The Race Card

 In America, as I’m sure in most other societies, there exist “code words” and phrases that carry with them very potent emotional content and/or specific political meaning. Code words and sometimes pictures (like George Herbert Walker Bush using Willie Horton) are both plentiful and dangerous.  They are also very often inaccurate, false and misleading. Case in point: “the race card.” 

These code words, mostly used by journalists and politicians, have come to mean “black people, particularly political, religious and civil rights leaders, invoking racism as the cause of every perceived slight or injustice.”  That’s just what’s on the surface. Underneath is the subliminal message that what’s being complained about isn’t racially motivated at all; even deeper the suggestion that racism is a thing of the past, so as to render the complaint devoid of merit and the complainer a slanderous demagogue.  It’s already to the point that when one is accused of “playing the race card” the impression others should get is that the injured person did something wrong or unjust.

Usually a response comes down like this: “it’s very unfortunate that in this situation the race card was played.”  Notice that it’s not unfortunate that race was or may have been a motivating factor, only that it was alleged as such.  This says that even if it proves to be racially motivated there’s a desire by some that it remain cloaked and shrouded.  Thus, the legal standard now becomes whether or not the accused uttered a racial slur while in the process of discriminating against you or beating your ass. And even then the only thing that’ll strengthen your case is a corroborating witness. Well, I’m inspired to have a very different take on “the race card.”

Imagine a slave complaining about his/her treatment and being told “stop playing the race card.”  When you finish laughing let’s leave slavery out of it and examine the following litany of complaints leveled at white America by black America for just the last 140+ years:

–          I’m being denied employment because I’m black.

–          You won’t let me vote because of my skin color

–          I can’t eat here because of my race

–          Why should I have to ride in the back of the bus?

–          What do you mean “this is a white only drinking fountain?”

–          I’m performing here, but I still must enter through the back

–          This cross was burned on my lawn because of my race.

–          “Sheriff, you were in the crowd, but you had a hood on.”

–          Ma, why is there a picnic where that black man is hanging?

–          You won’t rent to us because we’re black. 

–          What do you mean “you don’t cut black hair?”  

–          You’re depriving me of an education because of my race.

I think a “dirty dozen” entries should suffice, even though, as Rakim would say, “I could go on and on for days ….,” for America itself is the very model/embodiment of the race card ‑ white America morally hijacked by it, black America desolated by it.  And here’s the clincher: white America now says it doesn’t behave that way anymore; that it was oh so wrong, but still holds on to all of the wealth, resources and land derived from it.  It’s like the winner in a crap game admitting that he was cheating all along, but still keeps all the money.  You, then, are expected to forgive the transgression and accept crumbs and handouts for the rest of your existence.  What a crock of shit!

Yet, that’s basically how our slavery to Jim Crow relationship with America evolved.  So that after 334 years of the race card from 1620 to 1954, legally sanctioned, mind you, we find ourselves in the latest fight of our lives over a paltry 50 years of so‑called affirmative action.  I’m not advocating 334 years of affirmative action to even things up.  That won’t do it; that’ll be viewed as the equivalent of monetary reparations simply spread out over that many years and we already know that America will not give us reparations.  Besides, all Americans who oppose affirmative action are, in my opinion, correct and justified.  It was wrong and bad for 334 years, and it’s wrong and bad now.  That brings us right back to the question of how do we get the wealth that we were cheated out of?  We have to take it!  How?  By doing what many of us already get accused of doing, but what we, as a people, have never done: play the race card.  Oh, did I mention I had a very different take on the race card?

It used to be easy to identify the race card in America.  Referring to the aforementioned “dirty dozen” list who can argue that race was not the primary motivating factor, if not the only factor?  More than half of the things on the list still occur today; a couple of them outright, others driven by economics (or the lack thereof) and protected by shrewdly crafted laws.  The difference between 1954 and 2021 is that in 1954 blacks knew with certainty that their treatment was because of skin color, while in 2021 blacks can have that same certainty, but must now prove the ill treatment or discrimination was race‑based.  We are asked to doubt and second guess that which we’ve been forced through our very DNA to be experts at, that is, sensing and detecting bigotry and racism.

The new wrinkle that muddied the race card waters even more is rampant black criminality.  When you enter an elevator and the white woman clutches her purse, that’s not racism.  When white people drive through black neighborhoods in the middle of summer with their windows and doors locked (and no AC) that’s not racism either.  That’s fear!  Shit, even I roll up my window and lock the doors in some parts of the ‘hood.  The fact is, there are instances when white people are justified in behaving a certain way toward us that could be perceived as racist, yet race has very little to do with it.  So, it’s very important that we clarify this race card business and not let others keep us on the defensive.  As quiet as it’s kept we’ve yet to play the race card.  In fact, it’s time for African Americans to “really” play the race card and play it right.  No singular charismatic leader and no divisive politics; just a vanquished and impoverished people taking full advantage of a fresh opportunity to get what’s rightfully ours.  I call it our birthright of wealth and Forty Million And A Tool is the blueprint I’m suggesting will work.

I do not apologize to anyone that I admonish black people in America to play the race card of Forty Million and A Tool.  It shouldn’t threaten anyone. In fact, it’s what others have been telling us to do for the longest.  I think the world will stand up and applaud us.  We’ve been patient and we’ve played the game as our American leaders laid it out.  Year in and year out the same appalling statistics prevail.  We die quicker, we’re imprisoned disproportionately, we receive less quality health care, we earn less, we live in poverty in greater numbers, we contract HIV and other deadly viruses more and on and on and on.  How long will this bullshit go on?

My people, we talk a good one when it comes to true upliftment of black folk in America, but if you really want revolution you’d better do something revolutionary.  Understand that our entire history in America, in terms of struggle against oppression, has been characterized by this truth: anything that our oppressors seriously perceived as a threat to their power over us was crushed.  That should tell you something about all the things that were and are allowed to flourish.  They won’t produce the results we need to make us whole.  The only thing that will make us whole is our birthright.

With our birthright the education of our children will be solved because we can then pay for their primary schooling and higher learning.  Should we decide that traditionally all‑black colleges need to continue we can fund them ourselves.  Employment can be addressed comprehensively; we invest in our communities, build viable businesses and spend a sizable portion of our wealth there.  Health care and insurance gaps can be closed shut by establishing insurance companies that cover what needs to be covered without the rigmarole.  Banks and creditors won’t shut us out anymore because the fund we create will keep us firmly in the black on a month to month basis.  We can square with our creditors in a reasonable fashion and many of us can come out of hiding due to financial obligations we can’t meet.  Entrepreneurship will skyrocket as the funds will finally be there for skilled workers and craft-persons who can’t get loans from mainstream banks and lenders.  The American economy itself will explode with prosperity because we, again, have built wealth.  Only this time we did it for us.  This time we keep it.  These (and more) are the things that await us when we truly and strategically play the race card.