During the civil rights movement, the use of explicitly racist language became publicly unacceptable. Politicians who relied on messages of racial fear and resentment adapted by using language that was not explicitly racist, but still succeeded at animating those fears and mobilizing their base. This was “dog-whistle politics”. Half a century later, dog-whistle politics has shifted and reinvented itself numerous time, and remains a winning political formula on the Right.

Ian Haney López is the essential person to follow on this subject. His book Dog Whistle Politics traces the history of this practice, while his book Merge Left explores how to defeat dog-whistle messaging using language that motivates interracial solidarity. To learn how to use the messaging that defeats dog-whistle politics yourself, visit the Race-Class Academy. See collections of López’s articles and talks here, and stay up to date on his work by following him on Twitter here.