Dear White People:

Don’t Talk About Race Cards

Unless you want to talk about who built the deck (you did)

Pulling the “Race Card”

“Pulling the race card” is a fascinating expression in the American lexicon. Typically, this phrase is used to allege that someone has deliberately and/or falsely accused another person (or a thing) of being a racist or something. More to the point, this is a phrase uttered mostly by whites (and the appointed pets of whites) in order to blow off the problem at hand.

“Why does it always have to be about race with you?” ~ white people

I remember specifically when a friend of mine (white, male) said this. I pointed out that technically:

A person ignorant of the science of a healthy mouth probably won’t see the cavities in your teeth, but an actual dentist who is trained in the science will see cavities and other ailments of the mouth that you won’t normally see.

I used this as a parallel to point out how psychology and sociology help train a person to better observe social ills.

Interestingly, he didn’t really care for a logical explanation. He didn’t care about getting assistance to find clarity on the subject.

What he wanted to do, is use a rhetorical device to not only pivot away from the conversation, he wanted to blame me for racism in a passive-aggressive manner, as if “only if I didn’t observe these things they will all go away.”

He wanted to shut me the fuck up.

Needless to say, he’s no longer a friend of mine. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

White Fragility Strikes Again

For some strange reason ( read: white fragility), white people infinitely seek to duck and dodge any honest conversation on racism, especially when it’s a sociologically aware Black person speaking.

The remarkable thing about this is that this isn’t just a sub-cultural thing that’s tied down to a specific region of the United States; white people from all over America do this. And due to our racist socialization process in America, this feature is white people’s auto-pilot.

White people silence Black people without even thinking about what they are even doing. As I said, this is their auto-pilot; their default programming.

And go through the five stages of grief when you explain to them how they are wrong. (This is another subject I’ll approach in the future. Trust me.)

You don’t have to talk about any particular person either; discuss any system or institution and you will provoke this white flight-or-fight response. Ever seen an old Jackie Chan flick where he jumps, flips, and ducks everything? That’s what white people do when they see the discussion of racism looming on the horizon.

Because of this, the concept of calling something the race card is merely a rhetorical device weaponized in an effort to devalue and minimize the statement or conversation at hand. It’s a silencing tactic.

Strategic Use of Weaponized Phrases

“Here we go with the race card…” ~ White People

The use of the phrase “race card” tells a lot about who is saying it.

For the most part, whoever uses this term is usually looking to silence Black people. It’s worth noting that the concept of a race card being used is never used when someone is diminishing the humanity of Black people as a whole, whether in coded language or explicitly racist. No one ever invokes this term when a white person is using white racial animus to procure votes, for example.

No one ever called Donald Trump out, for example, for pulling the race card when he attacks Black athletes, but never has the same words for progressive white coaches or even progressive white rappers, like Eminem.

While I wouldn’t know due to the exclusionary nature of the circumstance, I highly doubt white people even use this among whites when there are no nonwhites in the room. Progressive white folk who are allies and assets, please share your experience on this down below. I’m curious.

Now it’s possible for this term to exist in a neutral sense, it most certainly does not. This term exists for the sole purpose of silencing Black people, policing Black thought, and protecting white privilege and white comfort.

This is more about the white reluctance to acknowledge racism, which isn’t new at all. Invoking this term functions to protect white people from white guilt so they can remain selectively sociopathic to Black people.

An American History of Gaslighting

Speaking on white reluctance to acknowledge racism, I think it’s proper to point out that technically when a white person invokes this term, they are implying that you, the Black person, are a liar.

White people are practically saying you are totally making shit up, with an inventive imagination, with reckless abandon. Not caring to understand a Black person’s perspective in American society isn’t a new thing. In fact, white people created a multitude of false sciences on such.

For example, Drapetomania is a term created by a white “doctor” named Samuel A. Cartwright. Drapetomania is a term he invented to describe the reason why a Black slave would run from slavery, as if, slavery was so great and it’s totally baffling to a white person as to why so many Black slaves ran away, or fought back, or burned houses down. Dr. Cartwright, then stated that the “medical remedy” to this was to “beat the devil out of” (read: maim, mutilate, torture) that Black person, or cut off both big toes (to hinder effective running).

White people, left to their own devices, figured that it was crazy to run from racism, and committed greater acts of harm to stop it. And that was their baseline normal, devoid of listening to Black voices, concerning race relations.

The phrase “pulling the race card” has a lot to do with the term drapetomania conceptually. Both terms are invented in a world devoid of Black thought, Black reason, and Black humanity. Both terms were invented by white people speaking to only white people concerning the Afro-American experience.

Both terms were created to disregard Black personhood.

Both terms were designed to silence black people.

Poisoning the Well Fallacy

At its core, it has to be known that the term “pulling the race card” is a classic poisoning the well fallacy. The poisoning the well fallacy is an error in logic where someone attempts to sully the logic of a person provided that they come from the pre-attacked standpoint. If an ad hominem fallacy functions as direct gunfire, poisoning the well functions as a landmine; step there, and get blown up.

Invoking the term “race card” against Black people speaking on racism is in effect, a smear tactic. Its purpose is the discredit the person before they speak further.

So fuck white supremacy, and fuck anyone who uses this rhetorical device.

And fuck you too. (I’m just joking. Subscribe.)

Conclusion

As a Black abolitionist or one of any form, it’s one’s civic duty to continue to press the conversation and not get sidetracked by nonsensical claims. One should not allow a cryptic-bigot, alt-right, white supremacist, or Americanized Nazi sympathizer to derail a topic that they deem difficult due to their whiteness to protect.

When a white person or pet-to-white-supremacy person accuses me of “pulling the race card”, I always retort as such:

“If you want to talk about race cards, you gotta talk about who built the deck.”

Interestingly, when someone mentions a race card, that same person who invokes never wants to talk about who built the deck, who printed the cards, who dealt the cards, and who is really cheating in this card game they speak of.

You can use this retort, by the way. Just remember where you got it from.

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