You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968, you can't say “nigger”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states rights, and all that stuff, and you're getting so abstract. Now, you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites. . . “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”
Lee Atwater (1981)
This quote comes from an anonymous interview given by Republican campaign manager Lee Atwater, then a member of the Reagan administration, to a political scientist in 1981. (You can find the entire interview here.) It describes the Republicans' Southern strategy, in which they used race-baiting to successfully persuade Southern Whites to vote against their economic self-interest and realigned political party membership in the South. It was originated by operatives for Richard Nixon, but Atwater was the best known practitioner of this strategy, which still strongly influences American politics.
Atwater became a rising star in 1980 by defeating a South Carolina Democratic Congressman in part by using fake telephone surveys that falsely implied that the Congressman was an NAACP member. He was known for his ruthless use of “dirty tricks,” including false rumors about his opponents' mental health or alleged criminal connections. He reached the height of his fame as manager of George H. W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign, where he approved the infamous Willie Horton ad, that played on White fears of Black criminals. Following the election, he became chairman of the Republican National Committee. He died of brain cancer in 1991 at the age of 40. After learning that he had terminal cancer, he claimed to have experienced a religious conversion and apologized for some of his behavior.
Atwater, a South Carolina native, was an accomplished rock guitarist and fan of the blues. His album, Red Hot and Blue, with B. B. King and several Memphis musicians, won a Grammy in 1991. Atwater always denied he was a racist, citing his personal relationships with blues artists as evidence. His biography raises interesting questions. Can you deliberately pursue policies that are harmful to African-Americans by using campaign tactics that appeal to White racism and still credibly claim that you are not a racist? In other words, can you repeatedly engage in racist behavior without developing racist attitudes? You would expect that Atwater would have experienced a lot of cognitive dissonance. If Atwater is to be believed—and given all the lies he told, there is no reason he should be—he must have been a master at compartmentalizing the different parts of his life.
All of this has come back to our attention because Atwater arranged a concert in Washington on January 21, 1989, the day after Bush's inauguration, featuring a number of blues and R&B artists. Among those I know to have participated were William Bell, Bo Diddley, Albert Collins, Steve Cropper, Willie Dixon, Dr. John, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Eddie Floyd, Delbert McClinton, Sam Moore, Billy Preston, Percy Sledge, Koko Taylor, Carla Thomas, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Louis Walker and Ron Wood.
The concert seems to have aroused considerable cognitive dissonance in the performers at least, but the consensus seemed to be that you don't turn down an opportunity to play for the President, no matter how much you dislike his politics. Willie Dixon engaged in some low-key subversion by wearing a “Jesse Jackson for President” button as he performed.
The concert, long believed to have been lost, has been rediscovered. According to an article in last Friday's New York Times, excerpts from the concert, A Celebration of Blues and Soul, will be shown on PBS sometime in March. A search of the WQED (Pittsburgh) website turned up no match. The entire concert is to be released on DVD on May 6. Both programs are said to have been almost completely stripped of their political context. If I get any further information about when the PBS program will air, I'll update this post.
This article is cross-posted from my jazz and blues blog, The Blues and the Abstract Truth.
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