#rasmussen

This result, along with others from the poll, are being reported by Rasmussen as well as other conservative media outlets like the Washington Examiner as somehow being a refutation of "wokism". In reality, the idea that only whites can be racists or that all white people are inherently bad (beliefs examined by this poll) is a straw man concocted by the far-right rather than a true representation of what the vast majority of people who would consider themselves "woke" actually believe, so this result is unsurprising. But that is beside the point.

Mr. Adams, though, took issue with the fact that 47% of African-Americans in this poll DID NOT agree with the statement that "it's okay to be white". He took this to mean that nearly half of African-Americans harbor animus toward whites and that, for this reason, engagement of any sort with African-Americans by whites, including himself, was potentially unsafe.

"IT'S OKAY TO BE WHITE"?

Yeah, let's look at that question, shall we? It turns out there's some "fun" history here.

You see, "it's okay to be white" started off as a trolling slogan among white supremacists on 4Chan in 2017. White supremacist ideas are not the sort of thing that most people feel comfortable expressing openly, so dog whistles like this are the main way that they are expressed in public. In particular, the racist right has shown a propensity to prefer statements that appear innocuous on their face, allowing them to accuse others of anti-white racism if they object to them.

A "dog whistle", for those who don't know, is a seemingly inoffensive statement that is taken by a group and given a more offensive secret meaning. Like a dog whistle, the real message is designed only to be heard by the intended group, the dogs, while leaving others unaware of that message.

AWARENESS OF RACISM

This, I think, is the key to the whole thing, and it's something I'm actually fairly familiar with myself so I'm going to talk from personal experience here.

I'm Jewish. By birth, not religiously. But, being Jewish in any sense, you are made very aware of anti-Semitism, mainly because those people can (and occasionally do!) kill you and people like you. I'm sure I'm aware of many times more information about anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic beliefs than the vast majority of non-Jews are and I'm not even religious!

I should point out that this isn't necessarily because non-Jews are malicious or because they don't care about Jews, it's just that they aren't as directly affected by it. Anti-Semites attack and threaten Jews all the time, but they prefer to do this out of sight and hearing of other non-Jews. If you're not Jewish and you don't put any particular effort into becoming aware of it, it's very easy to live your entire life perfectly unaware of the anti-Semitic harassment and violence that is happening all around you.

In much the same way, I'd bet that African-Americans are far more aware of anti-black racism than whites are. This includes dog whistles; you're far more likely to know that the guy who says things like "globalists" and "it's okay to be white" is secretly racist if your life may depend on it.

In other words, African-Americans probably showed relatively low levels of agreement with that statement in the poll because a reasonably high percentage of them recognized it as a racist dog whistle.

THE CROSSOVER

So why is a "mainstream" right-wing polling organization like Rasmussen asking a question based off of a racist dog whistle from 4Chan?

Well, this is where we have to look at the crossover between the right-wing generally and the racist right. The far right in this country is increasingly racist, but they form a key part of the right-wing base in ever closer elections as the Republican Party loses appeal with other parts of electorate. Because of this, there's a big incentive for the larger right-wing to ignore that racism and even to deny that it is happening at all.

The dog whistles are key to this, by speaking in dog whistles the racist right is able to signal solidarity and express their beliefs while allowing the broader right-wing to deny the truth of their intent by focusing only on the literal meaning of the statement. Those on the more "mainstream" right are also incentivized to try to normalize those statements in order to "prove" that they aren't just secret statements of racism.

This is what Rasmussen is doing here. By pretending that "it's okay to be white" is just a plain statement rather than a racist dog whistle they are attempting to normalize it and demonize those who attempt to point out its nature as a dog whistle for racism.

DUE DILIGENCE

This is where Mr. Adam's racism becomes very clear. You see, on the face of it, I too would be concerned if I saw that a large amount of people of a certain group expressed what appeared to be a racist opinion about my group (note to white people, this is how racial minorities feel just about all the time, but I digress). But the first thing I would do is try to see if there's other context behind that.

And it's not as if the context is hard to find. I just Googled "it's okay to be white" and the very first result I got was the Anti-Defamation League (an anti-racism group) article that I linked above which explains the origins and meaning of this phrase.

Mr. Adams clearly did not even do this one basic thing, he just jumped to exactly the racist conclusion that the white supremacists who created this dog whistle intended for him to jump to. He is, at the bare minimum, racist enough to believe inflammatory things about African-Americans without the slightest bit of hesitation.

BROADER IMPLICATIONS

Here's the thing, though, it would be bad enough if a public figure like Mr. Adams were so committed to racist ideas, one person with his influence can do a lot of damage, but it's not just him.

This type of dog whistle racism is endemic across conservative spaces and has been for some time. It is repeated and accepted as normal discourse in right-wing politics and punditry, particularly among those who support the MAGA movement and the former President, and it is defended even by those conservatives and Republicans who are not otherwise seen as being racist themselves.

The conservative movement in general has a problem when racist ideas are defended and racists are allowed to use dog whistle language to convince others of those ideas. People like Mr. Adams and his turn to overt racism are just the tip of the iceberg that indicates a much deeper problem beneath.

CONCLUSION

Mr. Adam's statements are despicable and he is rightly being condemned for his bigotry, but he's far from alone. There is an entire system of dog whistles, denial of racism, and latent beliefs about minorities which enables people like him and allows these kinds of racist ideas to be brought to those who might otherwise reject them outright.

That's why it's important that all Americans, regardless of your political or racial beliefs, do at least the bare minimum. If you see information that surprises you and makes you feel upset, particularly if it encourages you to think poorly of an entire group of people, find out where it's coming from and what's behind it. The odds are pretty good that you're being manipulated.