Racism may be as old as our species, but the dominant language and imagery of racism in our current America is relatively new–less than 100 years old. To understand the dog whistles of the teabaggers, conservatives, Republicans and wingnuts (four groups with almost zero distinction between them) one must pay attention to the movies and especially to the film that created the vocabulary, memes, frames and talking points that are the building blocks of these racist dog whistles. Of course I’m talking about The Birth of a Nation:
Racism is alive and well in America. The Republican Party and the Tea Party movement are using dog whistles to racism as an effective organizing tool in this election cycle. They are, of course, outraged if anybody notices and insulted if anybody who notices is so rude as to mention it and call them out. Hence the shit-spitting attacks at the NAACP in recent weeks. The overt racism of teabaggers Mark Williams and Andrew Breitbart are just the most well known examples. It is not surprising that both of these racists use the internets, twitter, social media and the latest technology to mobilize folks around their dog whistles and to push out to a gullible media a selective cut of information as facts that must be taken seriously.
Racism has always been an early adapter of new technologies–from the printing press to movies to radio to TV to the web to smart phones (racist may even be faster than pornographers)–the racists are quick to use new tools of manipulation. And so it is not a surprise that Williams, Breitbart and their camp followers are using all of the most modern technologies to deliver racist dog whistles to help Republicans win this November. And yes–I know–they will be outraged that I notice and indignant that I pointed it out, but that does not change what they are doing at all.