Dog Whistle Politics

Ian Haney López is the John H. Boalt Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. An incisive voice on white identity since the publication of his path-breaking book White by Law (1996), he remains at the forefront of conversations about race in modern America. A past visiting professor at Yale and Harvard law schools, in 2011 he was awarded the Alphonse Fletcher Fellowship, given to scholars whose work promotes the integration goals of Brown v. Board of Education.

This is one of those books that should be required reading for anyone and everyone who is struggling to understand how and why political elites succeed, time and again, in persuading poor and working class whites to support regressive policies that are a boon for corporations but actually harm them and wreck the middle class. The answer to the riddle has far more to do with race than most want to acknowledge. But it isn't old-fashioned, malevolent racism that's to blame. No, as Haney López brilliantly and painstakingly lays bare, what is unraveling our nation is not bad people, but a stubborn refusal to deal openly and honestly with the reality of how race operates today.

• Preface Learning about Racism at Harvard Law School Introduction Racial Politics and the Middle ClassChapter One The Southern Strategy and the GOP's Rise as the White Man's PartyChapter Two Beyond Hate: Strategic RacismChapter Three The Wrecking Begins: Ronald ReaganChapter Four Colorblindness and Whites as Racial Victims Chapter Five Updating the Whistle: Clinton and W.Chapter Six How Conservatives Get Away with RacismChapter Seven Makers and Takers Chapter Eight What's the Matter with White Voters? Chapter Nine Obama's Post-Racial Strategy Conclusion To End Dog Whistle Politics