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By today’s standards he seems mild. Even Obama praised him. Along with Lincoln, Republicans trot Ronald Reagan out every time Democrats praise the communication wizardry of Obama, Clinton, or Kennedy,
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By today’s standards he seems mild. Even Obama praised him. Along with Lincoln, Republicans trot Ronald Reagan out every time Democrats praise the communication wizardry of Obama, Clinton, or Kennedy, or the stalwart composition of FDR or integrity of Truman. In reality, Reagan was an impenetrable facade of congeniality who was quite hostile to civil rights.
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Reagan's extensive use of dog-whistle racism, which consisted of subtly coded messages, received insufficient media coverage at the time and has largely been disregarded in contemporary narratives. One group of people he continually harangued were people on public assistance, who he unilaterally relegated to “leech“ status.
While Governor of California, Reagan repeatedly targeted social service programs and “throwing the welfare bums out.”
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In 1976, Reagan sought the GOP nomination against the incumbent Gerald Ford. Reagan's campaign was on the ropes until the primaries hit the Southern states, where he won his first key victory in NC. Throughout the South that spring and summer, Reagan portrayed himself as Goldwater's heir while criticizing Ford as a captive of Eastern establishment Republicans fixated on forced integration.
Reagan lost the nomination to Ford in 1976.
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But when the former CA governor ran for President again in 1980, he began his campaign in Philadelphia, MS., where 3 civil rights workers were brutally killed by white supremacists. It was at that sore spot on the racial map that Reagan revived talk about states' rights & curbing the power of the federal government.
In front of a predominantly white audience numbering in the tens of thousands, Reagan proclaimed, "I believe in states' rights".
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Reagan's rhetoric surrounding welfare programs and his portrayal of "welfare queens" perpetuated racial stereotypes.
To many it sounded like code for announcing himself as the candidate for white segregationists. Indeed, during his campaign for the Presidency, the Ku Klux Klan endorsed Reagan (after his Philadelphia MS speech). Reagan only repudiated the endorsement under pressure.
https://youtu.be/UlpqIkoehVA
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By the time Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency in 1980, the Republican Party had firmly established its hold on white Southerners. He won.
After he defeated President Carter, a native Southerner, Reagan led an administration that seemed to cater to Southerners still angry over the passage of the Civil Rights Act after 16 years.
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The Reagan team condemned busing for school integration, opposed affirmative action and even threatened to veto a proposed extension of the Voting Rights Act (the sequel to the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed a year later and focused on election participation).
Again, his emphasis on "states' rights" was seen as a veiled reference to opposing civil rights legislation and appealing to white voters who were resistant to desegregation efforts.
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During his presidency, Ronald Reagan's justice department aligned itself with segregationists by offering support to Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist institution that sought federal funds despite practicing racial discrimination. In 1983, when the Supreme Court ruled against Bob Jones, Reagan responded by significantly weakening the Civil Rights Commission as an act of retaliation.
https://youtu.be/PkVCppsIyrA
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Critics argue that Ronald Reagan utilized the War on Drugs as a racially charged wedge issue, contributing to racial disparities within the criminal justice system. Reagan's administration implemented policies that disproportionately targeted minority communities, particularly African-Americans.
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One notable aspect was the differential treatment between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, signed into law by Reagan, established significantly harsher penalties for crack cocaine, which was more prevalent in low-income urban communities, predominantly impacting African-Americans.
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@Deglassco So important to remember that so much of the shit that we are in today is because of this fucker.
The sentencing disparities resulted in disproportionate rates of incarceration for African-Americans, perpetuating racial inequalities within the criminal justice system. Critics argue that Reagan's administration, through its rhetoric and policies, perpetuated racial stereotypes and contributed to the stigmatization and criminalization of minority communities, further exacerbating existing racial divides.
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In 1971, the day after the United Nations voted to recognize the People’s Republic of China, then–California Governor Ronald Reagan phoned President Richard Nixon at the White House and vented his frustration at the delegates who had sided against the United States.
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“Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did,” Reagan said.
“Yeah,” Nixon interjected. Reagan forged ahead with his complaint:
“To see those, those monkeys from those African countries—damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!”
Nixon gave a huge laugh.
https://www.nixonlibrary.gov/white-house-tapes/013
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Ronald Reagan’s use of racist dog whistles during his political campaigns was primarily through the use of coded language and symbolic gestures that appealed to racial biases and fears without explicitly mentioning race.
These tactics allowed Reagan to tap into racial resentments and gain support from white voters who harbored racial biases, effectively leveraging racist dog whistles to advance his political agenda.
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Resources
https://millercenter.org/president/reagan
https://history.house.gov/Records-and-Research/Lhttps://time.com/3513597/huac-hollywood-hearings/isting/hi_005/
https://www.politico.com/story/2008/07/obama-keeps-returning-to-reagan-011875?_amp=true
http://hnn.us/articles/5605.html
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/ronald-reagans-racist-conversation-richard-nixon/595102/
https://youtu.be/UlpqIkoehVA
https://www.c-span.org/video/?293124-1/ronald-reagans-neshoba-county-speech
https://www.c-span.org/video/?293124-1/ronald-reagans-neshoba-county-speech
https://policing.umhistorylabs.lsa.umich.edu/s/crackdowndetroit/page/reagan-s-national-drug-strategy
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More Resources
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2003/nov/08/uselections2004.usa
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a34733508/reagans-showtime-racism-matt-tyrnauer-ian-haney-lopez-donald-trump/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedom-riders-solid-south/
https://www.c-span.org/video/?297514-2/ronald-reagan-man-myth
https://youtu.be/PkVCppsIyrA
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/11/reagans-race-record/46875/
https://youtu.be/Gj8gAQ_cQ7Q
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Books
Sidney Blumenthal, The Rise of the Counter Establishment: From Conservative Ideology to Political Power, harperCollins, 1988.
Stuart Stevens,,It Was All a Lie: How the Republican Party Became Donald Trump, Knopf, 2020
Anderson, Carol, White Rage, Bloomsbury USA; 2016.
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So much to be angry about where Reagan is concerned.
What angers me the most, as a child during his Presidency, living in a rural farm community, we were taught that he was the greatest world leader ever.
Much like right wing media has gaslit the MAGA folks, back then we too were gaslit. It wasn't until my college years that I fully understood the truth, and it still angers me that so many were fed lies for so long.