"dog whistles"

[Jonathan Lighter]

Joel's astute comment suggests that these "dog-whistles" and "codes" might
be described as examples of "a tendentious and oblique use of metonomy or
other figuration."


JL


On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 10:26 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "dog whistles"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> A related distraction.
>
> Within the past couple of years (I can't be more precise), I've heard news
> commentators use the phrase "code for" in a closely related sense.
>
> E.g., at
> <
> http://newday.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/06/lower-your-hoodie-if-you-want-to-go-to-the-mall/
> >
>
> http://newday.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/06/lower-your-hoodie-if-you-want-to-go-to-the-mall/
> :
>
> "This is about the pretext of being able to stop young African American
> males. Hoodie is code for thug in many places and I think businesses
> shouldn't be in the business of telling people what to wear."
>
> In a nutshell, for about ten years an Indiana mall has posted a sign
> saying, "For the Safety and Well-Being of All, Please Lower Your Hoodie."
> The sign is accompanied by a stylized black hoodie outlining a white face
> (or no face at all, depending on your perceptions).
>
> The mall, apparently patronized by persons of all ethnic origins, does not
> forbid or discourage the wearing of hoodies: it merely requests that
> wearers lower their hoods within the building. (Cf. "No Shoes, No Service,"
> which openly tells barefoot people to stay out.)
>
> According to CNN story, the business owners claim that the policy enhances
> security. Local police agree. Irrespective of any other consideration, this
> seems plausible: a hood can obscure anyone's face from a  camera.
>
> A CNN analyst objects strongly to the mall's policy and the sign as racist
> - presumably by intent rather than by accident.
>
> This, by the way, is the first I've heard that the word "thug" applies only
> to black people. I've worn a hoodie on chilly days since long before
> "hoodie" was an everyday word. Indoors, I lower the hood. In fact, I'm
> wearing one now.
>
> Many will recall the claim that Trayvon Martin was killed "merely for
> wearing a hoodie."
>
> So the specific linguistic question is whether (and if so when) "hoodie" is
> "code for" (i.e., refers solely to, in dog-whistle fashion) "thug" or
> "young African-American male." More generally, do dictionary definitions
> cover this sense of "code"?
>
> As for "dog-whistle" coming to mean "euphemism," just remember that in
> Medialand, "allegory" usually means "metaphor"; "misnomer" means
> "misconception"; and "euphemism" means "synonym."
>
> JL
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 3, 2014 at 8:08 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
>
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: "dog whistles"
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Apr 2, 2014, at 10:49 PM, Geoffrey Nunberg <
> > nunberg at ISCHOOL.BERKELEY.EDU> wrote:
> >
> > > ... I like the description the philosopher John Holbo at Crooked Timber
> > has used, "impolite fictions," but that doesn't get at the semantic
> process
> > here, which it seems to me to involve referring to X via one of its
> > stereotypical properties (as, e.g, "inner city," "food stamp users") with
> > the intention of evoking but not actually denoting it. (Or maybe I should
> > make that, "referring to X by naming something to which X stereotypcially
> > applies -- e.g., food stamp users are stereotypically black.) But what
> > should it be called?
> >
> > i'd call them "obliquities", or "deniable obliquities" for more detail.
> >
> > but no name can serve as a definition.
> >
> > arnold
> >
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>
>
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