U.S. Representative Steven Horsford understands dog whistles and the coded talk that goes on in politics. And when the veteran Congressman hears a MAGA Republican use the now ubiquitous word “woke” — as in Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s “war on woke” — Horsford thinks that what those Republicans really mean is “Black.”
Communicating tacit messages to certain groups while appearing to address larger populations with more general language is a tactic political operatives have always used to flatter the base — while appearing to remain above the fray.
(For more, see Ian Haney López‘s book Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class.)
Horsford, a Democrat, represents Nevada’s 4th District, which is about 47 percent White and only 5.4 percent Black, in the House of Representatives. He laments the current political situation where, he implies, progress on racial equity is under siege by the MAGA adherents in the House.
Horsford: MAGA Republicans have made it their entire political agenda to fight against wokism. Every time they use the word woke, I think they mean black. pic.twitter.com/Ue90B2tebO
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 18, 2023
“MAGA Republicans have made it their entire political agenda to fight wokeism,” Horsford says in a speech on the House floor. “Every time they use the word woke I think they mean Black. They want to ban diversity. They want to ban equity and inclusion programs. And erase Black history from the classrooms.”
Horsford claims that the case that MAGA is making against diversity further proves the necessity of programs like DEI that encourage it.
The recent letter sent by 13 Republican Attorneys General to the heads of Fortune 100 companies essentially arguing that these companies are biased against white people is an example of what Horsford means when equating woke with Black.
The letter accuses U.S. corporations of reverse racism against White workers, saying that DEI practices are “an inversion of the odious discriminatory practices of the distant past.”
