codes
Things one might say about Barack Obama that would be coded racial messages:
1) He’s eloquent (because black people are big talkers, always rappin’ and signifyin’ and that kind of thing);
2) He’s inexperienced (a clear reference to America’s long history of interfering black people’s right to vote, which, while it was grossly unjust, also has had the effect of preventing them from having a lot of experience in governance and therefore being ready for the Highest Office in the Land);
3) He’s from Hawaii (because Hawaii is a long way off and kind of strange and largely unknown to the average white American, and black people are also a long way off and kind of strange and largely unknown to the average white American);
4) He’s tall (three letters: NBA);
5) He attended Harvard (because thanks to affirmative action we all know that Ivy League schools are populated almost exclusively by minorities);
6) He’s a lawyer (because lawyers, like black people, are all about jobbing the system to get what’s not rightfully theirs and not having to work for it either).
I know this is supposed to be a parody, but some of these— tweaked a tiny bit— could be effective ‘coded’ racist appeals. I’m thinking mostly of 1 and 5.
I’ve read studies that found that agreement with the view that “minorities have gotten more than they deserve” is a very powerful predictor of Republican voting. Is this view ‘racist’? ‘Coded’? What should we think if McCain pursues a campaign that trades on that sentiment?
— matt · Aug 6, 01:50 PM · #
Matt, I would like to hear how they could be so tweaked, because I don’t see it. I’ve heard the argument that referring to a black man’s eloquence is racist, because it implies an exception to the norm. There may be some historical basis for this of which I am unaware, but it seems problematic, for it cripples one’s ability to describe a rhetorically gifted personality who happens to be black. If Obama’s critics refer to his eloquence pejoratively, it is because they see him as an empty suit who relies more on pretty words than considered policies. You may disagree with that, but it is not racist to say so.
Your “Blacks have gotten more than they deserve” would obviously track well among racists. It seems to track more directly with those who oppose affirmative action, however, and that is not an intrinsically racist position. Do you mean to suggest that recent efforts to end racial preferences in Michigan and California were motivated entirely or largely by blinkered racial animus? If McCain were to appeal to those individuals, can he fairly be accused of appealing to racists?
— Blar · Aug 6, 02:31 PM · #
There are some compelling, non-racists critiques of affirmative action, but I don’t think “blacks have gotten more than they deserve” is one of them.
I also don’t think it’s reasonable to expect McCain to cleanse his campaign of racist appeals. I don’t really fault him for it. Put it this way: he can’t win without rallying aggrieved white nationalist victimhood (no Republican national candidate of late has). His ‘energy plan,’ eg, isn’t going to do it. If Obama was white, the standard ‘elitist’ attack would, to all appearances, be racially neutral. But that sort of neutrality just isn’t possible this time around.
— matt · Aug 6, 03:01 PM · #
I know that Alan is only trying to be cute, but he is ignoring the liberal claims about McCain’s messaging. The claim is not that McCain is racist, or that these ads are inherently racist, but that (one of) the effect(s) of these political ads is to motivate people who hold racist attitudes to vote against Obama. Thus, the talk of “dogwhistles” and “coded” appeals—i.e. you won’t respond to them in this manner unless you are a racist.
If Alan wishes to defend against these claims there seem to be three ways he can do so:
1) These ads don’t really play on the fears of racists.
2) These ads were not intended to play on the fears of racists (even if they end up doing so).
3) Playing on the fears of racists (or other distasteful emotions) are a necessary, perhaps inevitable, part of presidential politics, and so not blameworthy.
I think he wants to go with (1), but his counterexamples don’t seem that absurd to me. Some of those have been used in racist arguments, and I don’t see why I should believe that there aren’t still people that, consciously or not, have underlying racist attitudes.
— Sabina's Hat · Aug 6, 03:42 PM · #
Matt and SH: Are there any ads that McCain could air that would <b>not</b> risk “playing on the fears of racists”? Aren’t you setting the bar impossibly high?
— Richard · Aug 6, 04:26 PM · #
Thus, the talk of “dogwhistles” and “coded” appeals—i.e. you won’t respond to them in this manner unless you are a racist.
OMG. This is retarded. Re-tah-ded. And by retarded I mean so mind-numbingly stupid that I hope, for their sakes, that all the people making this argument are lead-foot abusers of nitrous oxide.
I mean, isn’t Obama’s blackness, by itself, enough to get a negative electoral reaction out of racists? I mean, we’re talking about normal racists, right? Not Chappelle’s blind n***er-hater, but actual racists who watch TV in color. I mean, right? We’re talking about racists?
How many racists out there were voting for Obama before savvy editing put him within a half-second of some dumb white girls? Or maybe McCain wanted to use these sudden cuts to spotlight a melatonin differential, to help a fence-sitting racist with suboptimal cortical function see that, holy shit, that dude’s black!
I love the idea of a racist who’s sophisticated enough to vote Obama on policy, but also primitive enough to be manipulated into McCain’s corner, or staying home, by a frickin’ subliminal dog whistle of such subtle crudity that we need highly educated liberal white men to point it out.
Please, please make this stop. I want to like people.
— Weary · Aug 6, 04:49 PM · #
Richard:
McCain certainly could run ads that wouldn’t play on the fears of racists. However, it would doubtless be very difficult to run the kind of ads he’s running (negative and focused on Obama’s unfitness to lead) without playing on these fears. As for setting the bar too high, my view is that McCain has to make the arguments he is making in order to win—i.e. playing on his experience vs. Obama’s “youth” and inexperience. The fact that these ads have racial undertones is just a matter of our history—that the same kinds of arguments were used by bona fide racists to support racist policies in the past. Thus, I can recognize the necessity for McCain doing this while still deploring it. I think that John Holbo over at Crooked Timber is most sensible on this.
http://crookedtimber.org/2008/08/05/whats-the-country-coming-to-when-an-honest-man-cant-unfairly-attack-another-honest-man-personally-without-that-other-man-saying-the-unfair-attack-is-against-his-whole-race/
Weary:
Your view of elections seems naive to me. Obviously, Obama isn’t plumbing for the racist vote. That doesn’t mean that racists will then automatically vote for McCain—they might not vote at all. Thus, it is in McCain’s interest to convince racists that he holds similar attitudes as them. This is just ordinary campaigning logic. Also, I’m not convinced that, as you assume, there are no liberal racists. Progressive politics has a racist past, and I would be surprised to find that this racism has completely disappeared. So McCain might very well be able to convince some Democrats to not vote for Obama.
The other factor is that if someone has an implicit racist bias, then the more that race becomes relevant (subject to qualifications), the more that bias affects her actions. Watch a few non-political commericals and you’ll see the same appeals to implicit attitudes all the time (e.g. drink Bud and get laid, Coke is hip and cool, etc.).
Hope you achieve your desire.
— Sabina's Hat · Aug 6, 05:46 PM · #
I want to know who published this picture on Depauw University’s website. Clearly they want to play on the racists’ fear that America’s pristine white heritage will be obstructed by the blackness of a fifty-foot tall grinning black man (do you think it’s coincidence he’s wearing a black suit? me neither).
And Time Magazine should be denounced, too. They are clearly alluding to that old-time racist nightmare that a black man with a calm black face might gonna be our next president.
Of course, nothing compares to the kind of fear involved when a racist sees a black man chatting up a white woman. (What if that was your wife?)
The problem’s much bigger than we thought, Sabrina’s Hat. Any more pictures like these, and racists are gonna figure out that a black man is running for President.
— everyone has aids · Aug 6, 05:55 PM · #
Several of you are talking about McCain’s ads, and seem to think that I was too, but if you follow the link in the post, you’ll see that I am referring to Timothy Noah’s claim that a WSJ article about Obama’s “skinniness” is really, cryptically, about his “blackness.” None of this has anything at all to do with McCain’s ads.
— Alan Jacobs · Aug 6, 06:43 PM · #
Re Weary’s comment—
Retarded does not mean mind-numbingly stupid.
In fact, it doesn’t mean stupid at all.
— Julana · Aug 6, 09:15 PM · #
Thanks for the Slate link, Alan. I don’t buy into Noah’s skinny-means-black argument, and I fear this sort of paranoia will plague this campaign up to and after the general election. Your post shows just how ridiculous we can make this discussion if we want to. (I would also recommend the “You might be a racist if … post over on The Corner).
Some commenters here have pointed out appeals to racists in the general election. I don’t think those types planned to vote for him anyways – that would not morally excuse such an approach, but I don’t think a competent campaign has much to gain from it.
In any case, some members of the press are searching for racism in every nook and cranny, and their claims deserve a healthy dose of skepticism. It isn’t racist to point this out, BTW.
— Ferrell · Aug 7, 04:52 PM · #
Hee-hee, Alan.
— Joules · Aug 11, 03:48 AM · #
David Fredosso’s book “Case Against Obama” on top of the list….??
I believe that… but nobody else but you guys at NewsMax are claiming that !!
What’s wrong ??
Well, somehow every pundit and politician seems to have his/her reason for supporting jerk Obama, so nothing is new….
That’s What’s Wrong….
To be honest with you guys…. I’ve lived in Chicago for only 5 months in the winter of 1960 when my kids didn’t want to play outside because it was too cold, 24 below, so I decided to load up the car and head south west, back to San Diego, my wife and I, we drove…. without any stops but for food and bathrooms…. within one week….
Apart from that I noticed the hustle-for-money atmosphere in the Windy City and didn’t like the corruption, so Mr Fredosso knows more about that….
What Mr Fredosso does not know except from hearsay is that Obama’s recollection of his life in Indonesia is pleasantly beautified….
Why his mom chose to tag on to (a)some Muslim Arab from Kenya, finding out she wasn’t married to him Western Style but Islam Way then, kicked the joker out…. and (b) ended up with another Muslim of Indonesian origen from which she had another critter, beats me….. No white person in his/her right mind shacks up with non-whites…. !! Not in my time… but she was from the 60s, so she must have been some special chick: born right but became TRASH !!
Why I say this is because I grew up with “blanda’s” (whities) in Indonesia. My dad was 50% Navajo by his mother and 50% French from a 500 year long line of French, Royal Hugonots. He was also a Cdr USN and later the ECO of NIGM, the big Dutch power company with a labor force of abt 4000 Indonesians and 200 “office types”, Dutch, English and German engineers and pretty handpicked secretary girls . Mom was pure Dutch but born on Java, Indonesia, and I was born on a US destroyer berthing in Honolulu.
Being the son of socially high ranking parents I did not grow up “with” Indonesians but in “for whites only” private boarding schools. My parents send me to Europe for “education” when I was 14 and too smart for boarding school, riding horsed bareback in the mountains instead of attending class getting bored w/i 3 secs.
Barack Obama is a Muslim by birth… reason why his mother and Indonesian stepfather entered him in an Indonesian school as a Muslim kid….(He could not be entered in a private school for whites as she nor her bed partner were of any particular standing or class. The White Society in Indonesia is still very much Colonial but so are the high society Indonesia upper class…. and all of Asia.
Indonesians in general are no fanatic Muslims…
Some are religious and make the trip to Mekka, don their white Hajj robes and a red “toppie” (fezz) and pray several times per day facing West to Mekka…. while the women sleep on a rug in front of the bed…. not in !!
But most Indonesian Muslims are not practicing at all.
They follow and celebrate Muslim holidays and festivities… and slaughter a buffalo or chicken by slitting its throat….the Islam way…. Allah iz Great !!
Barack spend 4 years in Indonesia (from age 6-10) as a young kid, so he experienced
NOTHING MORE THEN HOW TO PLAY
THE INDONESIAN GAME OF MARBLES…. !!
At which age he must have been good at (or very bad) …. Indonesian boys of that age are fanatic marble players …
and cheats !!
Pictures of Barack Obama taken in school as a teener were not from Indonesia as the captions read, but from Hawaii after his mom returned from her Indonesian “experiment”. Barack did not “grow up” in Indonesia… as he was too young to realize where he was on the map but eager enough to play marbles…. he grew up in Hawaii !!
Another fact which strikes me is that his mother was in Kenya with his dad at “gramma” Sarah’s, and intended to fly home to Hawaii to give birth to him on US soil…..but was refused for being too far in her term !!! Barack is not born in Hawaii but in Nyangoma Kogelo, Kenya, so say my sources at 3 non-US embassies.
This information was on the web but has been lifted…
Barack was “registered” in HawaII…. as the son of a white US mom and an Africa-born Arab dad…. His dad grew up with Sarah , one of Gramp Obama’s 14 wives, because his own Arab mother had died …. Sarah is not Barack’s gramma ….
So, the Senator Barack Obama is
1) not US born but “registered” and
2) not even a niggah !! He is 50% pure Arab ….
(P/S:- He has no documents with originals at the respective offices or institutions to show he is…. !!)
Barack Obama is a fake !!
But he is a fluid talker… a Pied Piper… oh yeah !!
Nevertheless…. and this is important…. :-
if your dad was a Muslim then YOU are a Muslim in the eyes of the whole world outside America’s !!
(his middle name isn’t Hussein for nothing !!)….
Which amounts to NOTHING….
EXCEPT in the eyes of the radicals…
And this is where America’s security is at stake if and when Obama becomes its president. Radical Islam will tend to him like leaches as their King and Messiah “has” conquered Mighty America….
He has to give in for his own security !!!
His life is at stake….
All over Europe Muslims make inroads. But nowhere in Europe do Muslims get into the highest ranks in government.
That can only happen in America….
Thanks to “American” DEMOCRACY ….
Can we allow that ??
It’s up to all of you…. !!
If you hate him enough then you do “something”
Else you become ONE NATION ….. UNDER ALLAH….
ALLAH IS GREAT….. OH YEAH !!!!
Donah////
— Donah · Aug 12, 12:41 PM · #
Yeah, but what do you think about the ad using Left Behind imagery to suggest that Obama might be the Antichrist?
http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2008/08/unsubtle.html
Also, I don’t know about “eloquent,” but “articulate” is the adjective that always sounds condescending to me when used to describe a black person.
— Michael Straight · Aug 12, 06:11 PM · #