We've all heard about the dog whistle. The language that flies past the ears of progressives straight into the reptilian hind-brain of the racist: the call to attention for bigots. Geraldine Ferraro's comments are so blatant that they are more accurately described as a shouted command, so I will not address them here. The true dog whistle has been blowing for months now, getting louder and louder and more persistent with every contest, with every passing week, that most of us are now able to hear it.
But what did it sound like in the beginning? When few were paying attention, how did the Hillary campaign let the bigots know she was on their side?
It begins with the little things.
That perhaps Obama had not only been a drug user, but possibly a drug dealer. Of course, we all know what drug dealers look like.
Even if drug users tend to look like this.
That Hillary was for hard work, while Obama was only capable of talking pretty. Lord knows noone has every called black people lazy.
That Hillary was "serious" while Obama was just shuckin' and jivin'. Of course, no one has ever implied that it takes a white person to actually get the job done. Because that's a a wee bit silly.
That Hillary was a candidate for "America," while Obama was the candidate for just African Americans.
...and so on.
This is the Clinton anti-Obama narrative, people: that Barack is a lazy, undeserving affirmative action hire (hired by who? the media? who knows) who gets so stoned he believes his own fairy tale. Because he's "a black." On the other hand, white people work hard and build things, even if they're not all "flashy" and "showy" about it...or inspirational...and stuff. Like Hillary.
What the Obama camp needs to do to counter this is, ironically, to not directly counter the racism at all; to do that is to walk into Clinton's trap of dividing the electorate along racial lines. What Obama needs to do is emphasize his shared, common heritage with the voters he's trying to woo in the weeks ahead: his whiteness.
His whiteness?
Yes. Shoot, he emphasized his black heritage in South Carolina to counter the "he's not black enough" nonsense. And he already ran those ads about his mamma and her cancer once in whiter states, which was quite strategic. He needs to do it again, and even more so. He needs to talk about his mother's side of the family -- such as his grandfather, who fought with Patton.
Because, as much as he is black, he is also white. There's no reason he has to be painted as "the black candidate." He can also run as the better white candidate. And that is the beauty of his candidacy: he brings so much of that which is divided in America together in himself. He is a prism for our melting pot, and a Rorschach test for our identities. By every degree with which the Clintons want to emphasize his "blackness" and "foreignness", he must emphasize that which he holds in common with those people from whom Clinton is trying her damndest to estrange him. As frustrating and disgusting as the dog whistling has become, Obama cannot tell them to stop: that only draws more attention to it, makes it louder in the ears of those who heed its call. Instead, he needs to use some Aikido moves and move the whole issue out of the way. It is an unfortunate fact that racism is alive and well; it is a fortunate fact that Obama's heritage can help him work around the seemingly unworkable issue.
Speaking of work. He needs to put on a work shirt and a hard hat and walk around a bunch of factories and talk about work. The work we'll need to rebuild our country. Getting people back to work. Hard work. Make his whole campaign about work. Because white people like hearing about work. It's soothing. Makes us* feel in control. We like to hear that there lots of work to do, and that we can all do honest, hard work. And that our leaders are doing hard work, too.
That's all. It's simple.
He can sidestep the trap. And drown out the whistle. With the truth.
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* Disclosure: I am melanin challenged.