For today's entry, I would like to address a very subtle but dangerous tactic bigots like to use to push their agenda and validate their hate. In everyday life, almost everyone with a fair moral compass can agree that any form of bigotry, like racism and homophobia, is never okay and should be dismantled and reported immediately. Because of this, certain people know that if they say their beliefs or discriminate against people out loud, they'll get backlash for it, so instead, they do it in a very sneaky, discreet way to get away with microaggressions to feel more comfortable about their toxic beliefs, and those many tactics typically dilute into the form of dog whistles.
What are Dog Whistles?
A dog whistle is a form of suggestive, coded language that uses phrases to hint at support for certain ideas without triggering backlash. This can also appear as hand gestures, numbers, or even emojis. Dog whistles may appear normal to the average bloke; sometimes you don't even know it's a dog whistle, but they are calculated words intended to show support or subtly taunt another person. It's a concerningly effective use of language, a tactic to plant prejudice in other people.
This genre of language is hard to spot at times, on social media and especially in real life, so knowing the different forms it can convey can help you identify bigoted people and hold them accountable for their behaviour, as well as protecting the people around you.
Here are some you can look out for within their own category:
Fascist, N*zi Dog whistles:
- 1161/161: If you see someone text or mention this code, then they are probably a fascist. 1161 usually refers to the opposition to anti-fascism, also known as anti ANTIFA, while the 61 stands for fascist action, the act of applying fascism onto society.
- 88: This specific number is a code for the German moustache man supporters. 88 isn't some random code either; 8 is used here because H is the 8th letter of the Alphabet, putting two 8s together subtly means HH, which stands for "Heil, well, you know who". This code is usually used to show sympathy for the dictator.
- Egg Dumplings: Images or specific mentions of Austrian egg dumplings could be another type of dogwhistle for nazis to communicate with each other, specifically on the dictator's birthday.
- Agartha: A fictional world nazis glorify that includes white, blue-eyed, blond-haired people, which they usually refer to as the "superior race".
The image or meme they use to allude to this can look like a blue-eyed, blonde white man with a star on his hand, or other variants like editing memes of people to whitewash them and add the blue eyes and blond hair.
- 271: This code refers to a false number of the deaths of the holocaust, basically denying it.
- 1488: We know what the 88 stands for already, but the 14 typically refers to 14 words of this specific sentence: "We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children".
- Triple Parentheses ((())): When you see three parentheses around someone's name, it's for Nazis to indicate Jewish people or let others know that a specific person is Jewish.
- "How long would it take for the cookie monster to bake 6 million cookies?": If you hear or see this phrase, you're probably interacting with a holocaust denier. run.
- "Yuo": Often in a sentence like "now yuo see", another way for bigots when trying to "prove" or justify their beliefs using misconstrued or fake data.
- "Never lose your smile": Used by n8zis aswell as white supremacists, usually refers to or is seen with a specific skull symbol that the SS used.
Racist Dog Whistles:
- "Well, well, well...": This dog whistle is another used by racist people whenever a certain race does something that they're usually stereotyped for. For example, when they see a black person eating watermelon, they usually say the phrase.
- "Totally nice day!": Now this one may be a tough one to spot because of how friendly it sounds at face value, but this is actually a parody of an original phrase, "Total [adjective] death". These are used for many marginalised groups. One example, "totally joyful day", actually means "total jew d*ath", or "Totally nice day", which means "Total n-slur d*ath". They can also be used like this: TND
To put it simply: "Totally [blank] day" = "Total [social group] death" depending on the first initial of the adjective.
- 13/50: This dogwhistle relates to a 2019 study many racists misconstrued, implying that black people make up 13% of the US population, yet commit 50% of crime.
However, if you actually look at the study, it doesn't say that at all. they dont make up 50% of crime or criminals; they make up 50% of arrests. It's arrest data. And if you know anything about America and its history, it is that black people are infamously known for being brutalised and oppressed by the police, from racial profiling to straight up murdering them, such as goerge floyd, Brianna Taylor, Emmett Till, Miles Hall, and the list goes on. Not to mention how they're also the most exonerated out of any other group. So it's no surprise they'll be arrested at higher rates than other races.
Sources
https://usclaims.com/educational-resources/how-many-people-are-wrongfully-convicted/
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/tables/table-43
https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/one-in-five-disparities-in-crime-and-policing/
https://now.tufts.edu/2020/06/17/how-racial-segregation-and-policing-intersect-america
- "I'm nooticing": A common anti-semetic phase that alludes to the stereotype of Jewish people as well as stereotypes of other races. They're typically spelt with two o's instead of one.
- "Chimping out": This is a phrase that racist people use whenever black people react negatively in a way or just have hyper emotions in the moment. This phrase alludes to the harmful stereotype of black people being monkeys/chimpanzess.
- Nissan Deadass AI logo: This used to allude to how black people say "deadass a lot, and the stereotype that black women drive Nissan Altimas. It's depicted as the Nissan logo, but instead the word "deadass" replaces the original name.
- "All Lives Matter": This phrase is typically used to shut down conversations relating to the discrimination POC face and is a counterpart to Black Lives Matter. The reason why this is so problematic is that it completely ignores the systemic oppression minorities face and reduces it to a surface-level understanding. We say BlM because they have not mattered for a long time; it's not to say others don't matter, but it's to say that we need to make these people feel safe too.
- "Rosa Sparks": This phrase came from the "clanker" trend where people were doing satirical videos of being discriminatory against robots. This quickly escalated to making parody memes or actual racism by mocking names like Rosa Sparks, and then eventually going so far as making parody names from words used to discriminate against black people, such as: "wire back", "Cligger" or "Tin skin".
Homophobic/Transphobic Dog Whistles:
- 41%: This dog whistle is usually aimed at trans people, and refers to a study where 41% of trans people contemplated suicide.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27380151/
https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/transpop-suicide-press-release/
- Transformer: Another transphobic dogwhistle on how people transition or "transform" into the opposite gender, basically mocking their identity.
- "As long as they don't have it in our faces/Make it their personality": This is used by people who say they don't mind the LGBTQ+ community as long as they hide it from the public, which is harmful and exclusionary, basically trying to exclude or segregate queer people from everyday life.
- Special rights: Suggests that laws put in place to protect queer people from discrimination and ensure equality are an unfair bias instead of what they actually are, which is just basic human rights.
- "What is a woman?" "Adult human female": This phrase is an anti-trans slogan, implying that gender is based on sex and undermines trans identities.
Emoji Dog Whistles:
- ⚡⚡: Two lightning bolts together are a common sign of N*zi ideology, the same symbol the SS used to use, also comes in the phrase, "never stress" or "never streSS/stre⚡⚡"
- 😭💢: An emoji combo that p*dophiles use to signal to each other, mostly ones that are into loli or media that depicts minors. They can also say "cute and funny" with the crying emoji too
- 👌: A hand sign commonly used within N*zi spaces and protests.
Conclusion (important)
These are all the ones I could pick up from; I know I may have left a lot out, so if I did, please put it in the comments if you can. Keep in mind, everyone, that dog whistles are made to have plausible deniability, which allows these people to use dog whistles and make the excuse of them being normal phrases or mean something else. It may also be hard to spot due to certain context or circumstances, but it's still very important to be vigilant when it's said.
Let's take an actual dog whistle, for example, the physical one. Whenever someone blows a dog whistle, no one may hear it except for the dog because the instrument was specifically made to catch the dog's attention and notice the sound. You may not hear it the way dogs do, but the impact of it is still very much there.
This concept is applied to the topic of today: just because you may not know the meaning or the phrases people use towards people doesn't make the impact any less hurtful and dangerous. It's still directed at the people they want to mock and discriminate against to get away with being bigoted towards people. So if a group of people or multiple people are telling you that it is or may be a dog whistle, believe them.
It is incredibly important to keep being in the know about this stuff to further counter extreme hate and protect the people and the community you have around you. Again, if theres anymore you would like to spread awareness about, don't be afraid to speak up about it.