The Wrongs of the Right: Language, Race, and the Republican Party in the Age of Obama - Softcover

This exhaustive assessment of the political Rights exploitation of entrenched racial bias in the U.S. is essential reading for students and scholars of the presidency. The Wrongs of the Right blends convincing data with real world examples, and is suitable for both undergraduate and graduate courses. -- Caroline Heldman,Occidental College Covers very timely and important issues regarding racial and electoral politics in America. . . . Commentators and pundits whose job it is to make sense of contemporary politics and interested citizens will all want a book like this. It is scholarly and rigorous but very readable for a lay audience. In my mind, all books should try to attain this balance. -- Melanye Price,Rutgers University The book provides a succinct summary of the historic ebb and flow of racism in US politics. The authors reveal the use of race as a political incendiary by the two primary parties and clearly illustrate the use of the four premises, previously mentioned, as they relate to the discourse surrounding President Obamas campaign, election, and tenure.Summing Up: Highly Recommended. * Choice * A valuable contribution in understanding the implications and interplay of race and politics in contemporary America. The presidency of Americas first African-American president is historic, with deep implications, and has taken some turns which reflect, not always well, on America dealing with its enduring issues of race. . . . Powerful and well done. -- John Dombrink,University of California, Irvine Hughey and Parks attempt to demonstrate that in a supposedly 'post-racial' society, our politics are permeated in both conscious and unconscious ways by the message that only whiteness equates to authentic Americanism . . . [I]t is hard to argue with most of what the authors have to say. * Library Journal *

In The Wrongs of the Right, Matthew W. Hughey and Gregory S. Parks set postracial claims into relief against a background of pre- and post-election racial animus directed at President Obama, his administration, and African Americans. They show how the political Right deploys racial fears, coded language and implicit bias to express and build opposition to the Obama administration. Racial meanings are reservoirs rich in political currency, and the race card remains a potent resource for othering the first black president in a context rife with Nativism, xenophobia, white racial fatigue, and serious racial inequality.