Welcome to Code Switch’s Up All Night newsletter – a space where members of the CS familia share the thoughts, questions, hopes and ideas that we’re losing sleep over. This week, the Republican primary debate has us feeling like this will be just about the longest election season ever.
Fam:
It’s an oft repeated bit of wisdom: “Never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer the question that you wish had been asked of you.” Well, candidates on Wednesday night’s Republican Primary debate stage were never asked directly about race, but some still found ways of giving viewers a taste of their beliefs on the subject – sometimes thanks to a single word or phrase.
🔄 Reverse racism – a phrase classically used to obscure the power dynamics central to, um, regular racism, by equating structural discrimination against people of color to interpersonal animus (or by asserting widespread structural discrimination against white folks). This one was invoked by Vivek Ramaswamy, who, in his closing remarks, made sure to get in his "truth" that “reverse racism is racism.”
🛏️ Woke – we’ve talked about this one before; its origins among Black people as a reminder to “stay woke”; its broader appropriation to mean “hip, cool, with-it, ally,”; its current position as a conservative shorthand for anything from liberal to Black to trans to historically accurate. Most notably used in the debates by Nikki Haley, who referred to the “crazy woke things” happening in schools today – seemingly in reference to the existence of trans people.
🛂 Southern border – previously known, simply, as “the border," now folks are getting real specific: We’re talking about the border where brown people come in, as opposed to the Canadian border (in case anyone was confused). This one was used by multiple candidates, but shout out to Ron DeSantis who implied that he would send special forces across the Southern border to fight cartels on “day one” of his presidency.
🏛️ Small town values – used to evoke wholesome images of neighbors helping neighbors and hardworking family people, often presented in opposition to the crime and debauchery associated with – *shudder* – inner cities. And with the popularization of Jason Aldean’s controversial country hit, “Try That In A Small Town,” the subtext has become text – so when Doug Burgum championed his small town values, it was hard to ignore the particularly charged meaning the phrase has recently taken on. Speaking of which…
🙅🏾♂️ South Side of Chicago (and Kensington) – The South Side of Chicago has long been used by politicians to refer to an imagined Black hellscape, full of drugs and gangs and violent criminals. Ramaswamy added Kensington as a new addition to this taxonomy – an area of North Philly that’s become an epicenter of the opioid crisis, less associated with Blackness and more with general urban decay. Ramaswamy’s usage seemed to be an attempt to show that he has set foot in places that no other candidate would dare to tread — a true everyman.
🧑🏽🤝🧑🏽 Wonderful people from around the world – Translation? “Good immigrant.” We’ve talked before about the stakes of this type of rhetoric – and how the line between “good” and “bad” immigrants seems to blur depending on whether the country is more in need of an influx of cheap, exploitable labor or a convenient political scapegoat. Chris Christie was the one to use this phrase on Wednesday, before clarifying that he would, indeed, be willing to send “illegal immigrants” back to where they came from.
✊🏽 Civil rights issue of our time – Has a phrase ever done so much with so little? This one is used to dismiss the fight for racial justice (that was the civil rights issue of the…civil rights era) while propping up an issue that often has little to do with civil rights. On Wednesday, Ramaswamy (again!) used it to refer to school choice. But, just to be clear, it’s a phrase that has been wielded for a long time, on both sides of the aisle.
All right, fam, I know we didn’t get to everything here. (We certainly didn’t have time to get into the “pass a civics test” fray...or "Sino-PEC.") And I know you all heard things that we missed. So email us and let us know: What language stood out to you at Wednesday night’s debate? What were you surprised not to hear candidates talk about? And…what about the elephant not in the room? What words and phrases stood out to you in Donald Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson? Overtired minds want to know.
Until next time, Leah Donnella, senior editor
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Written by Leah Donnellaand editedby Dalia Mortada
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