Politically coded language can carry racial meaning without naming race

Evidence

Absence can be as powerful a racializing force as presence. Racism at times works by a process of substitution, a coding of phrases and terms which conveys racist meaning without specific reference to explicitly racist beliefs. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2280 (#expands, via linked claim)

Other ideologies lack explicit racialized reference, relying instead on coded racialized reference. Here, words are heavily saturated with meanings and interests as the result of a specific history in which a particular social group is attributed with a particular fixed nature and/or whose presence is associated with a set of (usually undesirable) social consequences (Omi and Winant, 1994). When politicians refer to “muggers” and crime in the ”inner city,” the burden on the Welfare State, to children outside wedlock, or to “reverse racism,” and when they claim that multiculturalism devalues Western civilization, these all have a “racialized” reference. They are understood to be promoting policies believed to benefit “whites” while penalizing blacks and other people of color. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1835 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Racism in country music culture operates through use, not lyrics — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 905; Utopian color words like purple function as strategies for avoiding race — Neda Maghbouleh, The Limits of Whiteness: Iranian…, 1499; Coded anti-public rhetoric can express racial fears without race words — Kevin M. Kruse, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of…, 582 (+15 more)

Broader Connections

• Racist meaning can be conveyed without explicit racial reference #expands (0.95)
• Racism operates through coded substitution that conveys meaning without explicit racist reference. #expands (0.93) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2280
• Politically neutral-sounding terms can function as coded racial references. #exemplifies (0.92) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1835
• Words do not label pre-existing political objects but must be made real through interpretation #complicates (0.72) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 430