Conservative strategists deliberately coded racial appeals to evade egalitarian norms

Evidence

Today I’d like to speak to you about a gathering crisis in our society: It’s a family crisis. To some it’s hidden, concealed behind tenement walls or lost in the forgotten streets of our inner cities. … With these words from a 1986 radio address, Ronald Reagan called on the nation to institute welfare reform. Describing broken families locked in a culture of poverty in America’s inner cities, Reagan’s speech remains significant for its subtle evocation of racial imagery stereotypically associated with African Americans—all while explicitly denying the specifically racial content of the message. Notably, in an interview published years later, Republican Party strategist Lee Atwater revealed this to be part of a larger, intentional strategy, an effort to keep race “on the backburner” without explicitly connecting policy positions to racial animus (Lamis 1990). — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 3

Categorization

• XREF: This is the canonical opening of the dog-whistle literature; connects directly to Mendelberg’s norm-violation theory and the reader’s interest in manufactured external enemies. — connects to: Genteel racism made modern conservatism’s racist undertones politically viable — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America…, 490; Prior exposure to racialized elite cues hardens opposite positions against novel racial appeals. — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 182; Modern conservatism abandoned explicit white supremacy for color-blind individualism — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black: How Race Still…, 299 (+6 more)
• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the manufactured-threat question: Atwater covertly orchestrated racial threat, and his confession shows the enemy is constructed, not primordial.

Related

• Prior exposure to racialized elite cues hardens opposite positions against novel racial appeals. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Dog whistles activate latent racial prejudice while evading egalitarian norms #corroborates (0.95) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 5
• Genteel racism made modern conservatism’s racist undertones politically viable #exemplifies (0.90) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 490
• Modern conservatism abandoned explicit white supremacy for color-blind individualism #corroborates (0.82) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 299
• Symbolic racism combines antiblack affect with conservative nonracial values #expands (0.78) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3752
• Exposing the racist subtext of coded appeals can make Whites repudiate them #qualifies (0.75) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2190
• Exposing subtle racism as violating egalitarian norms can trigger repudiation #qualifies (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2190
• Whites broadly endorse racial equality in principle yet reject concrete equality policies #expands (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2626
• Prior exposure to racialized elite cues hardens opposite positions against novel racial appeals. #complicates (0.72) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 182