphus
    @Sisyphus

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Sorry, but my first thought was that “Kim” used to be (and really still is) a man.

    She is a wife and a mother. I find no indication of anything more complicated than that. And watching her move in that video, those hips are all natural – not a speck of cereal.

    • #13
  14. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Sorry, but my first thought was that “Kim” used to be (and really still is) a man.

    Brain needing some work.

    • #14
  15. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Good commercial overall. The one thing I would say is that having a pretty girl in a red dress and high heels talking about “walking the streets of Baltimore” might not deliver the message she intends.

    Agreed. 

    She needed something analogous to the way guys in political ads would invariably appear in rolled-up shirtsleeves, no jacket (or slung over the shoulder), and a slightly loosened the tie to show they were working on the issues or something or just approachable though still with the gravitas the suit brings.

    • #15
  16. Old Bathos Member
    Old Bathos
    @OldBathos

    She is running against Kwasei Mfume for Cummings’ seat.  He is well-known and well-funded and the district was carefully gerrymandered to insure an urban Democratic majority was the controlling demographic. Uphill for her.

    • #16
  17. Barfly Member
    Barfly
    @Barfly

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Good commercial overall. The one thing I would say is that having a pretty girl in a red dress and high heels talking about “walking the streets of Baltimore” might not deliver the message she intends.

    C’mon. That contrast is what makes the ad effective, it’s the whole subtext. Without the tension of the vulnerable sex object walking the dangerous slums, it’d be no more than another litany of reasons.

    The ad is brilliantly composed. Notice how unnaturally tidy the streets and decaying buildings are, so we aren’t distracted by the trash. Klacik is telling us that Baltimore has a structural, systemic, permanent problem.

    Note also the ad doesn’t try to use people as scenery. Since it’s short, and political, it hits us over the head with the Omega Man visuals (the I Am Legend visuals, for you younger folks.) The only other people that appear in the ad speak directly to the camera, filling the whole frame – they’re individuals, not props or scenery. The ad isn’t trying to persuade white people; it’s aimed directly at the people who are so obviously missing from the visuals that the ad conjures them into the viewer’s mind. 

    Yet the viewer superficially worries that Kim will brush against something dirty. Brilliant.

    • #17
  18. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Barfly (View Comment):
    (the I Am Legend visuals, for you younger folks.)

    Or older folks who can read.

    • #18
  19. Barfly Member
    Barfly
    @Barfly

    Old Bathos (View Comment):

    She is running against Kwasei Mfume for Cummings’ seat. He is well-known and well-funded and the district was carefully gerrymandered to insure an urban Democratic majority was the controlling demographic. Uphill for her.

    Hope she’s got a security detail. Mfume is about what you’d expect from a third world subculture in a first world society.

    • #19
  20. namlliT noD Member
    namlliT noD
    @DonTillman

    namlliT noD (View Comment):

    Her Twitter version of this ad, posted yesterday, has 3.7 million views.

    This is a big deal.

    One hour ago.  Now it’s 4 million views.  This is seriously viral.

    This is a really, really big deal.

    She’s breaking new ground here.  I can’t think of a time a Republican ever noticed the simple truth that the inner city areas are a disaster, and thought to mention it.  I can’t think of a time a Republican ever seriously attempted to run for office in an inner city area.

    She’s not only proving it’s possible, but also showing how easy it is to do.

    Maybe Joe Collins, Lacy Johnson, and others will do something similar.   This could change everything.

    • #20
  21. namlliT noD Member
    namlliT noD
    @DonTillman

    • #21
  22. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    namlliT noD (View Comment):
    One hour ago. Now it’s 4 million views. This is seriously viral.

    I wonder how many are voters in her district.

    • #22
  23. namlliT noD Member
    namlliT noD
    @DonTillman

    • #23
  24. namlliT noD Member
    namlliT noD
    @DonTillman

    • #24
  25. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Sorry, but my first thought was that “Kim” used to be (and really still is) a man.

    She is a wife and a mother. I find no indication of anything more complicated than that. And watching her move in that video, those hips are all natural – not a speck of cereal.

    I’m only looking at the “still frame.”  Those arms, that face at that angle…

    • #25
  26. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    namlliT noD (View Comment):

    namlliT noD (View Comment):

    Her Twitter version of this ad, posted yesterday, has 3.7 million views.

    This is a big deal.

    One hour ago. Now it’s 4 million views. This is seriously viral.

    This is a really, really big deal.

    She’s breaking new ground here. I can’t think of a time a Republican ever noticed the simple truth that the inner city areas are a disaster, and thought to mention it. I can’t think of a time a Republican ever seriously attempted to run for office in an inner city area.

    She’s not only proving it’s possible, but also showing how easy it is to do.

    Maybe Joe Collins, Lacy Johnson, and others will do something similar. This could change everything.

    It would be a very different situation if any white person were trying to make the same points.

    • #26
  27. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    My heart breaks for the guy who lost three sons.

    I cannot imagine.

    Great ad.

    • #27
  28. Bob Thompson Member
    Bob Thompson
    @BobThompson

    Isn’t she the person who made some noise about how downtrodden Baltimore was last year when words were flying between the President and Cummings and the media worked really hard to uplift Cummings and his performance over more the 2 decades? There were some volunteer crews in there helping to clean up and they were being trashed by Democrats and media.

    • #28
  29. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    Sisyphus (View Comment):

    Fake John/Jane Galt (View Comment):

    Arahant (View Comment):

    Good commercial overall. The one thing I would say is that having a pretty girl in a red dress and high heels talking about “walking the streets of Baltimore” might not deliver the message she intends.

    I thought the same but I hope she knows her audience better than I. I am bright enough to know she has no interest in my white opinion or vote in her 60+% black city.

    You don’t think that white voters in the current climate would welcome a candidate with this message?

    No, what I was saying is that she was not aiming this message at them.  Thus her choice of attire may make sense for the audience she was targeting.  

    • #29
  30. Jules PA Inactive
    Jules PA
    @JulesPA

    I think Larry Elder and his team are going to need to update their Uncle Tom Documentary to include a Klacik chapter.

    At first I didn’t like the look, but I’m not black, and I don’t live in Baltimore. I did not go to a failing school. Even though my early life is not a paragon of white privilege, I always had hope that I could do and be.

    Klacik is the voice that the downtrodden need to hear. She is the face they need to see.  She has a story that will resonate.

    Klacik will connect with the voters who want OUT of the destruction they’ve been handed. Those who are not interested will ignore. She may not win this year, but she has started the right “conversation.”

    I think her video has an outreach beyond Baltimore, and may inspire others like herself, in other ruined cities to step up. 

     

    • #30
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