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"Hands," also known as "White Hands," was apolitical television commercial aired during the1990 United States Senate election in North Carolina by the campaign of incumbentRepublicanSenatorJesse Helms. The ad targeted Helms'sDemocratic challenger,Harvey Gantt, and became one of the most controversial and widely discussed political advertisements in modern American history.
The advertisement depicts the hands of a white man in a plaid shirt reading and then crumpling a job rejection letter. A somber voiceover states: "You needed that job, and you were the best qualified. But they had to give it to a minority because of aracial quota. Is that really fair?" The ad then contrasts Helms and Gantt by claiming that Gantt supported "racial quotas" and that Helms opposed them, specifically referencing Gantt's support for the proposedCivil Rights Act of 1990, which the ad labeled as "Ted Kennedy's racial quota law."[1]
The ad was written and produced by Republican media consultantAlex Castellanos.[2] Carter Wrenn, a longtime North Carolina Republican strategist, was also involved in the process and later acknowledged the ad as a clear example ofrace-baiting.[3]
The 1990 North Carolina Senate race was closely contested. Gantt, the formermayor of Charlotte and the firstAfrican American to be a major party candidate for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, led inpolls shortly before the election.[4][5] The Helms campaign’s use of the "White Hands" ad is widely credited with shifting momentum in the final days, contributing to Helms’s narrow victory.[5]
The "White Hands" ad was immediately controversial. Critics argued that it played on white resentment and racial fears, misrepresentedaffirmative action as a system of rigid quotas, and implied that minorities were unfairly taking jobs from more qualified white applicants.[2][3][5] Supporters of the ad claimed it highlighted legitimate policy differences regarding affirmative action.[5]
The advertisement is frequently cited as a classic example ofnegative campaigning and racial "dog-whistle" politics in late20th-century America.[1][2] Its legacy continues to be discussed in analyses of political strategy,race relations, and the evolution of campaign advertising.[1]
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