Did George Bush's use of the Willie Horton story during the1988
presidential campaign communicate most effectively when no one noticed
its racial meaning? Do politicians routinely evoke racial stereotypes,
fears, and resentments without voters' awareness? This controversial,
rigorously researched book argues that they do. Tali Mendelberg examines
how and when politicians play the race card and then manage to plausibly
deny doing so.
In the age of equality, politicians cannot prime race with impunity due
to a norm of racial equality that prohibits racist speech. Yet
incentives to appeal to white voters remain strong. As a result,
politicians often resort to more subtle uses of race to win elections.
Mendelberg documents the development of this implicit communication
across time and measures its impact on society. Drawing on a wide
variety of research--including simulated television news experiments,
national surveys, a comprehensive content analysis of campaign coverage,
and historical inquiry--she analyzes the causes, dynamics, and
consequences of racially loaded political communication. She also
identifies similarities and differences among communication about race,
gender, and sexual orientation in the United States and between
communication about race in the United States and ethnicity in Europe,
thereby contributing to a more general theory of politics.
Mendelberg's conclusion is that politicians--including many current
state governors--continue to play the race card, using terms like
"welfare" and "crime" to manipulate white voters' sentiments without
overtly violating egalitarian norms. But she offers some good news:
implicitly racial messages lose their appeal, even among their target
audience, when their content is exposed.
