The Wrongs of the Right: Language, Race, and the Republican Party in the Age of Obama

by Matthew W. Hughey, Gregory S. Parks

Overview

Examines the coded language of the Republican Party

In The Wrongs of the Right, Matthew W. Hughey and Gregory S. Parks set postracial claims into relief against a background of pre- and post-election racial animus directed at President Obama, his administration, and African Americans. They show how the political Right deploys racial fears, coded language and implicit bias to express and build opposition to the Obama administration. Racial meanings are reservoirs rich in political currency, and the race card remains a potent resource for othering the first black president in a context rife with Nativism, xenophobia, white racial fatigue, and serious racial inequality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814760543
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	05/30/2014
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Matthew W. Hughey (Author)
Matthew W. Hughey is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of many books, including The White Savior Film: Content, Critics, and Consumption.

Gregory S. Parks (Author)
Gregory S. Parks is Professor at Wake Forest UniversitySchool of Law. He is co-author of The Wrongs of the Right: Language, Race, and the Republican Party in the Age of Obama and The Obamas and a (Post) Racial America?

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Grand Old Party and African Americans: A Brief Historical Overview
2. Unsweet Tea and Labor Pains: The Tea Party, Birthers, and Obama
3. A Fox in the Idiot Box: Right-Wing Talking Heads
4. Political Party, Campaign Strategy, and Racial Messaging
5. The Social Science of Political Ideology and Racial Attitudes
6. Unconscious Race Bias and the Right: Its Meaning for Law in the Age of Obama
Conclusion
Notes Index
About the Authors

Editorial Reviews

The book provides a succinct summary of the historic ebb and flow of racism in US politics. The authors reveal the use of race as a political incendiary by the two primary parties and clearly illustrate the use of the four premises, previously mentioned, as they relate to the discourse surrounding President Obama’s campaign, election, and tenure. Summing Up: Highly Recommended.”-Choice

"A valuable contribution in understanding the implications and interplay of race and politics in contemporary America. The presidency of America’s first African-American president is historic, with deep implications, and has taken some turns which reflect, not always well, on America dealing with its enduring issues of race. . . . Powerful and well done."-John Dombrink,University of California, Irvine

From the Publisher

"A valuable contribution in understanding the implications and interplay of race and politics in contemporary America. The presidency of Americas first African-American president is historic, with deep implications, and has taken some turns which reflect, not always well, on America dealing with its enduring issues of race. . . . Powerful and well done."

John Dombrink

"This exhaustive assessment of the political Rights exploitation of entrenched racial bias in the U.S. is essential reading for students and scholars of the presidency. The Wrongs of the Right blends convincing data with real world examples, and is suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses."

Caroline Heldman

"The book provides a succinct summary of the historic ebb and flow of racism in US politics. The authors reveal the use of race as a political incendiary by the two primary parties and clearly illustrate the use of the four premises, previously mentioned, as they relate to the discourse surrounding President Obamas campaign, election, and tenure.Summing Up: Highly Recommended."

Choice

"Covers very timely and important issues regarding racial and electoral politics in America. . . . Commentators and pundits whose job it is to make sense of contemporary politics and interested citizens will all want a book like this. It is scholarly and rigorous but very readable for a lay audience. In my mind, all books should try to attain this balance."

Melanye Price

2014-04-22
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.

Kirkus Reviews