Dog Whistle Politics

How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class

By: Ian Haney López

Narrated by: Eric Yves Garcia

Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

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 with George Wallace and Richard Nixon, and is more relevant than ever in the age of the Tea Party and the first black president.

In Dog Whistle Politics, Ian Haney Lopez offers a sweeping account of how politicians and plutocrats deploy veiled racial appeals to persuade white voters to support policies that favor the extremely rich yet threaten their own interests. Dog-whistle appeals generate middle-class enthusiasm for political candidates who promise to crack down on crime, curb undocumented immigration, and protect the heartland against Islamic infiltration, but ultimately vote to slash taxes for the rich, give corporations regulatory control over industry and financial markets, and aggressively curtail social services. White voters, convinced by powerful interests that minorities are their true enemies, fail to see the connection between the political agendas they support and the surging wealth inequality that takes an increasing toll on their lives. The tactic continues at full force, with the Republican Party using racial provocations to drum up enthusiasm for weakening unions and public pensions, defunding public schools, and opposing health care reform.

Rejecting any simple story of malevolent and obvious racism, Haney Lopez links as never before the two central themes that dominate American politics today: the decline of the middle class and the Republican Party's increasing reliance on white voters. Dog Whistle Politics will generate a lively and much-needed debate about how racial politics has destabilized the American middle class - white and nonwhite members alike.

©2014 Ian Haney López (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Fantastic and Accurate

Love that this book is fair...that is not to say it is balanced...it is decidedly left-leaning, as should any listener be (particularly on the issue of race) once listening to what Lopez has to say. However, it does not demonize (even kind words are said of George Wallace). It simply tells the story of how race became as it is in the American political landscape.

Relevant today as when published

Professor Ian Haney Lopez's book is a must read to understand our racialized politics today.

Compelling

This book offers a thoughtful, unabashed insight into contemporary racism: Its roots as well as its effects. The book is pregnant with connections to racism in the political sphere of the last 50 years. If you read The New Jim Crow, this book offers a parallel view, but from a much more political point of view. Highly recommended.

LOVED the book— not the narrator

Everyone should read/listen to this book to understand how dog whistle politics has and continues to destroy our society.

For the audiobook version— the narrator’s style made me take twice as long as usual to finish the book. He speeds up and slows down, as well as raises and lowers his voice in each long sentence. Most of the time he is on the slow side, so I sped up to 1.25x and that helped a bit. My biggest problem with his narration was that he always ended his sentence, especially the ones that finished on a poignant or an important remark, on a whispered tone that made me have to rewind the book several times. It was very annoying. Frankly, if this audiobook’s topic wasn’t of such importance, I would’ve returned it on day one.

Must Read!

Straightforward, hard-hitting book that shines new light on uses of racism that have cost us--the middle class, the struggling working class, and the poor--enormously, to the benefit of both conservative and liberal politicians and the wealthy. Narrator's volume is a bit low.

Excellent! (+nothing wrong with the narrator)

Very, very good first book to start understanding modern systemic racism. Really opens your eyes.

Must read for anyone that wants to understand American politics

This book totally nails the strategy that the powerful use to prevent progressive policies from being enacted. It is well researched and all reasoned. A must read.

Would love to know what the author thinks about the trump era

Super interesting book with lots of insightful points. I feel like some of what he said was unfortunately disproven by Trump, such as dog whistle politics works as long as the racism isn’t explicitly pointed out, and I would love to know what the author’s thoughts are.

A book that must be read!!

This books makes the ambiguous become obvious. It is done in a way that is palatable to those on both sides of the isle and those with opposite views on the racial climate in America. Get this book!!!

Great treatise on a hard problem

Well written important subject I know of no other book that covers this subject so well. Every person who wants to be an informed citizen should read it. Great book for discussion groups!!!!