Excuse me, what is the "race card"? And how do you "play" it?

[chimpymustgo]

Is it any mention of race, any mention of racial inequality or disparity? Is it some kind of game?

I'm actually surprised to hear the term used at a supposedly progressive place like DU.

[ulysses]

1. context?

[chimpymustgo]

2. Race vs. poverty thread. Sharpton against Internet voting thread.

Just to name a couple of active ones in General Discussion.

But really, no need to play dumb. The term is used frequently in the media - it is in the American lexicon. I don't think it should be.

[ulysses]

5. not playing dumb.

(when I'm playing dumb the sarcasm will hit you over the head physically.)

There are different species of the race card, which is why I asked. I'm still not sure how you mean it, but ok.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. I don't know exactly what it is but

it always gets dealt from the sleeve.


(I do know that it is always played to divide instead of unite. Wish I could be more help.)

[Cheswick2.0]

4. it is only the race card if actual black people mention these issues

if the white guy candidates talk about race to people it is okay, but let a black person raise the issue and it is "playing the race card".

[EeJay]

6. More than one way to play the race card

If a white politician says something like, "Affirmative action goes against everything that Martin Luther King stood for when he said that he wanted to see a day when his children would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" and a black person responds, "I'm sorry, but that's not what Dr. King meant. He was actually IN FAVOR of affirmative action. We really wish you wouldn't invoke Dr. King to try to justify rolling back the very gains that he fought so hard for us to achieve" -

the black person is playing the race card.

Understand?

[newyawker99]

12. Hi EeJay!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[spooky3]

22. Very well said, EeJay. Hope you don't mind if I use it

when I'm at a loss to respond in a situation that your first sentence describes.

[Cheswick2.0]

28. ummmm, I disagree

bullshit.......Understand?

[PurityOfEssence]

7. Sorta like "class warfare", huh?

All groups play some version of it. Certain Israel supporters will claim anti-semitism if any actions of that country are questioned. Certain believers will scream discrimination if any attempts are made to limit the encroachment of religion. Certain females will cry sexism as will males in analogous situations.

It happens. Unfairness and emotional cheating are all the same: an attempt to dismiss opponents by tarring them as heinous bigots.

[KC21304]

9. I like your explanation very much. n/t

[DemocratSinceBirth]

8. Here Is The Most Neutral Definition of Playing The Race Card

It is using one's race to get an unfair advantage...

[BiggJawn]

10. That's what I was thinking.

When somebody says something SO outrageous that you just can't ignore it, and when you take them to task for their comment they go "Oh, so what you're saying is that a Black/White/Asian/ Green/Purple/What-EVAH man has no RIGHT to say that. Want me to sit in the back of the bus, huh?"

That's "throwing down(or playing) the Race Card".
It's an excuse, a smokescreen, a deflector shield.

I think you could say that it is a multi-cultural half-brother of the Straw Man.

[Eloriel]

11. Oh, that must mean we whites

play the race card all the time.

Gee, no one ever puts it that way, though, do they? Wonder why?

Eloriel

[DemocratSinceBirth]

13. Whites Who Blame All Their Woes

on affirmative action are playing the race card....

But there are numerous incidents of minorities playing the race card also...

All I ask is that we be judged by the same standards...

[Mairead]

17. But we're *never* judged by the same standards

That's the problem!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. I Know But It's A Worthy Goal

I agree with Sandra Day O'Connor that we should work towards a nation where affirmative action isn't needed because discrimination doesn't exist...

I don't know if we'll even get there...

[meow2u3]

14. Here's a working definition of "playing the race card"

One plays the race card when one uses his or her race to play the discrimination victim, in an effort to elicit a false sense of pity from the public, with the intention to gain an unjust advantage: invariably, an emotional ploy. Usually used as a weapon to divert voters' attention from the real problems facing our nation.

[quaker bill]

15. Race Card

Most of the definitions here seem to hit it fairly well.

There is also the inverse variety.

Sometimes this accusation is used to by the right discredit a minority speaker who is making a legitimate point. It works best when the speaker is a member of a minority group.

In this way the accusation of "playing the race card" can be a masked way for the speaker to play it him / herself.

[birdman]

16. The race card

Clarence Thomas played the race card during the Anita Hill
hearings - "high tech lynching for uppity blacks"

The white guy who claims that he can't get a job because
they're all being given to blacks is playing the race card as
is the black guy who says whitey won't let him get a job.

Republicans play the race card when a black or Hispanic right wing extremist judge doesn't get confirmed.

Al Sharpton has built his career by playing the race card and
is doing it again with internet voting.

[Blondie BaDass]

18. reply

It is when someone uses "race" to either imply discrimination, or explaine actions.

Example:

A black police officer was pulled over by a white sheriff's deputy for failing to use his blinker when changing lanes on the Turpike and for having a obstructed license plate on his vehicle. Both of these are traffic violations. The black officer jumped out of his car and started screaming at the other white officer that he was not going to be F---ed with (pardon my language) and refused to hand over his license. The black officer informed the white office he had a gun on his waist, so the white officer asked him to place it on the seat of his vehicle and step away. The black officer refused. The white office called for back up and when they arrived, he explained the situation. The black office continued to scream and yell about no getting a ticket and to make a long story short, he was told to place his hands on his head and turn around. He refused 4 times. They warned him that they would use pepper spray if he did not cooperate, He still refused. The black officer then swung at one of the other officers and a fight ensued. The black officer was arrested and charged with "resisting arrest" "battery on a 2 officers" (both felonies) and the original traffic violations. After reaching the jail and getting his lawyer, he then claimed the only reason he was stopped in the first place was because he was black and driving a new car. (playing the race card). He went to court and won claiming discrimination despite the fact that the whole thing was video taped from the white officers car at the time.

That is playing the race card.

[Isome]

21. WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

Since you didn't know, you should have asked somebody!

The Black officer was upset because he knew he'd been pulled over on false pretenses. That particular stretch of highway is well known for pulling over vehicles driven by Black people, above all others.

He won because he was right! He didn't need to engage in 'crying wolf' about discrimination, he was totally correct in decrying the use of racial profiling. Though he wasn't an officer of the law in that jurisdiction, being a part of law enforcement in that region, he was well aware of their illegal habits. So were many others in that part of the country. That's why he won. The courts knew it, too. They'd received numerous complaints and some national attention about it.

I've watched those "caught on video" shows wherein non-blacks were so irrational, disrespectful, and out of control, I thought, naively, that they'd soon be hauled out of the car and taken into custody. With the exception of one woman (in Canada), they were not. The officers took the unwarranted abuse and sent them on their way with merely a ticket. In the instance of Officer Campbell, he reacted as any one would who knew he was being illegally stopped -- there is no law that one must signal to change lanes on the highways of Florida. They knew that, but tried to lie and say there was. He reacted by refusing to cooperate with their weasel-like requests to search his car, his person, etc. He was mad as hell and didn't want to take it.

[kalian]

20. When you criticize Israel....

you're branded an anti-semite....

[Yupster]

23. I'll give a try

Playing the race card is when you attempt to win an argument by using race when race really has nothing or little to do with the argument.

An example would be the Democratic legislators in Texas trying to stop redistricting by filing Civil Rights lawsuits.

Or trying to stop the California recall vote in court on Civil Rights grounds.

[Isome]

24. redistricting ...

That is a valid suit. Try another.

[Bridget Burke]

25. If you got dealt that particular card...

It's your right to play it. It may or may not be the right approach to winning the hand.

I've never heard the phrase uttered by anyone who isn't a lily white racist. Not so much your basic redneck--mostly the more-educated yuppie type who is above it all.

[alphafemale]

30. ...force dealt from the bottom of the deck at that.

And then you shouldn't play the hand you were dealt?

It sickens me when rich white conservatives evoke the name of Martin.

Almost as much as when they evoke the name of Jesus.

They are modern Pharisees twisting everything to their purpose.

[Isome]

26. Still waiting on a fellow Democrat...

...to explain why they dismiss the validity of the Texas redistricting lawsuit. I'm eager to know why it is considered "playing the race card"?

A response like that from a Democrat is more disappointing than hearing it from some looney freeper, or anyone else. Our party is supposed to be comprised of people who "know" better (are more enlightened and knowledgeable) and at least try to do better (make wiser choices & listen when they don't know about an issue).

::..:Texas Redistricting:..::

In a memorandum from Texas Gov. Perry’s expert, Professor John Alford, he says that the proposed redistricting plan violates federal laws pertaining to voting districts.

The proposed plan appears to violate the United States Constitution's prohibition on racial gerrymandering. The three districts that could be struck down as racial gerrymanders are CD's 9, 15, and 29. Those districts suffer from the many of the same characteristics as those struck down by the federal courts, including Texas. See Vera v. Bush.

"At each turn the proposed plan reveals a single overearching flaw – a disregard for the abilities and preferences for the voters of Texas. Wherever the voters have chosen not to elect candidates of the ‘correct’ race, ethnicity, or political party, the proposed plan attempts to dictate the ‘correct’ outcome by substituting the judgment of those drawing the lines for the judgment of the voters."

[Yupster]

27. Hope you haven't been waiting all day Isome

I've been watching football.

IMO, the Texas redistricting fight is an attempt by the Republicans to gerrymander the state to get the maximum number of Republican House members elected.

The reason the Democrats are fighting it so hard is that they want to keep the maximum number of Democratic House members.

It's as simple as that. Very understandable, very predictable. It's done in most states. Each side wants to maximize their own numbers.

There's no reason to throw race into the mix. It's just "R's" and "D's". To me trying to stop it on Civil Rights grounds is playing the race card.

[Isome]

33. "There's no reason to throw race into the mix."

That's the point! Though race is a factor, with respect to racial gerrymandering, it's not the only factor pertinent to violating one's civil rights. The very act of redrawing district lines to influence electing officials from one party or another is a violation of all citizens civil rights. The fact that the GOP's redistricting map is crude and glaringly obvious is another story.

The only nexus between the civil rights lawsuit and "playing the race card" is in the minds of those who see civil rights as an issue based only on race.

[Bridget Burke]

34. So, it's just a coincidence

That all the Senators who fled to New Mexico were minorities?

Except for Whitmire, that is--the guy who gave up.

[Cheswick2.0]

29. I am with you

there are a lot of people here who need to learn about racial gerrymandering.

[shugah]

31. actually, you are on the right track

there is no "race card." it's just a made up phrase that wingnuts use to try to disguise the fact that they really don't care much for or about minorities. when dems or others indicate concern for such minorities, they call it "playing the race card," thus implying that the dems or others don't really care either.

i'm sure that there are some dems or others that fit the characterization, and there is even some attempt on the lefter side of the street to adopt the false phrase and turn it around, but it doesn't work so well, as everyone already knows that the right doesn't care much about minorities.

uttering "playing the race card" actually translates to: "we don't care about minorities. stop pretending you do." this applies even if the individual/group/statement actually does care about the issues of minorities.

there is no "race card." there are just people who hope to address racial issues, and people who would prefer to dismiss those issues.

[LalahLand]

32. The History of the Mysterious Race Card...

Once upon a time in America, there were two words that seldom if ever were found next to each other: one was "race;" the other was "card." Then, in what became a landmark case, defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, while trying to do his job, mentioned that the only evidence that linked the defendant to the crime was held by a known racist. Did that needlessly cloud the issue? Or was Cochran, as a competent defense attorney, merely doing his job by showing "reasonable doubt"?

In jest, an African-American entertainer made a thought-provoking point: "If Jerry Springer was accused of a crime and the only evidence against him was supplied by Louis Farrakhan, would that evidence not be considered tainted and thrown out of a court of law?" Oh, but it wasn't Jerry Springer, it was Orenthal James Simpson. And thus, consideration of the point was "pulling the race card."

What is this "race card"? Something that black people carry in their back pockets and use when it's convenient? Some magic card to protect blacks from injustice? Some "ace in the hole" for this poker game of a life we play in the land of the free? I'm checking my wallet. I don't have one. I'm asking my neighbor who was stopped by police so that they could ask if the Lexus he was driving belongs to him, and nope, he doesn't have one either. I checked with my mother who was passed over (again) for the promotion she deserved, and her wallet too was card-less. Maybe only " select few African-Americans" carry such a card. Let's check the headlines:

Four Caucasian officers fired 41 shots at 22-year-old Amadou Diallo. Diallo was hit by 19 bullets in the Bronx, New York. Could he have pulled out his "race card" to prevent this shooting?

Nineteen-year-old African-American Tyisha Miller was shot to death while sitting in her car at a gas station in Riverside, California. She was hit 12 times by gunfire by four white officers who were called to give her aid. Could she have pulled out her "race card" to prevent the officers from shooting at her?

James Byrd, an African-American male, was dragged behind a pickup truck in Texas driven by three racist, young men. Would his "race card" have stopped such a tragedy from occurring?

No, this "race card" is no magic "save me" card. It's no trump card. The "race card" is a term created by the media-the same media that portrays racial discrimination as imaginary, as a smoke screen used by black people, as a haze that doesn't exist except to fit black people's own selfish needs.

The reality of it is, there is no such thing as a race card. Racism is real, and its depths are only reached through experience. Racism has many faces. It's about race. It's about power. It's about superiority. It's about a false caste system. But in its purest form, it's about greed and money. In a society where five percent of the population owns 80 percent of the wealth and intends to keep it that way, the rich keep working class white and black folks down by making them think it's the other race's fault that they don't have riches. We can understand how a person in the media can be tricked into using this term if he or she has never experienced racism firsthand. But when a black person uses the "race card" term, it is pretty surprising.


http://www.yaaams.org/racecard.shtml

[Mairead]

35. Nice one!