Subtexts are real. Dog whistles are real.
Yesterday's post stepped on a land mine.
"Gratuitous accusations of “racism” like this are part of why Trump won. You have no idea how fed up people are with these unjust accusations. Keep it up and it’ll be 4 more years."
Michael Trigoboff, comment to yesterday's blog post
Yesterday this blog posted about a Republican US Senate's campaign commercial.
The post was titled "Uppity."
The overt denoted content of the TV ad was that the candidate was a patriotic American angry about perceived insults to the United States of America.
The subtext--the dog whistle-- in the ad, I wrote, was that the dark skinned Muslim, black, and liberal critics of the status quo were "uppity," i.e. "presuming airs beyond ones place in the social hierarchy," and that this was about displacement in the traditional social hierarchy in the American South. What was really going on, I wrote, was an appeal to racial resentment by white voters.
The subtext--the dog whistle-- in the ad, I wrote, was that the dark skinned Muslim, black, and liberal critics of the status quo were "uppity," i.e. "presuming airs beyond ones place in the social hierarchy," and that this was about displacement in the traditional social hierarchy in the American South. What was really going on, I wrote, was an appeal to racial resentment by white voters.
The blog post got pushback.
A comment by Michael Trigoboff, quoted above, reveals how difficult--indeed politically toxic--this issue is for Democrats. The simple truth is that race and ethnic consciousness is endemic in America, among whites in their various ethnic groups, blacks among their various subgroups, Jews in theirs, and so on. Humans profile and stereotype, based on ethnicity, clothes, apparent socio-economic status, age, sex, neighborhood, perceived criminal intent--indeed everything.
This is not something unique to white people. People look at a Tinder photo and swipe left or right, glancing at someone and making decisions about how we feel. It is what everyone does. It is human.
But it is only an accusation of wrongdoing by liberals when it is attributed to whites. White people hate that. It seems so unfair.
Trigoboff expressed it, and made a political warning.
Trigoboff expressed it, and made a political warning.
Dog whistles go both ways.
The problem is that while there is a subtext of an appeal to racism and built into the TV ad that this blog examined yesterday--a dog whistle--there is also in fact a subtext of criticism of whites built into any comment about racial thinking. Trigoboff heard a subtext--a dog whistle-- of disapproval and contempt.
A Democrat talking or writing about racial thinking is--by definition and inevitably--making an accusation. It might be overt but it is certainly a dog whistle. White people are prepped to hear it, they are alert for it, and they hear it.
The Alabama candidate's primary campaign TV ad appeals to white resentment over displacement in the social order? How dare I insult the white working class of America!
No message made by a Democratic candidate in 2020 regarding wages, economic injustice, special interest corruption, drug prices, or war in the Middle East will communicate so loud a message as any hint of accusations of racism directed at whites, and race cannot be discussed without that dog whistle of contempt being heard. Triogoboff heard it. People who buy "Deplorable" tee shirts hear it.
Another comment yesterday, by a reader using the name Ayla:
"People with white skin who are poor sure don't appreciate being called 'white privileged.' They don't feel like they are living a life of privilege, they get pulled over by the cops daily if they have a broken taillight they can't afford to fix, racking up fines they cannot pay, just like brown or black people. . . . Both right and left are talking down to, and viciously about, half of America, while patting themselves on the back for being so virtuous."
The hardest things to notice are what is not said. But on reflection I notice that the Democratic candidates--except Booker--essentially avoid talking about race. The injustice they point to comes from corporate and special interest elites--not racial prejudice. This is a different message from Hillary's, who spoke of prejudice as the great oppressor. No longer. Now it is big money. The reality of "intersectionality," that overlap of race, gender, prejudice, poverty, and injustice is unspoken--by the candidates.
But we will hear the dog whistle being blown, and it will be weaponized. Trump does not need to quote the Democratic candidate. They will quote proxies: Colin Kaepernick and the Squad, and indeed that is exactly what candidate Byrne did. They will pick their opponent.
11 comments:
One might say the most significant movement on race and gender issues has been regarding language.
Thoughtful people recognize elements of their own prejudice and make an effort to change their attitudes, starting in general with how they speak and in particular how they respond to other's speech (and humor). Those who are resistant to such self-examination, which we all require, fall back on Regressive tropes such as "politically correct" and "snowflake" which allows them to justify their bigotry as some kind of virile expression of superiority, the point being it’s clearly defensive.
Of what?
Racists do not confine their prejudices to skin color. They are equal opportunity bigots, misogynists, and homophobes. Another name for it is intolerance. Confronting this is a necessary part of responsible citizenship, beginning with our leaders.
I suspect that nominee Sanders will confront Trump on what has he done lately for the good folks in the upper Midwest, Florida and North Carolina...other than not deliver on promises. By confront I mean, of course, not person-to-person since Trump will avoid an actual debate outside of Twitterdumb. I'm hopeful that those folks will respond positively to a real populist.
Andy Seles
Suppose I have something critical to say about the two most prominent extreme left-wing members of the House of Representatives? As it happens, that could easily be AOC and Ilhan Omar. Peter, is there some way I can do that without having you call me "racist?"
It's not what color they are, it's their positions.
This "dog whistle" thing seems like a convenient way for the left to silence anyone who disagrees with them. It's gotten to the point where accusations of "racism" are the new McCarthyism.
If I had been old enough, I hope I would have stood up to McCarthyism. I'm standing up to this new version of it.
Michael, you make my point, that you heard a dog whistle, too, you hearing what I did not actually say: me calling the candidate, and you, racist.
The Colin Kaepernick addition is a factor adding to 5he whistle. The “go back to your country” line by Trump adds to the connection of them as unentitled outsiders. Yes, it is arguable that there is no intersection of race, that it is simply their positions, and it was better to point to them rather than, say, white Bernie or Warren. It could be asserted that race was just incidental.
Peter, you said, “He does not say white-on-top. He doesn't need to.” That wasn’t calling the ad racist?
I get your reasoning, but I think there needs to be a pretty high standard for an accusation that toxic, and somehow the fact that all three of the folks he denounced were minorities doesn’t meet that standard for me.
I don’t have the complete answer for what should be done on gray zones like this. But it’s clear to me (and apparently to you as well) that this kind of thing is a political loser for the D’s.
It reminds me of the Tea Party sign from around 2010 that said, “It doesn’t matter what this sign says because you’ll call it racist anyway.”
That little girl was me --Kamala Harris--Gone
Detaining undocumented immigrants at the border is racist-- Julian Castro-- Gone
White educated men are sexists and must give up their power-- Kirstin Gillibrand-- Gone
Whites aren't aware of their racism and need to become conscious of it-- Corey Booker--Just about Gone.
Talk about reparations and your upward momentum ends-- Elizabeth Warren-- but stop talking about it-- and your back in the race.
Fire the black police chief of your little town and tell the black protestors that its more complicated than that-- Pete Buttigieg-- you're in tge top four.
Little black kids liked to play with my Caucasian leg hair, and me and Barrack didn't talk about race all the time-- Unwoke front runner
I won't pledge anything special to people of color, the corporate oppressors are color blind-- Bernie Sanders-- and you're the runner up.
Tell, suggest, insinuate to white people-- i.e. 70% of the turn out electorate-- that they are the racist deplorables-- Hillary Clinton-- and you lose, a no brainier.
They're criminals, rapists, drug dealers-- Tell white people i.e. 70% of the turn out electorate-- that brown skin people who come illegally are a threat and leave tearful Angel Moms on camera-- and you're President.
Be anything in the Democratic primary other than a Caucasian -- as are all four credible candidate remaining-- "we don't think you can beat Trump"-- Goodbye.
That's right, its official-- Democrats including African Americans are crystal clear that only a white person can beat Trump.
Where we white woke progressives think we are for 2020-- well, we aren't.
Thad, you make a good point but is this correlational or causal? It seems there are so many other factors. We’ll never really know because there’s no current scientific way to test the theory.
We live in a time where everyone gets a trophy whether you win or not. Some people can't handle losing. They can't understand why they were rejected. They can't fathom that they were rejected due to their lack of ability, or their positions, or their lack of accomplishments, so they claim their were rejected due to race, and they call their rejectors racists.
Dear anonymous, first - kudos for reading this blog. It’s one of the few I am willing to spend time and effort to read and respond to. I suspect your perspective has been shaped by like-minded sources and you have not spent time making friends with racial minorities. I would encourage you to do so if you are interested in having your view changed. I did and it did.
Peter, you are being trolled by “Anonymous” with that post about trophies and people calling people like him racist. It sounds just like the Herbert or Hubert guy from near Medford, I think, who sends letters to the editor to the Medford paper. He thinks white males are the sad picked on people and thinks No one else is any good so they try to freeload off him. He puts them down . Don’t give him publicity
PRODUCTIVE OR COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE?
If you really want to get results, saying " you're all a bunch of privileged racists" is not the way to do it. Venting and accusing people may be emotionally satisfying but it is counterproductive if your real goal is to get people to change their attitudes.
The messages missing from both sides are "like it or not, we're all in this together". "We are all human beings, we are all Americans, just in different packaging", " walk a mile in my shoes" (said without accusation).
Instead it's all tribalism "we're this, you're that". The Democratic Party and the left are just as responsible for this kind of thinking as anyone on the right.
Yes there is institutional racism and other deep problems that need to be healed but it would be far more effective to say "we're all human beings, we're all Americans, how would you feel if that was you", rather than "you're all a lot of privileged racists". If you want those people to listen to what you say and examine their consciousness, that is not the way to do it.
Middle class privilege is at this point just as much or more of a factor as racial privilege. A gay black woman making $60,000 a year is far more privileged than a poor white male working at Walmart, which is not to deny that poor blacks have it worse than poor whites.
Poor whites are privileged in the way a homeless person with a shopping cart is privileged above a homeless person without a shopping cart. It's an insult to call that person privileged and to do so is to drive them straight into the arms of Donald Trump, who many of them really don't have a good opinion of, despite what the left thinks.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong. Tribalism, also known as identity politics, is not going to solve the problems of the country, it only makes things worse and further divides us.
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