| | | | |  | | By Sabrina Rodriguez | With help from Ximena Bustillo, Ella Creamer, Rishika Dugyala and Teresa Wiltz
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Signage at the YouTube Space LA offices in Los Angeles, Oct. 15, 2015. | Danny Moloshok/AP Photo | Hi, hi, Recast fam! Sabrina is back as our guest host filling in for Brakkton this week. Russia declares a new phase of war in its invasion of Ukraine, a federal judge overturns U.S. mask mandates for travel and South Africa faces disastrous flooding. But today, we're starting off by talking about immigration. Border crisis. Border wars. Border security. Protect borders. Mass migration. Immigrants are criminals. End chain migration. Illegal immigrant gangs. Uncivilized. These are some of the central keywords and themes included in viral anti-immigration videos on YouTube. They're hardly a surprise for anyone following immigration, as immigration opponents for years have used that language to argue that the U.S. needs to crack down on immigration — both legal and undocumented. But a new report by Define American, a nonprofit looking to shift the narrative around immigrants through storytelling, is delivering a surprising finding for the immigration advocacy world: There's a lot they can learn from how anti-immigration groups get their point across, particularly when it comes to YouTube. The report, which includes research in key swing states, shows that YouTube has proved to be a critical space for shaping opinion on immigration — and even influencing voting patterns. It also looks at how immigration advocates and opponents have used starkly different messaging strategies, with opponents largely being more effective by investing in digital media and tailoring their messages to undecided voters.
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| The immigrant advocacy group teamed up with Change Research, a polling firm, for part of the report to survey more than 3,200 likely voters in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. They quizzed respondents on their YouTube viewing habits to see if it influenced their beliefs on immigration — and it did. Nearly 20 percent of likely voters reported having changed their views on immigration because of content they saw on YouTube, a number that jumped to 25 percent among people ages 18 to 34, according to the report. Almost 30 percent contacted a political representative — and 21 percent went so far as to change their vote for a political representative based on their reaction to immigration-related content they saw on YouTube.
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| Shauna Siggelkow, co-author of the report and director of digital storytelling at Define America, explained that immigration opponents for years have understood the importance of staking out a big presence on digital platforms, like YouTube, allowing them to dominate the conversation. As an example, she said, throughout the 2016 election cycle, Breitbart consistently pushed out anti-immigrant messaging, which made immigration a central talking point. That same election cycle, President Donald Trump pushed anti-immigrant messaging — and won. "The fact [is] that Democrats or, really, pro-immigration advocates were not paying attention to this anti-immigration machine that we know exists on the other side in digital spaces," Siggelkow said. "All these years later, going into the 2024 elections, I think [it's clear] we really missed a lesson there."
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| Many of YouTube's most successful anti-immigration videos have prominently featured the Great Replacement, a white nationalist theory, according to the report. Summed up, the top-performing YouTube videos have a similar central narrative: It's logical to be against immigration because immigration will destroy you, your family and your way of life. The group's research, however, went further than identifying narratives and found that with similar packaging to anti-immigration videos, pro-immigration content can be significantly more effective. One of the top takeaways was that explainer videos, which break down complicated topics, are the most popular — and effective — for shaping and changing opinions on immigration. Another was that the videos typically use animation graphics to illustrate their argument, which they found moves undecided voters more than other presentation styles. With the findings, Define American has come up with several mechanisms and tactics that immigration advocates should be using going forward and they're sharing the report (and a toolkit) with more than 100 national organizations, including Immigration Hub, FWD.US and the Bridge Alliance.
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Most anti-immigration videos riff on the narrative that it's logical to be against immigration because "immigration will destroy us." | Courtesy of Define American | "Liberal appeals have often focused on, 'Meet this person. They're a decent person trying to have a decent life. Can you extend your empathy to them?'" said Eli Pariser, board president of MoveOn.org, a progressive advocacy group, and co-founder of Upworthy, a viral and uplifting content website. Instead, Pariser said, the focus should be, "'Here's a coherent explanation of the whole system that explains local conditions you're facing and the world at large.' "If we want people to believe as I do that immigrants are adding a lot to American communities and economies," Pariser added, "we have to actually tell the story of why that is the case." It'll be interesting to see how this impacts messaging (or not) in the midterms. … And in 2024. And as always, we'll be watching. All the best,
The Recast Team
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| Power dynamics are changing. With The Recast, you'll get a twice-weekly breakdown of how race and identity are the DNA of American politics and policy. Was this forwarded to you by a friend? Subscribe to the newsletter here.
| | | A CHANGE IS GONNA COME? On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden promised to dismantle systemic racism — and on his first day in office, he signed an executive order declaring it was "the policy of my Administration that the Federal Government should pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all." But since then, he's come under fire from racial justice activists who argue he's not doing enough to advance the cause.
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President Joe Biden signing a series of executive orders on racial equity in the State Dining Room of the White House, Jan. 26, 2021. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo | Late last week, Biden announced an initiative to advance racial justice and equity across the federal government, releasing over 300 equity plans for over 90 federal agencies including every Cabinet department, reports POLITICO's Ximena Bustillo . The plans are aimed at "addressing systemic barriers to prosperity, quality, opportunity, and dignity everywhere" and include improving application processes; accessing capital for borrowers and small businesses; providing multilingual assistance; promoting environmental justice; and increasing access to transportation, health care and nutrition assistance. "When the typical Black family has just one-eighth of the wealth of the typical white family, that corrodes our broader economy," said Susan Rice , Biden's domestic policy adviser, during a webinar. "When at least 35 percent of Americans in rural and tribal communities lack adequate high speed internet, that restricts growth and competitiveness well beyond rural America." What's in the plans? The Labor Department's plan sets a goal of hiring and retaining more multilingual staff and addressing immigration-based retaliation from employers. Meanwhile, the Agriculture Department's plan includes 525 actions to improve technical assistance and access to USDA programs, according to Secretary Tom Vilsack. Those actions aim to help rural communities, farmers of color and Native American tribes. The department also plans to increase access to its nutrition assistance programs. And Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge said her agency is focusing on reducing racial gaps in homeownership and access to credit.
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Biden's domestic policy advisor Susan Rice speaks ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris at an event to announce plans to address racial and ethnic bias in home valuations, March 23, in Washington. | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo | What's this all about? When Biden signed that executive order last year, he made it clear that Federal departments must address racial equity and underserved communities. Out of this federal order, agencies are crafting their own strategies and commitments, such as forming equity commissions to review agency programs and processes. What's next? Each department has their own individual next steps. The USDA, for example, plans to create a Diversity Equity Inclusion and Accessibility strategic plan and hire a chief diversity and inclusion officer.
| | | TRACKING THE MIDTERMS
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| POLITICO just launched a new Election Forecast tool, and it's a must for bookmarking. Much is riding on the 2022 midterm elections: the fate of President Joe Biden's agenda, leadership in state capitals across the country and a potential 2024 comeback by former President Donald Trump. In the House, Democrats' five-seat majority is highly endangered. In the Senate, their control of the 50-50 chamber hinges on Vice President Kamala Harris' tie-breaking vote. The Election Forecast — an effort spearheaded by our trusty polling analyst and campaigns editor, Steve Shepard — will identify which races you should watch this year, and who we think will win each one. Still have more questions about why you should trust POLITICO? How our analysis will be different from other outlets? Why we rated certain races the way we did? Join Steve for a Twitter Spaces at 12 p.m. EDT Wednesday as he breaks down the 2022 predictions.
| | | ICYMI @ POLITICO Vice President Kamala Harris has been hitting the road of late — and she's making pit stops in some unlikely places for a veep, swinging through the Delta, doing a drop-by in the bayou. But it's all part of a strategy, reports POLITICO'S Eugene Daniels.
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Kamala Harris speaks about accessible internet in Sunset, La., March 21. | Gerald Herbert/AP Photo | POLITICO'S Derek Robertson breaks down how Disney went from liberal punching bag to a GOP target in the culture wars. From #Fishgate to A$AP Rocky, New York Mayor Eric Adams has had an … interesting first 100 days in office, reports POLITICO's Julia Marsh. Meanwhile, Adams jumps into the fray with racial justice activists over rising crime in the city, reports POLITICO's Joe Anuta. Sabrina's been doing double duty this week, writing for The Recast and penning this piece, in which she reports that House Majority PAC, a super PAC closely aligned with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), is sparking a backlash among Latino leaders. And … we're tooting our own horn here: If you haven't checked out The Recast's second installment of our Next Great Migration series, you really must. Reporters Steven Overly, Delece Smith-Barrow, Katy O'Donnell and Ming Li explore how gentrification changed the complexion of the "Chocolate City" — aka the nation's capital. Also in the package: freelancer and longtime Washingtonian Eric Easter'sode to Logan Circle and in this video, JC Whittington and Monica Akhtar break down how Black churches in D.C. are battling gentrification.
| | | THE RECAST RECOMMENDS "Paris, 13th District," a new film directed by Jacques Audiard, explores young love in, you guessed it, Paris. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist/poet/memoirist Alice Walker just published her journals, "Gathering Blossoms Under Fire: The Journals of Alice Walker, 1965–2000," edited by Valerie Boyd, who died earlier this year.
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Alice Walker attends the "The Color Purple" Broadway opening night at The Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Dec. 10, 2015 in New York City. | Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images | Dominican rapper Tokischa is an extremely sex-positive provocateur who's courted controversy for everything from her NSFW lyrics to that video with J. Balvin in which the Colombian reggaeton star walks Black women on a leash. (YouTube later pulled it.) Whatever you make of her, there's no denying that her star is on a rapid ascent. "I lived dreaming up my life, imagining what I'd become," she told The New York Times. "I didn't know in what field, but I did know I was going to be a big artist." We would not want to cross either Becky G or Karol G. Lizzo is back at it — and it's "About Damn Time."
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| TikTok of the day: Tax season be like
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