Race card
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Playing the race card is an idiomatic phrase referring to an allegation raised against a person who has brought the issue of race or racism into a debate, perhaps to obfuscate the matter. It is a metaphorical reference to card games in which a trump card may be used to gain an advantage.
In the less critical sense, the phrase is commonly used in two contexts. In the first, and more common context, it alleges that someone has falsely accused another person of being a racist in order to gain some sort of advantage. [1] An example of this use of the term occurred during the O.J. Simpson criminal trial, when critics accused the defense of "playing the race card"[2] in presenting Mark Fuhrman's racist past (e.g. his recorded use of the word "nigger" in addition to his being accused of tampering with murder evidence in prior cases, as well as his use of the Fifth Amendment to avoid potential self-incrimination upon questioning) as a reason to draw his credibility as a witness into question. Another example would be a criticism of Georgia Representative Cynthia McKinney's assertion that she was the victim of "racial profiling"[3] after she allegedly struck a United States Capitol police officer who had grabbed her at a security checkpoint. A more recent example would be criticism of Yale University student Jian Li's formal complaint against Princeton University, which asserted that Princeton and other elite universities discriminate against Asian Americans while setting the admissions bar lower for other minorities, including African Americans and Hispanic Americans.
In the second context, it refers to someone exploiting prejudice against another race for political or some other advantage. The use of the southern strategy by a political candidate is said by some to be a version of "playing the race card", such as when former Senator Jesse Helms, during his 1990 North Carolina Senate campaign ran an ad showing a black man taking a white man's job, intended as a criticism of the idea of racial quotas. The ad was interpreted by many people as trying to play to racist fears among white voters.
On the other hand, George Dei, Karumanchery, et alia in their book Playing the Race Card [4] argue that the term itself is a rhetorical device used in an effort to devalue and minimize claims of racism.
"Race Card" is also a song by Ice Cube.
[edit] References
- ^ BBC News: Playing the race card: Trump or joker?
- ^ Wickham, DeWayne, Spare Cochran legacy of 'race card' label, USA Today, 2005-04-04
- ^ AlterNet: Politicians Playing the Race Card
- ^ Dei, George Jerry Sefa; Leeno Luke Karumanchery (January 2004). Playing the Race Card: Exposing White Power and Privilege, 1st ed., New York: Peter Lang USA. ISBN 978-0820467528. OCLC 51266234.
