And besides, how do you describe "urban crime" and "law and order" with any other term?
on this point, you are right. Plenty of people did understand law and order in racial terms, but the growing threat from crime was a perfectly understandable concern at the time. Besides, the conflation of "law and order" - whether racist or not - and the "Southern Strategy" is just confused. The former was campaign was directed toward urban areas across all regions. The latter was directed toward the mostly rural Upper South and was more anti-Yankee than anything else.
Poll
