The Wrongs of the Right

May 15, 2014
A dissection of the language of the far right, showing the continued, although masked, biases inherent in their message.After a quick history of civil rights and racist attitudes, Hughey (Sociology/Univ. of Conn.; The White Savior Film: Content, Critics, and Consumption, 2014, etc.) and Parks (Law/Wake Forest Univ.; co-editor: Alpha Phi Alpha: A Legacy of Greatness, the Demands of Transcendence, 2011, etc.) show the process that continues the message while avoiding political incorrectness. There are four dimensions at play: black dysfunction, white patriotism, white paternalism and white victimhood. The authors show how these dimensions have grown sociologically and legally over the years, especially since the election of the first black president, Barack Obama. The "Southern strategy" was a child of the ultraconservative Dixiecrats in response to Harry Truman's civil rights program. They laid the groundwork for the advent of the tea party, birthers and the radical right. All of these groups exhibit elements of racism and are anti-immigrant, pro-gun, anti-deficit, anti-Semitic and pro-religion in government. Hughey and Parks demonstrate the different ways in which outright hostility can be masked by implicit racial biases and coded words and phrases-e.g., welfare queen, inner city, states' rights, entitlement society, welfare state and liberal bias. Decrying Obama as the affirmative action president, the disrespect of journalists and talking heads like Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, as well as the use of dehumanizing symbols are all methods of this so-called principled conservatism, a term the authors reject outright-"the banner of 'post-racialism' is devoid of ethical currency."Many of the groups the authors investigate will find further fodder for their tirades, and liberals will doubtless get angry, but all should learn that there's a limit to the insults American intelligence will tolerate.

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June 1, 2014

The future of the Republican Party in a diversifying country "looks bleak," conclude Hughey (sociology, Univ. of Connecticut) and Parks (law, Wake Forest Univ., NC), if the right does not end its dependence on a sometimes coded and sometimes explicit antiblack rhetoric. The authors provide many examples, from Donald Trump and other "Birthers" who dispute the country of President Barack Obama's birth to Fox News commentary and remarks by former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Hughey and Parks attempt to demonstrate that in a supposedly "post-racial" society, our politics are permeated in both conscious and unconscious ways by the message that only whiteness equates to authentic Americanism. While it is hard to argue with most of what the authors have to say, it's also difficult to read their book, which is filled with awkward phrases, repetition, and social science jargon. VERDICT Readers will be happier with any of the better books making similar arguments, such as Tali Mendelberg's The Race Card, Donald R. Kinder's The End of Race?, Adia Harvey-Wingfield and Joe R. Feagin's Yes We Can?, and Ian Haney Lopez's Dog Whistle Politics.--Robert Nardini, Niagara Falls, NY

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