Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle ClassCampaigning for president in 1980, Ronald Reagan told stories of Cadillac-driving "welfare queens" and "strapping young bucks" buying T-bone steaks with food stamps. In trumpeting these tales of welfare run amok, Reagan never needed to mention race, because he was blowing a dog whistle: sending a message about racial minorities inaudible on one level, but clearly heard on another. In doing so, he tapped into a long political tradition that started with George Wallace and Richard Nixon, and is more relevant than ever in the age of the Tea Party and the first black president. In Dog Whistle Politics, Ian Haney López offers a sweeping account of how politicians and plutocrats deploy veiled racial appeals to persuade white voters to support policies that favor the extremely rich yet threaten their own interests. Dog whistle appeals generate middle-class enthusiasm for political candidates who promise to crack down on crime, curb undocumented immigration, and protect the heartland against Islamic infiltration, but ultimately vote to slash taxes for the rich, give corporations regulatory control over industry and financial markets, and aggressively curtail social services. White voters, convinced by powerful interests that minorities are their true enemies, fail to see the connection between the political agendas they support and the surging wealth inequality that takes an increasing toll on their lives. The tactic continues at full force, with the Republican Party using racial provocations to drum up enthusiasm for weakening unions and public pensions, defunding public schools, and opposing health care reform. Rejecting any simple story of malevolent and obvious racism, Haney López links as never before the two central themes that dominate American politics today: the decline of the middle class and the Republican Party's increasing reliance on white voters. Dog Whistle Politics will generate a lively and much-needed debate about how racial politics has destabilized the American middle class -- white and nonwhite members alike. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - mcelhra - LibraryThingI found Dog Whistle Politics utterly fascinating, horrifying and heartbreaking all at the same time. López defines dog whistling as “inaudible and easily denied in one range, yet stimulating strong ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - Mithalogica - LibraryThingOn the one hand, I love this book, and I think it's terrifically important. On the other, I was disappointed in its lack of scope. Let me back up; I received this for Early Reviewers, and I've been ... Read full review
Contents
IntroductionRacial Politics and the Middle Class | 1 |
1 The GOPs Rise as the White Mans Party | 13 |
Strategic Racism | 35 |
Reagan | 55 |
4 The False Allure of Colorblindness | 77 |
Clinton and W | 105 |
6 Getting Away with Racism | 127 |
The Tea Party and Romney | 147 |
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activist affirmative action African Americans American Politics Arab Muslim attacks Barack Obama Barry Goldwater Bill Clinton Bolick Bush campaign candidate Carter Chapter civil rights Clinton color colorblindness commonsense conservatism conservative convict leasing crime culture decades Democrats Derrick Bell dog whistle politics dog whistle racism dynamics economic efforts election ethnic George H.W. Bush George Wallace Goldwater groups Hispanic Horton hostility immigrants integration Jim Crow Latinos liberal mass incarceration Mendelberg middle class minorities Mitt Romney Moynihan Negro Nixon nonwhites Party’s percent policies politicians poor post-racialism president programs race race-baiting racial appeals racial demagoguery racial discrimination racial inequality racial pandering racial politics Reagan Republican resentment response Romney schools seemed segregation social society South Southern strategy stereotypes strategic racism talk Tea Partiers Tea Party there’s think tanks tion today’s turn vote wealth welfare white supremacy white voters York
Bibliographic information
| Title | Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class |
| Author | Ian Haney López |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, 2015 |
| ISBN | 019022925X, 9780190229252 |
| Length | 277 pages |
| Subjects | › Political Science / Civil Rights |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |