Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class

1. Dog-Whistle Politics
Dog Whistle Politics:
How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented
Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class

2. Dog-Whistle Politics

3. Dog Whistle
• A dog whistle (also known as silent whistle or
Galton's whistle) is a type of whistle that
emits sound in the ultrasonic range, which
people cannot hear but some other animals
can, including dogs and domestic cats, and is
used in their training.

4. Dog Whistle

5. Dog Whistle
• To human ears, a dog whistle makes only a
quiet hissing sound.
• The advantage of the dog whistle is that it
doesn't produce a loud irritating noise for
humans that a normal whistle would produce,
so it can be used to train or command
animals without disturbing nearby people.

6. Dog Whistle

7. Dog Whistle
• Some dog whistles have adjustable sliders
for active control of the frequency
produced.
• Trainers may use the whistle simply to gather a
dog's attention, or to inflict pain for the
purpose of behaviour modification.

8. Dog Whistle

9. Dog-Whistle Politics
• Dog-whistle politics is political messaging
employing coded language that appears to
mean one thing to the general population but
has an additional, different, or more specific
resonance for a targeted sub-group.

10. Dog-Whistle Politics
(the goal of the dog-whistle is to appeal to the greatest possible number of
electors while alienating the smallest possible number).

11. Dog-Whistle Politics
(the goal of the dog-whistle is to appeal to the greatest possible number of
electors while alienating the smallest possible number).

12. Dog-Whistle Politics
• The analogy is to a dog whistle, whose
ultrasonic whistling sound is heard by dogs
but inaudible to humans.

13. Dog-Whistle Politics

14. Dog-Whistle Politics

15. Dog-Whistle Politics
• The term can be distinguished from "code
words" used in some specialist professions, in
that dog-whistling is specific to the political
realm.

16. Dog-Whistle Politics
• The messaging referred to as the dog-whistle
has an understandable meaning for a
general audience, rather than being
incomprehensible.

17. Origin
• According to William Safire, the term "dog
whistle" in reference to politics may have
been derived from its use in the field of
opinion polling.

18. According to William Safire, the term "dog whistle" in
reference to politics may have been derived from its use in the
field of opinion polling.
William Safire

19. Origin
• Safire quotes Richard Morin, director of
polling for The Washington Post, as writing in
1988, subtle changes in question-wording
sometimes produce remarkably different
results. researchers call this the 'Dog Whistle
Effect': Respondents hear something in the
question that researchers do not.

20. Richard Morin, director of polling for
The Washington Post

21. Origin
• In her 2006 book, Voting for Jesus:
Christianity and Politics in Australia,
academic Amanda Lohrey writes that the goal
of the dog-whistle is to appeal to the greatest
possible number of electors while alienating
the smallest possible number.

22. Dog-whistle is to appeal to the greatest possible
number of electors while alienating the smallest
possible number

23. Origin
• As an example Australian politicians using
broadly appealing words such as "family"
and "values", which have extra resonance
for Christians, while avoiding overt Christian
moralizing that might be a turn-off for non-
Christian voters.

24. Origin

25. Origin
• Australian political theorist Robert E.
Goodin argues that the problem with dog-
whistling is that it undermines democracy,
because if voters have different understandings
of what they were supporting during a
campaign, the fact that they were seeming to
support the same thing is "democratically
meaningless" and does not give the dog-
whistler a policy mandate.

26. Australian political theorist Robert E. Goodin argues that the
problem with dog-whistling is that it undermines democracy

27. History And Usage
• The term was first picked up in Australian
politics in the mid-1990s, and was frequently
applied to the political campaigning of John
Howard.
• Throughout his 11 years as Australian prime
minister and particularly in his fourth term,
Howard was accused of communicating messages
appealing to anxious Australian voters using
code words such as "un-Australian",
"mainstream", and "illegals"

28. History And Usage

29. History And Usage
• During the 2015 Canadian federal election,
the Conservative party led by incumbent
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was accused
of communicating 'code' words in a debate to
appeal to his party's base supporters

30. Stephen Harper

31. History And Usage
• In France, the phrase "a band of youths" in
Paris tends to mean North African descent.
• In United States The phrase "states' rights",
literally referring to powers of individual state
governments in the United States, was
described in 2007 by David Greenberg in Slate
as "code words" for institutionalized
segregation and racism

32. History And Usage

33. How Dog-Whistle Politics Drive
Harmful Policies
• Dog whistles produce a sound so high-
pitched only dogs can hear them.
• Dog-whistle politics works in much the same
way, UC-Berkeley Professor Ian Haney
Lopez.

34. How Dog-Whistle Politics Drive
Harmful Policies
• “It is a metaphor for political speech that on
one level is silent and on another triggers an
emotional, race-based response,”
• For the past many years, the country has been
electing politicians who use dog-whistle
language.

35. How Dog-Whistle Politics Drive Harmful
Policies

36. Cause For Concern
• Dog-whistle politics has been “a strategy, a
cold, calculating strategy, of stoking racial
fears to get votes,” .
• Racial fears were transferred to Muslims,
with politicians saying they are not like us,
they look different, have a different religion
and culture.
• Those differences are presented as permanent
and unchanging.

37. Cause For Concern

38. Cause For Concern
• “Racism is a divide and conquer weapon
that hurts us all,”
• The ideals of our nation are the way forward,
that ‘we the people’ can govern ourselves for
the benefit of all.
• We will be a multi-racial society.
• But will we survive as a multi-racial
democracy?

39. Cause For Concern

40. Terminology
• Spin Doctor
• A spokesperson employed to give a favorable
interpretation of events to the media,
especially on behalf of a political party.
• A person (such as a political aide)
responsible for ensuring that others
interpret an event from a particular point of
view

41. Spin Doctor

42. Terminology
• Straw Man Proposal
• A straw-man proposal is a brainstormed simple draft
proposal intended to generate discussion of its
disadvantages and to provoke the generation of new
and better proposals.
• Often, a straw man document will be prepared by one
or two people prior to kicking off a larger project.
• In this way, the team can jump start their
discussions with a document that is likely to contain
many, but not all, of the key aspects to be discussed.

43. Straw Man Proposal

44. Terminology
• Straw man
• A straw man is a common form of argument and is
an informal fallacy based on giving the impression of
refuting an opponent's argument, while actually
refuting an argument that was not presented by that
opponent.
• The typical straw man argument creates the illusion of
having completely refuted or defeated an opponent's
proposition through the covert replacement of it with a
different proposition (i.e., "stand up a straw man")
and the subsequent refutation of that false argument
("knock down a straw man") instead of the
opponent's proposition

45. Straw Man

46. Terminology
• Aunt Sal·ly
• A game played in some parts of Britain in
which players throw sticks or balls at a
wooden dummy.
• A dummy used in the game of Aunt Sally.
• A person or thing that is subjected to much
criticism, especially one set up as an easy
target for it.

47. Aunt Sal·ly

48. Terminology
• Whipping Boy
• A Whipping boy or girl are children who are in
slavery and suffer corporal punishment on behalf
of their young master when the latter did
something wrong.
• A whipping boy or girl was, supposedly, a child
educated alongside a prince/princes (or boy
monarch) in early modern Europe, who received
corporal punishment for the prince's
transgressions in his presence.

49. Whipping Boy

50. Terminology
• An archaic proverb which captures a similar
idea is “to beat a dog before a lion”
• Whipping Boy
• One who is usually blamed for things
• a book in which the main character, the
whipping boy, gets punished every time the
prince does something bad.

51. Whipping Boy

52. Terminology
• Aesopian language
• Aesopian language is communications that
convey an innocent meaning to outsiders but
hold a concealed meaning to informed
members of a conspiracy or underground
movement.

53. Aesopian language

54. Terminology
• Code Word
• A code word is a word or a phrase designed to
convey a predetermined meaning to a receptive
audience, while remaining inconspicuous to the
uninitiated.
• For example, a public address system may be
used to make an announcement asking for
"Inspector Sands" to attend a particular area,
which staff will recognise as a code word for a
fire or bomb threat, and the general public will
ignore

55. Code Word

56. Terminology
• Framing (social sciences)
• Framing comprises a set of concepts and
theoretical perspectives on how individuals,
groups, and societies, organize, perceive, and
communicate about reality.
• Framing involves social construction of a social
phenomenon – by mass media sources, political
or social movements, political leaders, or other
actors and organizations.

57. Framing (social sciences)

58. Terminology
• Loaded Language
• Loaded language (also known as loaded
terms, emotive language, high-inference
language and language-persuasive
techniques) is rhetoric used to influence an
audience by using words and phrases with
strong connotations associated with them in
order to invoke an emotional response and/or
exploit stereotypes

59. Loaded Language

60. Terminology
• Political Correctness
• The term political correctness (adjectivally:
politically correct; commonly abbreviated
PC) is used to describe language, policies, or
measures that are intended to avoid offense
or disadvantage to members of particular
groups in society.

62. Terminology
• Campaigning for Hearts and Minds
• It is common knowledge that televised
political ads are meant to appeal to voters'
emotions, yet little is known about how or if
these tactics actually work.
• Ted Brader's innovative book is the first
scientific study to examine the effects that
these emotional appeals in political
advertising have on voter decision-making.

63. Campaigning for Hearts and Minds

64. Terminology
• High-Context Culture
• High-context cultures are those in which the
rules of communication are primarily
transmitted through the use of contextual
elements (i.e., body language, a person's
status, and tone of voice) and are not
explicitly stated.

65. High-Context Culture

66. Terminology
• Characteristics of High-Context Cultures
• Some common characteristics of high-context cultures include:
• Primarily use non-verbal methods to relay meaningful
information in conversations, such as facial expressions, eye
movement, and tone of voice.
• The situation, people, and non-verbal elements are more
important than the actual words that are communicated.
• People are comfortable standing close to each other.
• The preferred way of solving problems and learning is in groups.
• Members of the culture place emphasis on interpersonal
relationships.
• Trust must be developed before business transactions can begin.

67. High-Context Cultures

68. Terminology
• Low context refers to societies where people
tend to have many connections but of shorter
duration or for some specific reason. In these
societies, cultural behavior and beliefs may
need to be spelled out explicitly so that those
coming into the cultural environment know
how to behave.

69. Low Context Cultures

70. Terminology
• This is in direct contrast to low-context cultures,
in which information is communicated primarily
through language and rules are explicitly spelled
out.
• It is important to note that no culture is
completely high-context or low-context, since all
societies contain at least some parts that are both
high and low.
• For example, while the United States is a low-
context culture, family gatherings (which are
common in American culture) tend to be high-
context.

71. Terminology
• Nepotism
• Nepotism is based on favour granted to
relatives in various fields, including business,
politics, entertainment, sports, religion and
other activities.
• Nepotism is a common accusation in politics
when the relative of a powerful figure ascends
to similar power seemingly without
appropriate qualifications.

72. Nepotism

73. Article 19

74. Article 19

75. Article 21
(Article 21 is protection of life and personal liberty)

76. Dog Whistle Politics
(The Story of Amruthmanthan)

77. Dog Whistle Politics
(The Story of Amruthmanthan)
• Lord Vishnu took the Avatar of Mohini
• Mohini was a lady with divine beauty .
• Mohini came with the Amrit pot to the battle
place and she suggested devtaas and danavaas to
sit in different row, so that she can distribute
Amrit among them all the Devtaas and Daanavas
agreed.
• Mohini started to distributed The Amrit from
Devtaas .
• Know the Devtaas were immortal so they
fought for their Heavens from Danvaas.

78. References
• Author Ian Haney López Decodes Dog Whistle Racism
• https://www.demos.org/news/author-ian-haney-l%C3%B3pez-decodes-dog-whistle-
racism
• Dog-Whistle Politics: Talking About Race Without Talking About Race
• https://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/dog-whistle-politics-talking-about-
race-without-talking-about-race
• Dog-whistle politics
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics
• Ian Haney López on the Dog Whistle Politics of Race
• https://www.pbs.org/video/moyers-company-ian-haney-lopez-dog-whistle-politics-race/
• Offensive political dog whistles: you know them when you hear them. Or do
you?
• https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/11/7/13549154/dog-whistles-campaign-racism

79. Thanks…

80. Thanks…