I'll let Lee Atwater explain the Southern Strategy in his own words. Atwater was a political advisor to Strom Thurmond (who opposed civil rights, voting rights, and integration), and Ronald Reagan (who launched devastatingly racist policies).

https://youtu.be/X_8E3ENrKrQ

"If you hate Black people, vote for us! Our whole platform is just hurting them as much as possible!" is a very effective campaign slogan in the US. 🤷🏿‍♂️

Atwater was very effective at getting racist Republicans elected using a combination of this thinly veiled racism and dirty campaign tricks.

Howard University is one of the best Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the US. Because of how racism works, some deeply misguided people tried to add Lee Atwater to the board of trustees of Howard University. 🤡🤦🏿‍♂️

The students (who had studied white US history) did not like that. They got the president fired and Atwater removed.

Lots of people wonder if the devastating outcomes of Nixon's and Reagan's policies were not racism, but just a series of unfortunate coincidences. Luckily, Reagan and Nixon said lots of racist things to remove all doubt.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z7GLJsclRi8

It's easy to see interpersonal racism. It's hard to see systemic racism.

Right now someone reading this is more shocked at the racist things that Reagan and Nixon said, than at their policies.🙂🙃

Everyone wants to know which politician said the N-word or wore Blackface. No one wants to know who shut down mental health facilities (Reagan), or started the war on drugs (Nixon), or made college tuition unaffordable for Black folk (Nixon), or broke the tax code (Reagan).

This hurts white folk too. Today a white woman that's $80K in student loan debt and has no health insurance is standing on a subway platform, scared that a white homeless man with untreated mental illness might attack her. 🤷🏿‍♂️