Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class

by Ian F. Haney-Lopez and Ian F. Haney-López

Book Overview

Campaigning for president in 1980, Ronald Reagan told stories of Cadillac-driving "welfare queens" and "strapping young bucks" buying T-bone steaks with food stamps. In trumpeting these tales of welfare run amok, Reagan never needed to mention race, because he was blowing a dog whistle: sending a message about racial minorities inaudible on one level, but clearly heard on another. In doing so, he tapped into a long political tradition that started...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019022925X
• ISBN13: 9780190229252
• Release Date: March 2015
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.97 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.0"