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

The future of the Republican Party in a diversifying country "looks bleak," conclude Hughey (sociology, Univ. of Connecticut) and Parks (law, Wake Forest Univ., NC), if the right does not end its dependence on a sometimes coded and sometimes explicit antiblack rhetoric. The authors provide many examples, from Donald Trump and other "Birthers" who dispute the country of President Barack Obama's birth to Fox News commentary and remarks by former presidential candidate Mitt Romney. 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. While it is hard to argue with most of what the authors have to say, it's also difficult to read their book, which is filled with awkward phrases, repetition, and social science jargon.