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U.S. History 1877-Present 13.4b: Reagan and Racial Tensions 17 Views


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00:02

Maybe the most troubling part of the Reagan Revolution was the decision to tap into racial [Photo of Reagan]

00:07

tensions to pump up political support.

00:10

Fighting Communism, shrinking government, and cutting taxes were the issues that Reagan

00:16

cared about most deeply.

00:17

But Reagan's top political strategists realized that, by 1980, many Americans were super P.O.’d [Reagan in front of the white house]

00:23

about the government’s progressive racial policies.

00:26

There were votes to be had, and the Reagan Administration felt they knew how to get ‘em. [Reagan promotion poster]

00:30

It started with the South, where most whites had been diehard Democrats ever since Lincoln…

00:34

who was actually a Republican… freed the slaves. [Statue of Lincoln]

00:38

In the 60’s, however, the Democratic Party splintered, when the JFK/LBJ faction pushed [Splinter falls off the Democratic Party logo]

00:44

for Civil Rights, leaving Southern Democrats out in the cold. [Southern Democrat stood in the snow]

00:48

Though the South had stuck with Carter, Reagan saw a chance to use this resentment, transforming

00:53

the South into the Republican stronghold that it is today.

00:56

See all the red on the map? [Map full of red states]

00:57

Yeah...that’s no ketchup accident.

00:59

But the Great Communicator, as he was called by everyone but Nancy… [Reagan behind a newspaper as his wife tries to talk to him]

01:03

… mastered the art of communicating about race… in a roundabout way.

01:07

He spoke out on the specific issues that were important to people. [The word race on a roundabout sign]

01:10

In the South, he talked about how he was for state’s rights, or giving state governments [Reagab at a podium giving a speech]

01:16

more power to do their thing without the feds butting in like, uh… meddling in-laws.

01:21

Fair enough, but in the South…state’s rights had always been code for…well, letting

01:27

the South enslave and/or oppress black people.

01:30

State’s rights had, in fact, been the South’s justification for seceding from the Union… [The South breaks away from the US]

01:35

the act that sparked the Civil War.

01:37

Reagan, of course, was a savvy guy, who’d surely read his history books, so he was totally [Reagan in a library]

01:41

aware of the implication.

01:42

It got kinda iffy when he talked about how hard he was crushing on state’s rights…

01:46

…in Philadelphia, Mississippi, where 3 civil rights activists had famously been murdered [Photos of the 3 activists]

01:51

in 1964.

01:52

It was subtle, yeah…but not so subtle that the crowd didn’t go wild…we’re guessing

01:56

there was probably a rebel yell or two.

01:59

We should also point out that none of this is conjecture.

02:02

Top Reagan advisors have since confirmed that it was exactly what the Reagan team set out

02:06

to do.

02:07

And the Prez wasn’t only tapping into racial tensions in the South. [Lee Atwater sat in a cafe]

02:10

Issues like forced bussing, which sent inner city black kids to formerly white dominated

02:15

schools, were a major sticking point in the North as well. [Bus full of school kids]

02:19

White people all over America were also angry about affirmative action, which they claimed

02:24

was actually a racist policy that discriminated against whites.

02:28

White people problems, right?

02:31

Anyway, Reagan bashed all of these policies, while also bashing the so-called…welfare [Reagan hitting the policies with a baseball bat]

02:35

queen.

02:37

He was known to tell anecdotes about a black woman from Chicago, who drove a Cadillac and

02:41

got $150,000 a year from government programs. [Woman with the car and a check smiling]

02:43

This person, uh…did not quite…exist.

02:46

But the myth that poor blacks weren’t actually all that poor, and were, in fact, leeching

02:50

away half the country’s tax dollars was one that many Northern and Southern whites

02:54

were ready, willing and happy to believe. [Man looks angry]

02:57

The reality was that 65% of the federal budget was going toward Defense, Medicare, and Social

03:05

Security, which are all pretty much color-blind programs. [Pie chart of federal spending]

03:08

Even welfare, which Reagan often implied was a program for black people, benefited way

03:13

more white folks than African-Americans.

03:14

So the whole idea that welfare was just free money for black people was simply fiction…and [A book titled 'Free Money for Black People' is stamped bad fiction]

03:19

bad fiction at that.

03:20

Anyway, the Reagan Revolution was about much, much more than racism.

03:24

Most Americans weren't even aware that they were being racist.

03:28

There were plenty of other, totally valid reasons to support Reagan's movement.

03:32

But it’s undeniable that the Reagan camp did send out coded, racist messages to tap [Coded message reveals itself]

03:36

into the votes of …bigots across America.

03:38

Hope everyone found the decoder ring in their box of Cracker Jacks… [Kid looks shocked]

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