Politics | Barack Obama Obama Sends Messages Whites Don't Hear "Dog-whistle" politics lets prez court blacks without alienating whites By Gabriel Winant Posted Mar 3, 2009 9:44 AM CST Copied Spectators react as Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., works the crowd during a rally on the College of Charleston campus in Charleston, S.C., Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast) It’s no surprise that President Obama has a strong connection with black Americans. But how did he manage to avoid being pigeonholed Jesse Jackson-style? Nia-Malika Henderson writes in Politico that Obama uses “dog-whistle politics," employing allusions, cadences—even a swagger—that resonate with black Americans but go largely unnoticed by whites. In January Obama referred to “American dreams that are being deferred,” a Langston Hughes reference that black audiences got without a citation. Ditto for “they try to bamboozle you”—a Malcolm X reference used during the primaries. One linguist says that even his “Yes, we can!” wouldn’t work for a white pol. But Obama's hardly the first to use dog-whistle politics: "Deft practitioner" George W. Bush tapped in to the evangelical community using Biblical phrases and lines from church hymns. Read These Next Actor Sam Rockwell gets residuals from movie he wasn't in. Gavin Newsom has filed a massive lawsuit against Fox News. Rick Hurst, Dukes of Hazzards' dopey deputy, dies at 79 Mid Report an error