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A recent Boston Review piece by Lawrence B. Glickman noted the absurdity of this phrase—“We never hear anti-Semitic rhetoric described as ‘religiously tinged’”—and how the use of terms like “racially charged” and “racially tinged” coincided with racist politicians in the ‘60s and ‘70s becoming more coded, and less overt, with their racism. Like Republican strategist Lee Atwater said in 1981 about the so-called Southern Strategy: “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...”

The media bought into the pivot and continues to do so, which is both an affront to our intelligence and undermines the safety of those on the receiving end of these “racially charged” comments and policies. It’s just another example of mainstream journalists embracing right-wing propaganda and calling it objectivity.