Well, there is a fair bit of debate, yes, and I don't think that Nixon was trying to use racism to change the vote there, but I do think there was a strategy to try and improve the republican vote there - but seemed more around state rights / law and order / stronger border controls, but as an unintended result it does seem to me that people that were racist and previously voted Democrat, started voting Republican instead - and while not necessarily the intent of the leaders, does mean that people who are racist towards people of colour at least these days are more likely to vote Republican than Democrat, and unintended consequence or not, I think it means the Republican party doesn't have quite the clean sheet that they used to have.