Racial dog whistles replaced explicit slurs after the civil rights movement

Evidence

White Christian nationalists did not always need to play this game though. Before the civil rights movement, white politicians who wanted to stir up their voters could just use racial slurs. After the civil rights movement, they had to find more subtle ways of invoking race. They invented code words that triggered the racial anxieties of white voters. On his deathbed, Republican strategist Lee Atwater confessed that when openly saying the N-word started to backfire and hurt politicians, he urged Nixon to adopt the language of “states’ rights” and “forced bussing.” Later, Reagan would use phrases like “welfare queen” and “bucks” to vilify poor Blacks. More recent formulations included “super-predator,” “thugs,” “illegals,” and “terrorists.” Similarly, words like “communist” and “socialist” have been racially coded since the “red scares” of the 1920s and even more so since the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Martin Luther King Jr. was often vilified as a “communist.” Like a high-pitched whistle that can only be heard by a dog, the code words were uniquely effective for those with prejudiced ears. — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross, 89

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Ideological identity, not ignorance, drives whites’ wrong history answers — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross: White Christian…, 116; Color-blind rhetoric functioned as an arsenal of racist dog whistles — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America…, 488; Dog whistles activate latent racial prejudice while evading egalitarian norms — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 5 (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Color-blind rhetoric functioned as an arsenal of racist dog whistles #corroborates (0.90) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 488
• Racist language evolves into coded euphemisms as older slurs become unacceptable #corroborates (0.90) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1238
• Blatant racism has shifted into subtle aversive forms #corroborates (0.85) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1101
• The civil rights movement replaced overt racism with a subtler symbolic form #corroborates (0.82) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2628
• Racism persists covertly after formal prohibitions end #expands (0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1506
• Dog whistles activate latent racial prejudice while evading egalitarian norms #expands (0.80) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 5
• Dog-whistle theory may be outdated because overt racial prejudice is now socially acceptable. #complicates (0.78) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 26
• White fear of Black criminality became a political resource after the Civil Rights era #exemplifies (0.75) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 819
• Race still delimits civil membership even when racial speech is silenced #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 290
• Dog-whistle appeals mobilize racially resentful white liberals, not conservatives #contradicts (0.70) — Rachel Wetts and Robb Willer, Who Is Called by the Dog Whistle?…, 11