In this episode, we explore the strategic use of racism in electoral politics to divide citizens across racial and other differences in an effort to retain power and wealth.

My guest is Ian Haney López, professor at UC Berkeley School of Law, and author of several books, including Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism & Wrecked the Middle Class, and Merge Left: Fusing Race & Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America.

López says strategic racism is a deeply corrosive force, and he’s is exploring how to counter its effects by encouraging people to come together across racial divides, so we can focus on our commonalities… develop shared understandings of what we want from democracy and our elected officials… and work together to improve society.

López developed the Race-Class Narrative Project and the Race-Class Academy to counter dog-whistle politics and build cross-racial and cross-class solidarity.

This is Part ONE of my interview with Ian Haney López. You can hear Part TWO next week.