So racism has been vanquished except for a few recalcitrant people whose character is too flawed to recognize the evil of their ways.
At least that’s what many people today believe and the view promoted by Fix News and friends.
But it is far from the truth, as Ian Haney Lopez, Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, documents in the book I have been promoting, Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class.
I cannot do his book justice in my Blog postings, but I will do the best I can because the book is too important not to try.
Let’s start with a summary of his argument, and at another time I will focus on a few points in detail.
Providing a comprehensive historical analysis, Professor Lopez connects the dots between slavery to inmate leasing common in the post-Civil War “new” south that was slavery by another name to segregation to states rights to reverse discrimination as a push back to affirmative action to colorblindness or post-racial America that now serves as the theoretical foundation for coded racism.
This historical analysis is critical to understanding the case he makes that racism has not at all disappeared, but has, instead, become more subtle in its manifestations and is now an effective tool for convincing white middle class voters that government is their enemy.
The lynchpin in the historical progression Professor Lopez lays out is the statement Ronald Reagan made in his first Inaugural Address that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Reagan’s argument was that our government was intended to be constrained by the will of the people, but had grown beyond that point and was now the primary cause for our nation’s economic problems.
His words became the battle cry for conservative politics and conservative religion that got involved in politics, with disastrous results. We now have a government that cannot function and is seen by millions of Americans as alien to their best interests.
Of course, as we should expect, in the real world this anti-government ideology has been practiced selectively. which accounts for the very same anti-government proponents insisting that the government should ban gay marriage, freedom of choice, impose limits on voting rights, kill convicted murderers, enable corporate profits to soar via tax breaks, and sustain an intrusive military industrial complex.
But here’s the clincher.
White middle class voters who are the majority beneficiaries of big government programs like Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamps, Medicaid, and other public assistance have been convinced by this message that the government is actually using their tax dollars to reward laziness, family breakdown, and moral irresponsibility they believe are rampant in black communities.
One example is their opposition to Obamacare that is making health insurance available to millions who have not had it before at affordable costs (most of whom are white), while at the same time supporting tax breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations.
The state of Kansas is now in a major financial crisis (with its credit rating now reduced) because Gov. Sam Brownback did both – opposed Obamacare and its expansion of Medicaid while pushing through the largest tax cuts in the history of any state in the union.
And who will eventually pay the cost for the mess he has created? The middle class, of course. They will have no choice if they want money for schools, roads, bridges, and the like.
The value of the Lopez book is that he helps us understand that we didn’t get to where we are as a nation by accident. It has been by design, and that poses huge problems for our country as we face the future. not least because the very real social, political, economic, and justice issues we face as a nation are receiving scant serious attention because of politicians whose only goal is to win rather than to govern.
When you don’t believe in the rightful role of government, governing effectively is not a high priority.
More next.
linnposts.com 
I am not sure what “dog whistle politics” is. Can anyone help or do I have to read the book?
Thanks for the question, Ed.
In regard to race, “dog whistle” politics is practiced by people who make statements whose intentions are to exploit racial prejudice without saying so directly. A good example is the “birther movement” that insisted President Obama was not an American born citizen when the facts said just the opposite. The motivation for such a claim was racism – to make Obama “the other,” not truly “one of us” – all in an effort to appeal to the unnamed racism in many white voters who deep down were uncomfortable with a black man being president. Making matters worse, “birthers” claimed critics were playing “the race card” in accusing them of racism because they never mentioned Obama’s race.
Another obvious example of dog whistle politics was George Wallace’s “state’s rights” campaign in the 1960’s that was a coded phrase for the south having the freedom to practice segregation. Lopez gives many other examples.
Hope this helps, but let me know if you have further questions.