Hillary's dog whistles to racism. [View All]

[milkyway]

I've had the feeling for a while that the Clinton camp has been sending subtle racist signals, but I've been reluctant to say so because it seemed like a big stretch. One of the key points in her stump speech is that you don't make change by yelling for it, you don't make change by hoping for it, you make change by working hard for it. This seems innocuous enough, but by saying she works hard she is implying that the others don't. As we're well aware, there has always been the belief by racists that black people are lazy. Yes, she included Edwards, but perhaps this was done either to make the racist subtext more subtle or just because it fit her storyline. Again, this by itself is not enough to say that she is sending signals to racists.

In the last few days, however, several things happened to strengthen this view. Hillary said that Martin Luther King's dream wasn't realized until LBJ passed the civil rights act. "It took a president to get it done." But her analogy seems bizarre. Barack Obama is also running for president. So Obama the candidate would be analogous to King, and Obama the president (or Hillary the president) would be analogous to LBJ. O.K., it took a president to get it done, but Obama would be that president. So what is Hillary saying? What Obama would not have in common with LBJ is not the office of the presidency, but his race. What Hillary seems to be saying is that it took pretty words from a black man to inspire a dream, but it took a white person to actually do the work and get it done.

Bill Clinton has also made some peculiar statements. He said Obama is "the biggest fairy tale he's ever seen." This fits in with the "I work hard and they don't" and "it took a white person to get it done" storylines. Bill is saying Obama is a media creation, a flashy star but no substance. He hasn't accomplished anything much on his own to warrant the attention he's getting. Yes, he's "gifted," but where's the beef? Those that follow sports will recognize this storyline. Even to this day, black athletes are much more likely to be characterized as being born "gifted" (simply lucky at birth), while white athletes are much more likely to be called gritty and determined. Gritty is a word that has been used in the last several days by the Clinton camp.

All of these instances form the same basic storyline. Hillary is hard working and gritty, and Obama is coasting on his physical gifts (Bill says, "I can't make her younger, taller, male"; he stopped short of saying black). It's all so easy for that lucky guy Obama.

It has been reported that James Carville is now advising the Clinton campaign. Who thinks that he, or others in the Clinton camp, are above sending out these signals to whites to win the presidency? They made the decision after Iowa to change and refocus their message. They obviously decided to "humanize" Hillary by showing more emotion, more fight, more grit against the gifted (but a bit uppity) black man. Now, about those "tears"--genuine or contrived, they sure do fit nicely into the storyline, don't they?

Give me a moment while I put on my flame-retardant suit.