Tag Archives: Obama

[John V. Moore provides this hilarious analysis of Fox News' Hip-Hop BBQ dog whistle vuvuzela¹, complete with a Fresh Prince of Bel Air Hip Hop rating scale.  The hell you say?  Just read it.  You'll laugh.  Trust.  John was gracious enough to permit me to repost.  Thank you, John! -ABLxx]

Dog whistle racists throughout America, step the fuck aside, FOX NEWS has out classed all of you with today’s headline “Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ Didn’t Create Jobs” which is an article on the President Obama’s 50th Birthday celebration that was held at the White House on Thursday, August 4.

For the unenlightened, “dog whistle racism” as defined by the Center for Social Inclusion is “also known as symbolic racism – is political campaigning or policy-making that uses coded words and themes that appeal to conscious or subconscious racist concepts and frames.”

Given the demographics of the FOX NEWS audience and their perceived attitudes on race you can imagine the reaction that this dog whistle will elicit from that crowd.

This headline and accompanying photo are blatant examples of dog whistle racism. “Hip-Hop” is code for “Black people” even though many white folks like hip-hop music and many Black folks don’t. “BBQ” is another great code, which when used in combination with “Hip-Hop,” implies that there were bunch of Black folks doing what you’d expect Black folks to do and that the leads to a reinforcement of the “othering” tactic which has been used multiple times against President Obama.

By my estimation (based upon a pool report and my assumption that the President’s immediate family, including mother-in-law, attended) there were at least 49 guests and only 20 of them, less than 50%, were African American. However the photo accompanying the article featured four African American men, Charles Barkley, President Obama, Chris Rock and Jay-Z.

(Click to read more of John V. Moore’s guest post about Fox’s Racist Bullshit)