Governing with Words

Since the 1990s, presidents have made great efforts to address health and health inequality. President Clinton tried, though unsuccessfully, to implement universal health insurance coverage; President George W. Bush expanded Medicare and implemented a strong drug prescription program; and President Obama reformed the health care system with the Affordable Care Act. These events have allowed government to play a larger role in citizens’ health. Alongside the increasing trend of governments’ attention to health there has been a separate trend, a decline in politicians’ discussion of racial issues. Interestingly, the dialogue taking place in government to implement and evaluate health policies and programs has included fewer discussions of racial and ethnic minority concerns over time.

We saw in Chapter 3 that presidents do receive some degree of pushback when they discuss issues of race. Their overall approval ratings drop and the nation questions their leadership. However, there are two sides to the public's reception to the issue of race. Although the majority in this nation pushes back on these issues, discussions of race benefit the minority community, and this chapter presents an example of this benefit in the area of health awareness. As we shall see, presidents’ discussions of health that highlight aspects of race shape the social agenda for black and Latino institutions, and minority citizens adopt this new agenda in ways that influence their individual attitudes.

By moving beyond the scope of public policy to explore cultural norms, this chapter provides a new prism through which to understand the race-conscious versus race-neutral debate. The chapter is not explicitly political but instead highlights lifestyle magazines and discussions of health. Nevertheless, it demonstrates that racial dialogue in government influences and is widely interconnected to the nonpolitical aspects of citizens’ lives.

The chapter begins by discussing the consequences and benefits that stem from a race-conscious dialogue within government. It then narrows in on the benefits that presidents’ remarks may have on marginalized groups.