Islamophobia served as a coded proxy for anti-Black racism against Obama.

Evidence

Because explicit anti-Black racism could ruin their careers, opponents had to find another way to attack presidential candidate Barack Obama. They exploited Americans’ worst fears: a Muslim in the White House. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 834

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the concept of dog-whistle politics and coded racial language studied in political communication literature.
• SEED: An essay angle: ‘The racial masquerade’ — how stigmatized identities get redeployed as proxies when the original racial target becomes politically untouchable.