Race card

Usage

The phrase is generally used by people to allege that someone has deliberately and falsely accused another person or group of people 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 murder case, when critics accused the defense of "playing the race card", in presenting Mark Fuhrman's past as reasons to draw his credibility as a witness into question.

The Republican Southern Strategy has been characterised as an early example of exploiting racist sentiments for political mobilization and exaggerating the threat of the civil rights movement. Consequently, this strategy facilitated the transformation of the Southern states from a Democratic to Republican political stronghold.

Stanford Law School professor Richard Thompson Ford has argued that the race card can be played independently of the person making the claim, or the race in question. An example cited was the Hillary Clinton campaign's assertion that Barack Obama won the 2008 Democratic primary in South Carolina owing to the disproportionate number of black registered Democrats in the state, implying more racism in the general population.

George Dei, et al., in the book Playing the Race Card, argue that the term itself is a rhetorical device used in an effort to devalue and minimize claims of racism.

Other uses

The phrase has been used to describe racist mobilisations by politicians, as for example with the campaign to elect Peter Griffiths, the Conservative Party candidate for Smethwick in the 1964 UK general election. However, the term was only applied to describe this situation in the 1980s.

Malaysian politics

In February 2008, Group Chief Editor Wong Chun Wai of The Star wrote, just before the Malaysia general election came, there is an unusual degree of tolerance and flexibility in matters of race, language and religion as politicians try to woo the people. "Also, there are those who still continue to play the race card, in this age and time. At their party conferences each year, they play to the gallery by projecting themselves as the communal heroes. But during the general election, they shamelessly become the true Malaysian leaders we dream of. They greet their voters in Malay, English, Mandarin and Tamil; and if they can speak all these languages fluently, they would do so."

In August 2006, the Singapore Institute of International Affairs wrote that Malaysia politician Khairy Jamaluddin "played the race card" by stirring up the Malays and the Chinese Malaysian community. Responding to criticisms and demands for an apology, Khairy said his remarks were misunderstood and he "will not apologize" as he was acting only "in defense of the Malays and his party" and that "if we truly fight for our race, one should not apologize".

References

References

1. "to play the race card".
2. "play the race card".
3. "race card".
4. Schraub, David. "Playing with Cards: Discrimination Claims and the Charge of Bad Faith." Social Theory and Practice 42, no. 2 (2016): 285-303. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24871344.
5. (16 January 2020). "The 'playing the race card' accusation is just a way to silence us".
6. (21 September 2014). "America's Many Faces". Lulu.com.
7. (12 June 2012). "Race and Ethnicity: The Basics". Routledge.
8. (2001-04-24). "Playing the race card: Trump or joker?". [[BBC News]].
9. Wickham, DeWayne. (2005-04-04). "Spare Cochran legacy of 'race card' label". [[USA Today]].
10. (20 August 2009). "Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States". Indiana University Press.
11. (2013). "Transcending Blackness: From the New Millennium Mulatta to the Exceptional Multiracial". Duke University Press.
12. (24 April 2014). "The Persuadable Voter: Wedge Issues in Presidential Campaigns". Princeton University Press.
13. Ford, Richard Thompson. (2008). "The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse". [[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]].
14. Dei, George Jerry Sefa. (January 2004). "Playing the Race Card: Exposing White Power and Privilege". [[Peter Lang (publishing company).
15. "Play the race card". Gary Martin.
16. Wai, Wong Chun. (2008-02-10). "All for the sake of winning votes". [[The Star (Malaysia).
17. (2006-08-29). "Use of race card stirs controversy in Malaysia". [[Singapore Institute of International Affairs]].