Flip the Script: Politicians Usage of Racialized Code-Switching for Engagement

• In Event: Can You Hear Me Now? Language Effects in Political Campaigns

Abstract

The political communication literature establishes that politicians adopt “home styles,” which amount to public actions that align with the preferences of their constituencies. While this literature has shifted to consider the nationalization of politics, we propose a study of home style opinion that centers on racial and ethnic identity and the use of code-switching by American politicians. In this paper, we employ text-analysis methods to determine whether the use and frequency of code-switching influence political competition, candidate evaluations, and voting patterns. We consider code-switching a manifestation of home style commonly used by political minorities. The consequences of code-switching become crucial to understand as political elites continue to diversify. This study demonstrates how minority candidates fare when communicating in styles opposite to the dominant culture in the US.

Authors

• Saliha Garcia, Texas A&M University

• Lindsey Paola González, Texas A&M University