William Brangham:

After all the debate, in the end, the House did vote to condemn the president's tweets. It was a vote almost entirely along partisan lines. Four Republicans and one independent joined the Democrats.

Now, we're not here to debate whether or not the president's words were racist. Instead, we want to explore how those tweets and the ferocious reaction to them are part of a long history of what one of my guests calls the racial theater of American politics.

Joining me now is Erika Lee. She's the director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, and she's writing a book on the history of xenophobia in America. And Ian Haney Lopez is a professor of public law at U.C. Berkeley who studies coded racial language in America. He's the author of "Dog Whistle Politics."

Welcome to you both, and thank you for being here.

Ian Haney Lopez, to you first.

You're the one I was quoting about this racial theater in American politics. I wonder if you could just help us zoom out a little bit from this week's controversy and help us explain how this theater plays out. What does this play look like?