How it happens I know a racist dog whistle when I hear it

 I know a racist dog whistle when I hear it. Here is why.  I am a white person who grew up in Jim Crow eastern Oklahoma who also wondered even as a twelve-year-old what it must be like to have to sit at the back of the bus and only come through the back door of a white person's house.   They were those "who knew their place" and any "colored person" who protested was immediately put down as an "uppity" N....? I would have felt very uncomfortable, too, if I were one. I count my early wokeness to my parents, neither of whom grew up in the southern culture, who taught me black people were just as smart and able as white people.   They were neither inferior nor were they descended from monkeys any more than white people were.  I recall words of advice from my piano teacher when I was phasing out of lessons in middle school in the early 1950's that "colored people" indeed were descended from monkeys so I should never marry one.  I was silent out of politeness as befitted my age, but it made a lifelong lasting impression because it flew into the face of what my parents taught me.  In short, I recognize dog whistles when I hear them, even when couched in veiled terms and fancy words that sound fair.   Among the more upper-class white persons in my town was also a patronizing attitude. Black people were inferior, and they need to be "taken care of".. The N word was not used, so African Americans were called "colored". That passed as being culturally correct.  The downsides of slavery were never taught, and colored slaves were depicted in film and fiction as happy people who sang beautiful "spirituals" which we also sang without understanding the real message of protest hidden within them.  I was shocked when I visited Mt. Vernon and came face to face with the huts and shacks where slaves lived and I was even more shocked when I went to college in Evanston, Ill. and took the "L" line to the Chicago Loop getting an eyeful of urban poverty and slums where "colored people" lived.  I wondered how uncomfortable they felt even though they were not relegated to the back of the elevated rail cars.  I was made uncomfortable because this means the beauty of American democracy and its ideals, I was taught to honor was not extended to them.  

These memories reflect the pre-civil rights movements of the 1960's, and they may serve as a base line to gauge how far we have come and individuals or how far we have to go.  If these racist references are still whispered among those with which you associate, it is certainly an indication of mentalities frozen in time.  If you share them, it is time for some self-awareness.  If they make you uncomfortable, you are not children, you are adults, and you can voice an opinion or should.

Freedom from discomfort or a knowledge ban? 'Individual freedom' bill covering schools, businesses moves in House (floridapolitics.com)    Legislation like this is not even a subtle toot It is an ear-splitting foghorn.

When Biden announced he would stand by his campaign promise to fill a Supreme Court vacancy with an African American woman, and listed at least three potential nominees, the outcry from some in the GOP was that they would oppose any African American woman regardless of experience and credentials. This opposition is a racist dog whistle mixed with fear of the replacement of one liberal justice with a more liberal justice.   The inference is either/or/and both that Black women are de facto and inherently inferior to any male, and in particular Black ones, especially if they harbor views held by most Black people. Merit and ability have little to do with their opposition., particularly since they fear any Black women could bring with the overwhelming cultural and ideological viewpoints.   Instead, they charge reverse "affirmative action" causing a prejudice against white men, as if affirmative action and "inclusiveness" are dirty words. The Court does not need to be and look like America. The Cour, it appears to them needs to remain overwhelmingly white or extremely conservative as it has been historically.  This is a most subtle racist dog whistle because it is mixed up with ideology. Justice Clarence Thomas. an African American, is the most dependently conservative member of the Court and is not representative of views of most African Americans and women of any color. The women issue on the court has long been laid to rest since the Regan administration with Sandra Day O'Connor's nomination/appointment.  Since any Biden appointee is replacing a seat held by a liberal, the Court balance as tilted to the right by Trump, remains. This even brings into question the importance of ideological impact of Biden's pick.  That leaves racism as the more important factor influencing some of the GOP opposition of any Black woman, regardless of merit and in advance of Biden even designating his nominee. Those in the GOP who prematurely and in advance of Biden's a designated nominee were so quick to rise in blanket opposition to any black woman Biden nominated it appears to me were dog whistling to racists in their party.  Others in the Senate GOP have been quick to endorse a "highly qualified" African American woman to insulate themselves from charges of racism. They must have perceived the dog whistling,, too.

The Spotify Joe Rogan controversy over his spreading misinformation over COVID shots also was expanded to his multi use of the uncoded N word and for referring to a Philadelphia Black neighborhood as the Planet of the Apes. This in 2022 sadly is evidence we have not come very far.  It appears to have gone without public outrage until now. The difference between my childhood years and the current flap is this was not just uttered among those in private conversations but blasted over a public platform with a large audience and he was forced to make an apology. In the olden days such slurs were socially acceptable among the white folks.  Apologies were never in order. https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/05/media/joe-rogan-racial-slur-apology-india-arie/index.html

Per PEW, about 25% of African Americans Democrats consider themselves conservatives; the rest identify as moderate or liberal. 5 facts about black Democrats | Pew Research Center 

  Republicans take issue with Biden's pledge to pick a Black woman for Supreme Court : NPR 

    https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/592933-democrats-seek-to-woo-winnable-gop-senators-on-supreme-court       

GOP's winning strategy: make a bad situation worse

 While the public loses, the GOP thinks they have a winning strategy: make a bad situation worse so they can paint Democrats as failures and Biden as ineffective.   Given the poll numbers, they have a reason to keep doing it. The leadership of the GOP and its media cohorts and those allies who support them have been effective.  Raising the dust on this issue is also a way to obscure the fact they have no platform, no alternatives to offer any solution, and instead, all they have to offer is obstruction.  The GOP has a strategiy to win, however.  It may not be cooked up in a convention or put on paper, but the party and its allies are in lockstep.  Democrats so far have had no campaign theme that attacks GOP candidates for Congressional seats other than"" look what we can try to do for you."  that was better than Donald Trump.  In the meantime, the electorate has not gotten that message per the polls. One way to counter that might be to go on attack against the GOP for more than just being obstructionists, but to show them with a strategy to make things worse. Exposing their strategy might be one way to dramatize the contrast.   Here are some GOP strategies that could be attacked with the overall theme that not only did the GOP block Biden's agenda, but they also inflicted more pain on Americans, especially their own followers,

  60 percent of voters leaning to the GOP are the ones who have chosen not to get vaccinated and are overwhelmingly occupying hospitals and dying with COVID. It brings to mind an old Spike Jones song, "you always hurt the one you love."   GOP strategy #1: Draw out COVID's demise and then blame Biden for not ending the pandemic. The top of the list is the slow recovery from the COVID pandemic and the harbor and nurture the GOP and allied media give to the anti-vaxxers and disinformation.  When over 80 percent of Democrats got their shots, bringing us closer to herd immunity, those identifying themselves as Republicans have a 40% rate, and ironically, they are the ones who are ending up in hospitals and dying while the GOP leadership takes glee in blaming Biden for not bringing the pandemic under control as he promised in his campaign.  Biden did not cause the omicron variant, but he is attacked for not curing it because he did not get testing kits out fast enough.  Testing kits are not a cure, but they have value in giving the direction of those with symptoms of the virus to take the next step, including deciding whether to go get more accurate testing, go to work, or go to the hospital. When a critical mass gets immunity or it can no longer be spread to others, then the pandemic dies out. Wearing masks, getting shots, or surviving a COVID infection are the only ways to bring this scourge to a close. Not wearing masks, not getting shots just prolong this as the virus works its way through the unvaccinated. Those more effective N95 masks are in the mail to you courtesy of the Biden administration. but that only helps if they are worn, and the most likely not to wear them are the anti-maskers/anti-vaxxers. It has become a sign of loyalty to the GOP, and Donald Trump, not to wear a mask, and not to get vaccinated. For those who wear them, they will be less likely to infect others or to suffer breakthroughs. The ones who suffer the most from hospitalization are 80% unvaccinated, inspired by the GOP and their media adherents spouting misinformation.

GOP strategy #2. Protect the second amendment from any common-sense legislation then blame Biden for gun violence.  Law and order has been a time-tested winning political plank for Republicans when all else fails. Gun violence is mostly an urban problem, but there is much handwringing that there are just too many guns and criminals on the streets so blame Biden for not cracking down  Not only has the Biden administration signed bills to increase funding to police, Biden is advocating even more funding for them  . Wait a minute. Isn't the GOP the chief advocate against any attempt to restrict the second amendment and has been in the clutches of the NRA for years? The GOP did grab onto the most ill-thought-out slogan uttered by some,  "defunding police", but the reality is that funding police has increased under Biden, even to the extent of his looking the other way while some of the COVID bailout money went to more community policing.   What the GOP has tapped into is white fear of "others", even though the bulk of gun violence is centered in urban centers that is not where their base lives. It plays well among those who are uneasy with the changing demographics of the country so it has great political value to their political leaders to keep the racial dog whistles tooting.  Top of that dog-whistling to white racists is the anti-critical race theory crusade.  Exhibit number one is the legislation in Florida forbidding teaching any history of US race relations that would make white people uncomfortable.  While CRT is not being taught in any school and no one is sure what critical race theory means anyway (maybe wokeness, maybe reminding us of both the bad and the good in our history), no one doubts why it is being embraced by the GOP, who can count on those who identify themselves as registered or leaning to that party that is over 80% white.   Update 4/20/22 She speaks for me. My mantra Hate is not a Christian value...and I am a white, straight, Christian, suburban mom, who has been speaking out for over 60 years. it is good to know my speaking out has others thinking the same way.

Repeat: Hate won't win...my new slogan. Thanks, Mallory.

GOP strategy #3: Bemoan the economy, ignore and forget the Biden COVID relief legislation, stop any attempt to provide economic relief to the middle class and blame Biden for inflation. The GOP as a whole has made it a policy to keep the middle-class suffering from the stresses and strains on the economy by stonewalling and combatting the Biden agenda.   Build Back Better was aimed at childcare costs, child tax credits, tuition debt among burdens on them. In this case, Biden's COVID relief legislation he successfully got passed had some unforeseen benefits and negatives when his COVID relief packages providing subsidies with checks in your bank accounts also acted as a stimulus to offset the economic disaster of COVID that was shutting down the economy.  Among those benefits were a nearly 6% growth in the economy at a rate not seen for decades, full employment, also at a rate not seen in decades, and much consumer pent up demand to buy stuff they had put off buying during Covid, . This was made worse with a worldwide impact of supply shortages and import supply chain messes resulting in inflation.  Biden has little power to do much about that except to put pressure on port authorities to take measures to stop the dock logjam, which they have done in time for Christmas, to get passed the infrastructure shot to transportation modernization, and to appoint responsible, rational actors to the Federal Reserve, which is now taking steps to combat inflation by slowly increasing interest rates.  The GOP's solution? Vote against the Build Back Better legislation, keep the Trump tax relief for billionaires, and only focus on one negative, inflation.  

GOP strategy #4: Subvert and suppress election integrity and blame Democrats for fraud in the last election. What about election integrity? For Democrats it means free and fair election for everyone. For Republicans it means keeping certain people from voting and have voting supervised by their own partisan loyalists.  This issue is wrapped up in partisan self-interest, with Democrats wanting to make it convenient for everyone to vote and the GOP trying to make it hard for those who might vote for Democrats from voting. Both groups claim they have the key to election integrity/, One side wants to keep those of color from voting by limiting their access to mail-in and drop-boxes, a technique carefully targeted to certain neighborhoods. To bolster this, they have drummed up even more promotion of the big lie, undiminished after 60 court rulings against them and the failure of even their own conducted "forensic audits" to find enough evidence to overturn the last election after over a year of trying., The proponents of the big lie ignore the lack of evidence there was fraud in 2020 and persist with the most anti-integrity drive possible. They are passing state laws to put the administration and vote counting in the hands of their partisan loyalists, and out of the hands of election officials elected and directly accountable to voters. Instead of improving voter integrity, the GOP is making a mockery of voting integrity. subjecting election night to suspicion and challenges and further chaos and cheating in 2022 and in the future.  Biden is on the true integrity side on this issue while the GOP is fixing what is not broke with a plan that would undermine the integrity of fair and free elections and feather their own vote nest.

The problem for Democrats in the midterms is to get these GOP-engineered roadblocks in the rearview mirror by November. Timing is everything. Omicron may become less of an issue as those unvaccinated get some degree of natural immunity by surviving a COVID infection.  The gradual increase in interest rates is the only tool that cools off inflation. Manufacturing and distribution realign with consumer demand in time. Much of this is out of Biden's power to do much with inflation, but prospects are good it will become less of an issue as the Fed measures take hold.  The attempt to suppress and subvert the voting process is beginning to be called out by the courts, and that too may put some brakes on the worst practices. Gun violence on urban streets in some cities has had good reduction results by adopting best practices of community policing and more cops on the beat. Some of the violence was related to COVID and kids not in classrooms, and back to school may also help.  All of these factors might be enough to blunt these GOP initiatives and to head off a midterm Democratic party wipeout in November. 

Unvaccinated Adults are Now More Than Three Times as Likely to Lean Republican than Democratic | KFF

https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2022/01/14/unvaccinated-people-17-times-more-likely-hospitalized/6511901001/

 In Changing U.S. Electorate, Race and Education Remain Stark Dividing Lines | Pew Research Center Four-in-ten Democratic registered voters are now nonwhite (black, Hispanic, Asian and other nonwhite racial groups), compared with 17% of the GOP.

Biden calls for more funding for police in US cities — Quartz (qz.com)

Biden signs bipartisan bills providing additional resources for police | TheHill

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