Dog Whistle Racism
I just learned a new phrase at a website called Stop Dog Whistle Racism. Apparently “Dog-Whistle Racism is political campaigning or policy-making that uses coded words and themes to appeal to conscious or subconscious racist concepts and frames.”
Of course, I knew about the phenomenon, but didn’t know there was a phrase to describe it. The aforementioned website is about identifying, exposing and responding to this type of racism….check it out!
September 28, 2008 at 2:32 am
Thanks for plugging the site! A better term,in some ways than the one we use (but kind of incomprehensible, which is why we didn’t use it) is “symbolic racism.” “Dog Whistle” implies a coded shout out to confirmed racists, but what we are really interested in is the ways that political operatives seek to prime our unconscious bias through tacit racially charged messages. Like the “Call Me” ad used against Harold Ford.
January 16, 2010 at 8:33 am
Governor Engler used Dog Whistle Racism yo declare ‘War’ on the fathers of Wayne County. Using code words like “Deadbeat Dads” and “For the kids” for his political gain in 2002 and that same policy is still being used by Governor Granholm today as they operate under the radar as they violate these men and families 14th Amendment Rights. the only way to stop it is with class action brought against The Friend of the Court operating policies. To stop this will take a CLASS ACTION SUITE will free these families from persecution by a racist policy, or “Dog Whistle Racism iniated by Governor Engler