Most of the time bigots dont just come out and say bigoted stuff. That may sound odd considering how often they do, but a lot of people get surprised by folks going “mask off” when they actually use coded language constantly.

Here are some things to watch for (a thread):
1/11

People talking in vague terms about “protecting children” or “making a future for children.” Those are objectively good things but people fixated on that may be either using it as a dog whistle for the nzi 14 words or as part of a conspiracy theory theyll inevitably spring.
2/11

Whats a dog whistle? In real life its a whistle too high pitched for humans to hear but dogs can, often riling them up “silently” leaving people confused. In racism its a phrase known to overt racists but not to regular people, so they get away with saying it in public.
3/11

Other dog whistles are talking about the law as if its fair or talking about “human nature.” These people may not drop racist crime statistics at first or say one race is smarter/better/etc but theyll warm people up to that with less obvious lies in the same vein.
4/11

Talking about nonwhite people colonizing other people is a huge one. China’s relationship with Africa is not analogous to Europe’s, the Aztec empire is not the same as the British, anyone who draws broad parallels are selling you something racist.
5/11

Free Speech is another big one. Deep concern with liberal freedoms (which flatly do not exist and never have) is sometimes just new leftist behavior, but often it’s actually trying to defend bigoted speech but still seem like a good person. Dont buy it.
6/11

“Not all men/whites/etc are bad” is one that is used constantly to invalidate people sharing their frustrations and real issues with the dominant groups. It can be hard to constantly be forced to look at the problems your group is causing, but clapping back is bigotry.
7/11

Class reductionism, the idea that we can come together as working class people against the rich and racism will be solved naturally under socialism, is fundamentally racist. Its important to recognize as bigotry. It also for some reason seems to coincide with transphobia.
8/11

Similarly, people who call for unity with overtly racist groups like republicans, libertarians, anarcho-capitalists, former racist whites, boogaloo, etc are usually ready to silence any pushback. Racism masked as unity is sadly common.
9/11

So are all these people just secretly plotting to make bigotry ok?

Sometimes yeah but often it’s all subconscious. They want to be accepted and they aren’t examining their beliefs so they by instinct slowly trickle it in and look for validation.
10/11

Covert & overt bigotry are both obviously wrong but sometimes its good to know people arent doing it on purpose; its unexamined socialization more than plotting evil. Unfortunately both are highly taxing to our marginalized comrades. We have to call it out when we see it.
11/11

I think most nonwhite people would read this and go “duh” but white folks like me for some reason just seem to keep fallin for it