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Author To Discuss Coded Racism And The 2016 Election

March 2 event is free and open to the public

DURHAM, N.C. – Law professor and author Ian Haney López will discuss the historical use of coded racism, or “political dog whistles,” in election campaigns during a public lecture at Duke University.

The talk, “Dog Whistle Politics: Race, Policy and Economic Inequality,” takes place Thursday, March 2, at 5:30 p.m. in Page Auditorium and will include an audience Q&A.

The Robert R. Wilson Distinguished Lecture is free and open to the public and no tickets are required. Parking is available for a fee in the Bryan Center parking deck.

Political dog whistling is the use of coded, racially charged language to sway white voters by triggering fear and resentment of minorities. Examples of political dog whistling include former President Ronald Reagan’s use of the term “welfare queens” and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan connecting poverty to a “culture problem” in inner cities.

Haney López is the John H. Boalt Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches in the areas of race and constitutional law. One of the nation’s leading scholars studying racism's evolution in the United States since the civil rights era, Haney López emphasizes the connection between racial divisions and growing wealth inequality in the United States.

His most recent book, “Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class,” shows how over the last 50 years politicians have exploited racial pandering to convince many voters to support policies that favor the wealthy while hurting everyone else.

“What we saw in 2016 was the end product of 50 years of coded, racially charged rhetoric that communicates to whites: To understand what’s gone wrong in your life, and what’s wrong in America, blame minorities, and blame the government that coddles them rather than protects you,” he said. ”It was a calculated strategy, and it worked.” 

This lecture, named in honor of Robert Renbert Wilson, a professor of political science at Duke from 1925 to 1975, is also part of the Sanford School of Public Policy Ph.D. Distinguished Lecture Series.

Co-sponsors include Duke’s Center for Political Leadership, Innovation and Service (POLIS), the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, and Sanford’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.