Race card

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Playing the race card is an idiomatic phrase, referring to an allegation raised against a person who, the accuser feels, has unnecessarily brought the issue of race or racism into a debate so as to obfuscate the matter. It is a metaphorical reference to card games in which a trump card may be used to gain an advantage. The allegation tends to stir up controversy.

The phrase is 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. 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" [[1]] in trying to present Mark Fuhrman as a racist and thus not a reliable witness against Simpson. Another example would be a criticism of Georgia Representative Cynthia McKinney's assertion that she was the victim of "racial profiling" [[2]] after she physically attacked a Capitol police officer who had asked her to show her identification at a security checkpoint.

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.

There is no limit to possible constructions, and similar phrases have also been used, such as "Playing the religion card", "Playing the anti-Semite card" (or in German: Auschwitzkeule), or "Playing the cancer card."

[edit] Other uses

The race card is also the list of horses and races at a horse racing event.
Race Card is also a song by Ice Cube that serves as the theme for the reality show Black. White.
Race Card is also the title of the second episode of Doggy Fizzle Televizzle