The announcements begin with the standard scary background music, followed by a photo of the sinister American representative Keith Ellison. Then, the classic Scary Ad Lady Voice announces "disturbing allegations of domestic violence …".

There was an interview with Ellison's ex-girlfriend: she says that he swore against her and tried to remove her from a bed. Then the Scary Ad Lady's voice attacks various DFL candidates for not denouncing Ellison and says they should "defend the women of Minnesota."

Thirty years ago this week, Republicans launched the famous Willie Horton commercials during the Bush-Dukakis presidential campaign in 1988. Advertisements were designed to attract white voters by playing on their stereotypical fears of black men as predators. And they worked very well.

So, will a similar advertising campaign with Ellison be the new job of the GOP black predator in Minnesota in 2018? Because this seems to be the Republican strategy that makes Ellison – who leaves the US House and presents himself as a DFL candidate for the Minnesota Attorney General – a problem in at least four Congressional campaigns and the Senate seat from Tina Smith.

But how is this effort different from that of Democrats trying to use an attempted rape charge 36 years ago to derail Brett Kavanaugh's appointment to the US Supreme Court? United? In both cases, candidates are accused of abusing women. Yet, I think there are four crucial differences:

First, Kavanaugh is running for a life term at the highest court in the country. Ellison is a candidate for a four-year term at a state office.

Secondly, Kavanaugh's fate is in the hands of the US Senate, a small and exclusive club mostly composed of white men. On the other hand, every voter in Minnesota can determine if Ellison should be elected.

Third, Kavanaugh is accused of attempting to rape a woman. Ellison is accused of … well, if you pay attention to the details … pull on her ex-girlfriend's feet and demand that she leave her house because their relationship was over.

A quick look: Ellison, who is divorced, had a five-year relationship with a local lobbyist named Karen Monahan. After their breakup, he began dating other people and she began to accuse him of "narcissistic abuse" on Twitter and Facebook.

His most serious charge – what he denies – is that he once tried to remove her from a bed after he asked her to take out the garbage while he was leaving to catch a flight home. in Washington, DC. It was in 2016. At that time, the two were sleeping in separate rooms but she was still staying at home until she could find another place to live.

According to Monahan, she did not respond to her request because she was busy listening to a podcast. She says that he then shot at her ankles, insulted her and said that she was a bad guest who had to leave her house before returning from D.C.

This is his big allegation of "domestic violence". This is not pretty. But for me, this sounds like a painful and disordered breakup of a relationship between two consenting mature adults as opposed to violence. That's why I've long felt uncomfortable associating it with the #MeToo movement, let alone seeing it armed in a political campaign. I hope to have the same feeling if a Republican was accused of the same thing.

Monahan first claimed to have filmed the incident with her mobile phone. Then she said she lost the video. Then she said she found it but would not release her because the victims should not have to prove their claims.

Ellison says that there is no video because the incident has never happened. Monahan also sent Minnesota public radio reporters more than 100 text and Twitter messages from Ellison claiming they had been emotionally abusive. MPR News said the messages just seemed to show a couple separating. Last week, she published a copy of her medical record, which shows that she told her doctor the same things she said on Twitter and Facebook and in interviews, but did not add any new information or evidence.

In the month since the beginning of the story, we learned that Monahan was born in Iran, adopted by an American couple in Texas and identified as a victim of sexual abuse of children. During and after her relationship with Ellison, she accused Ellison's adult children of stealing or destroying her belongings, of other women stealing Ellison's ailments and Unknown hackers have entered his computer and stolen e-mails.

Here is the fourth and final difference between the two cases: if, instead of being charged with attempted rape, Brett Kavanaugh was charged with the same things that Monahan accused Ellison, I suppose any news would have quickly disappeared and great hearing in the US Senate this week – because the breaking behavior is not the same as rape or sexual harassment and that, as a powerful white man, Kavanaugh would be presumed innocent that neither Ellison – nor any other black man in America – will ever be get.

But Keith Ellison is accused in a country that has spent hundreds of years relentlessly portraying black men as violent, predatory and dangerous to women, especially non-black women. This representation is one of the central myths that have supported American slavery and Jim Crow laws.

The fear of black men remains the silent, toxic river that runs through almost all our political discussions – much more powerful than anything the #MeToo movement can ever generate. It is a current so primordial and omnipresent that most whites – liberal or conservative – are not even aware of swimming. That's why we can be triggered so easily.

Heck, in 2006, when Ellison ran for the first time in Congress, his big scandal was … wait for him … a stack of unpaid parking tickets he had accumulated as a defense lawyer who frequently had to present at courthouse hearings.

Ellison quickly paid for his tickets, but by volunteering for this campaign, I met countless whites, including liberals, who said they could not vote for him because They were deeply troubled by the dark stain of his … parking tickets.

I tell you: after a few hundred years of this racial conditioning, it takes almost nothing to make us feel uncomfortable. That's why the GOP will continue to show ads with the scary voice Ad Lady.

What will happen to Brett Kavanaugh? I do not know, but given his privileges and control of the GOP on the Senate, I think it will be quickly confirmed.

What will happen to Keith Ellison? I do not know. The polls are so close. But I know that what will happen in November will reveal a lot more about the current psyche of Minnesota voters – and about the GOP's calculation regarding their call – than it will ever be about Keith Ellison and his sad and bad separation.

Lynnell Mickelsen lives in Minneapolis and writes about politics.