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The term "playing the race card" is racist.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/01/25/is-the-phrase-playing-the-race-card-as-racist-as-it-sounds-you-bet-it-is/Today in American politics, the phrase “playing the race card” is still being used by pundits, politicians, and media outlets to either dismiss or downplay a very serious issue. Using the term is a form of denial, a way of talking about racism, while still pretending that it doesn’t really exist.
When understood in its historical context, the phrase is deeply rooted in racism. Just as John Tenniel’s 1862 illustration portrayed the issue of slavery as just another ‘card’ in a game, the phrase that is most often connected to that image is used to trivialize issues like police brutality and disparity in the criminal justice system – issues that are anything but trivial.
There is no ‘race card’. Racism is not a game. The phrase ‘playing the race card’ can and should be removed from our national language. Without it, racist politicians and frightened Tea Party ‘patriots’ would be forced to face and address the issues, instead of consistently hiding behind meaningless catch phrases, meant to detract from them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/opinion/charles-blow-stop-playing-the-race-card-card.html
It is one thing to debate the presence of racial motive in a circumstance, but it is quite another to suggest that people who suspect a racial component are exploiting some mythological, vaunted position and prerogative of aggrieved groups or exerting the exclusionary authority of the dominant group.
And furthermore, what other forms of discrimination are so routinely diminished and delegitimized in this way — cast as a game, a tactic or a stratagem?
The truth is that the people who accuse others — without a shred of evidence — of “playing the race card,” claiming that the accusations of racism are so exaggerated as to dull the meaning of the term, are themselves playing a card. It is a privileged attempt at dismissal.
They seek to do the very thing they condemn: shut down the debate with a scalding-hot charge.
30 replies
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http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2008/04/play-race-card.html (whole thing is worth reading - hard to choose what to copy)
As I pointed out in an earlier post ("explain away racist incidents"
, whites often imply that they know more about what it is to live as a non-white person than non-white people themselves do. Derogatory charges of "playing the race card" are often another instance of this tendency.
However, an irony here is that whites have race cards of their own, and they do often play them. Indeed, as Wise goes on to explain in his article, this common white response--the denial of non-white interpretations of reality--is itself the playing of a card, a move that Wise calls the "denial card." To continue with the extended metaphor of a card game, if the first card, played by minorities, is perceived as a "race card," then this white denial card played in response is a race card too (it's one of several common instances of "white denial" that Wise describes).
Actually, there are many other circumstances in which whites commonly play a race card. In most cases, though, they don't seem to realize that they're doing so (so really, it's somewhat difficult to blame them for doing so). When they step to the curb of a busy street, for example, and raise a hand to hail a taxi, they expect empty taxis to stop for them. And if any empty taxis don't stop, they rarely if ever think that those taxis didn't stop because of their own skin color. But such is not the case, of course, for those who wear, say, black skin. As so many who wear it have pointed out, even if their black skin is mostly encased in very expensive, "professional" clothing, it can be difficult to get a taxi to pick them up.
When the white passenger steps to the curb and raises her hand, it's as if that hand has a card in it, a card that bears the word "white."
http://racisminamerica.org/why-racists-and-the-privilege-believe-in-playing-the-race-card/
Racial injustice is not a “game,” racial disparity is not a “card,” and the oppressed are not willing “players.” Accusing someone of playing the race card completely marginalizes their experience.
Racism consists of numerous elements to maintain the positions and powers of the dominant society. Part of that power is permeated in white skin privilege. The benefit is not something that white people do, create, or enjoy purposely. Unlike the more overt individual and institutional manifestations of racism, white skin privilege is a transparent preference for whiteness that saturates our society. It serves as “several functions,” including providing white people with “perks”‘ that are not earnable and those that people of color cannot enjoy. Also, white skin privilege immunes those from certain challenges that minorities are subjected to and shapes the world in which we live—the way that we navigate and interact with one another.
Having such an advantage not only blinds those to systematic racism, but prevents them from understanding or empathizing with the oppressed. Furthermore, it is easier to ignore, overlook, deny, or marginalize racial inequality than to project the voices of the oppressed through acknowledgement. Thus when racism is exploited, the race card is being played, racism is being discounted and will “hopefully” just go away.
In layman terms, the expression says that “because it doesn’t happen to me, it doesn’t exist.” It is an insidious racial microaggression that aims to subvert claims of racism and its impact. The phrase prevents the accuser from not only being able to recognize their tone and insensitivity to the subject, but also to challenge their own bigotry and bias.
As I pointed out in an earlier post ("explain away racist incidents"
, whites often imply that they know more about what it is to live as a non-white person than non-white people themselves do. Derogatory charges of "playing the race card" are often another instance of this tendency.
However, an irony here is that whites have race cards of their own, and they do often play them. Indeed, as Wise goes on to explain in his article, this common white response--the denial of non-white interpretations of reality--is itself the playing of a card, a move that Wise calls the "denial card." To continue with the extended metaphor of a card game, if the first card, played by minorities, is perceived as a "race card," then this white denial card played in response is a race card too (it's one of several common instances of "white denial" that Wise describes).
Actually, there are many other circumstances in which whites commonly play a race card. In most cases, though, they don't seem to realize that they're doing so (so really, it's somewhat difficult to blame them for doing so). When they step to the curb of a busy street, for example, and raise a hand to hail a taxi, they expect empty taxis to stop for them. And if any empty taxis don't stop, they rarely if ever think that those taxis didn't stop because of their own skin color. But such is not the case, of course, for those who wear, say, black skin. As so many who wear it have pointed out, even if their black skin is mostly encased in very expensive, "professional" clothing, it can be difficult to get a taxi to pick them up.
When the white passenger steps to the curb and raises her hand, it's as if that hand has a card in it, a card that bears the word "white."
http://racisminamerica.org/why-racists-and-the-privilege-believe-in-playing-the-race-card/
Racial injustice is not a “game,” racial disparity is not a “card,” and the oppressed are not willing “players.” Accusing someone of playing the race card completely marginalizes their experience.
Racism consists of numerous elements to maintain the positions and powers of the dominant society. Part of that power is permeated in white skin privilege. The benefit is not something that white people do, create, or enjoy purposely. Unlike the more overt individual and institutional manifestations of racism, white skin privilege is a transparent preference for whiteness that saturates our society. It serves as “several functions,” including providing white people with “perks”‘ that are not earnable and those that people of color cannot enjoy. Also, white skin privilege immunes those from certain challenges that minorities are subjected to and shapes the world in which we live—the way that we navigate and interact with one another.
Having such an advantage not only blinds those to systematic racism, but prevents them from understanding or empathizing with the oppressed. Furthermore, it is easier to ignore, overlook, deny, or marginalize racial inequality than to project the voices of the oppressed through acknowledgement. Thus when racism is exploited, the race card is being played, racism is being discounted and will “hopefully” just go away.
In layman terms, the expression says that “because it doesn’t happen to me, it doesn’t exist.” It is an insidious racial microaggression that aims to subvert claims of racism and its impact. The phrase prevents the accuser from not only being able to recognize their tone and insensitivity to the subject, but also to challenge their own bigotry and bias.
"Spurious accusations of racism for political points are called what, then?"
Spurious accusations of racism for political points... 
Though I realize the importance of shorthand and truncating an idea into a bullet point for the purposes of business memos and the mentally lazy.
There is nothing racist about the term. The is double edged and may mean either
- That one is using a racist dog whistle in order to disparage a racial minority; or
- That one making a frivolous or unfounded charge of racism against his opponent.
To put it another way, "playing the race card" is dirty politics and we shouldn't stand for it.
It is a little less subtle to appeal for votes simply because one is of a particular race or gender. It often makes me feel pressured to vote for a candidate who is crooked down to his or her socks, or, especially in the case of "vote for me because I'm a white male and God intended white males to govern this country," that the appeal come from the kind of candidate who would exclude women or minorities from civic life, a candidate I never vote for in the first place. Since this sort of thing isn't at all subtle, I don't regard this as "playing the race card" as much as it is just nuts.
Charging that one "plays the race card" (or the "gender card"
runs the risk opening up a distracting subdebate as to the merits of the accusation. One may be playing the race/gender card (Bernie Sanders is a racist/misogynist) or simply stating an empirical fact that is beyond serious dispute (Donald Trump is a racist/misogynist).
