Overt hate rhetoric becomes normalized once elite mainstream figures amplify it

Evidence

This kind of rhetoric is easy to identify as overt and blatant racism. Barbara and Karen Fields have called this form of racism “troglodyte racism” in that it is obviously reactionary. Such overt racism sits comfortably in the right-wing public sphere within its various online, print, and television outlets. And more generally, as noted in the introduction, Americans are taught that only this kind of hate speech is what counts as racism. However, in this instance, it spilled over from the right-wing media world of Fox News, the Washington Times, and the New York Post into the mainstream when figures such as former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin added their voices to the issue. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 653

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces Fields and Fields’ concept of ‘troglodyte racism’ — overt, reactionary racism distinct from respectability politics.
• SEED: Essay angle: the mechanism by which ‘troglodyte racism’ migrates from fringe outlets to mainstream legitimacy through elite amplification — a boundary-crossing process applicable to other moral panics.
• XREF: connects to: Flimsy hate propaganda shifts attitudes even when denounced by authorities; Elite public discourse is central to reproducing racism across society — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 647; Simply denouncing hate material does not neutralize its persuasive effect on uncritical readers (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Elite rhetoric substantially raises public conspiracy talk #corroborates (0.87) — Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent, American Conspiracy Theories, 679
• Elite public discourse is central to reproducing racism across society #corroborates (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 647
• Flimsy hate propaganda shifts attitudes even when denounced by authorities #corroborates (0.82)
• Simply denouncing hate material does not neutralize its persuasive effect on uncritical readers #corroborates (0.80)
• Hate literature propaganda shifts even low-right-wing university students’ attitudes. #corroborates (0.80) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3316
• Narrow Islamophobia measures can model elite speech effects on hate crime #exemplifies (0.75) — Erik Bleich, What Is Islamophobia and How Much Is…, 65