Dogwhistles: 10 examples of disguised messages

Dogwhistles are one of the most discussed methods for politicians to play on voters’ racial attitudes in a stealthy manner, although they come in handy for manipulation on other topics as well. They take their name from whistles that can be heard by dogs but not by humans. The key to a dogwhistle is this hiding of what’s really going on. Broadly speaking, a dogwhistle is a bit of communication with an interpretation that seems perfectly innocent—but which also does something else. It can send a clear coded message to those in the know—what I call an overt code dogwhistle. Or it can work on its targets without their awareness—what I call a covert effect dogwhistle. Let’s turn to some famous and less famous examples:

1. 88

The number code ‘88’ is a very clear case of an overt code dogwhistle. White supremacists and neo-Nazis often use number codes to communicate with each other, especially (but not only) online. ‘88’ stands for ‘Heil Hitler’ because ‘H’ is the eighth letter of the alphabet. To those not in the know it just looks like a number. And, crucially, it sometimes is. This is why you’d want to know why the person on a dating app is wearing a sweatshirt with ‘88’ on it. It could be the year they graduated. Or it could be something much, much worse.

2. Egg Dumplings

Images can also serve as overt code dogwhistles. In Austria, Nazis will post images of Hitler’s favourite food (Austrian egg dumplings) on his birthday. To one not in the know, they just look like pictures of egg dumplings. But this method of Nazi communication is so well-established that an Austrian policeman received a prison sentence for engaging in it.

3. The Willie Horton Commercial

One of the most infamous examples of a dogwhistle is the Willie Horton commercial, used by George HW Bush in his campaign against Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis in 1988. Created by Republican political mastermind Lee Atwater, this advertisement did not mention race but merely showed the face of William Horton (called ‘Willie’ in the ad), a Black man convicted of murder who had been given a furlough from prison under Massachusetts law. During this furlough, he committed further violent crimes which were described in the ad. Political psychologist Tali Mendelberg studied the ad and found that exposure to it made racially resentful voters more likely to vote for Bush. This effect, however, began to disappear as soon as racial justice campaigner Jesse Jackson called attention to the role of race in the ad. This is what led Mendelberg to argue that this kind of political messaging functioned outside voters’ awareness—once they became aware of it, it didn’t work any more. And that’s what makes it such a clear example of what I call a covert effect dogwhistle—it only has its intended effect if it remains outside awareness. (Mendelberg argues, by the way, that Jackson’s criticism was so effective that Dukakis might well have defeated Bush if the election had been held two weeks later, a sobering thought for those interested in alternative histories.)

4. The Breaking Point Billboard

The Breaking Point billboard from the Brexit campaign very likely works a lot like the Willie Horton ad. It makes no reference to race, thereby conveniently providing deniability. But the one white face in the crowd depicted has been carefully covered, inexplicitly activating the audience’s racial attitudes.

5. Save The Children

Not all dogwhistles are about race, however. They are also very popular with conspiracy theorists, and in particular with devotees of the Q Anon conspiracy theory. This theory holds that a highly placed Washington insider, Q, has been releasing hints online about a vast conspiracy of paedophiles and child abductors and about the efforts to bring them down—including the role of Donald Trump as chief savior. Followers of Q Anon have adopted the slogan “Save the Children”, employing it on T-shirts, signs, and hashtags—much to the dismay of the venerable anti-poverty charity. The fact that this is the name of a mainstream charity but also a coded way for followers of Q to communicate with each other makes this a highly effective overt code dogwhistle.

6. Emojis

Emojis are also used as dogwhistles, and some of them have become especially popular amongst anti-vaccination groups as a means of avoiding content moderation. These include carrots, cake, and pizza emojis to represent vaccinations.

7. Groomers/Grooming

Dogwhistles can vary greatly from country to country. Consider, for example, the idea of grooming. In its mainstream usage, grooming refers to a technique used by pedophiles to gain the trust of their victims. The terms ‘grooming’ and ‘groom’ have become popular dogwhistles in both the US and the UK, though they largely target different groups. In the US (and sometimes the UK), the term ‘groomer’ is used primarily to refer in a derogatory way to LGBTQ people, based on the false and defamatory stereotype that they’re attempting to make children trans or gay. In the UK, the term ‘grooming gang’ is used primarily to perpetuate stereotypes of Pakistani men, referencing some particular cases of child abuse—and ignoring the evidence that such gangs are in fact more likely to be white. In both cases, users of these terms are able to fall back on the claim that they’re concerned about child abuse, rather than about trans people or Pakistani men.

8. Immigration/Immigrant

Another term that can be used as a dogwhistle is ‘immigrant’ or ‘immigration’. We can expect to hear this one a lot. It’s particularly potent because it can dogwhistle so many different things—racism, Islamophobia, anti-Eastern European views, or simply xenophobia. And these shifting possibilities make it especially hard to discuss or object to.

9. George Soros

It can be easy to suppose that the right approach to dogwhistle terms is to simply avoid them. But not all such words are avoidable. Take for example George Soros. He’s a real person who has done a lot of important things that one might wish to discuss. But his name has also become a very widely used anti-Jewish dogwhistle. Much as we might like to avoid using dogwhistles, we can’t simply avoid all discussion of George Soros. (And for Soros himself this would be even more difficult!).

10. Anti-Jewish Art Mural

Importantly, it can sometimes be difficult to discern the intent behind a dogwhistle. Back in 2012, Jeremy Corbyn tweeted his support for an artist whose mural was being removed. When Corbyn was Labour leader in 2018, this became a subject of considerable controversy. The reason was that the mural was filled with classic anti-Jewish dogwhistles: in particular, hook-nosed bankers. As a half-Jewish person who is very interested in dogwhistles, I initially agreed with those who felt there was no way Corbyn could have been unaware of this. I found to my surprise that very large numbers of my friends in the UK did not recognize the anti-Jewish dogwhistles in the mural and were sceptical when I pointed them out. This left me uncertain about whether Corbyn in fact recognized them.

And this is where we sometimes end up with dogwhistles. What is well-known and obvious to some is not at all obvious to others—so it can be difficult to know what the intention was behind the usage of a dogwhistle term or image.

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