Race Card, Playing the

“Playing the race card” is a derogatory phrase that refers to unnecessarily and inflammatorily interjecting the issue of race into a discussion, particularly when dealing with important sociopolitical events or criminal justice issues. It is extremely important to the study of criminal justice because of the need to accurately understand the true nature of crime and victimization rather than being distracted by superfluous issues that have little to do with a given problem. The race card can victimize members of any race but is most commonly aimed at portraying Whites as racist. Playing the race card has become standard operating procedure today concerning the issue of illegal immigration.

Typically, the race card is played as a way of obfuscating issues. For example, when Cynthia McKinney (former U.S. House of Representatives member from Georgia) physically attacked a Capitol Hill police officer in Washington, D.C., and was subsequently arrested, race card players argued that she was being targeted because she was Black and not because of her abusive and assaultive behavior. Similarly, when Ray Rhodes was fired as the head coach of the National Football League's Green Bay Packers, it was argued that it was not because of missing the playoffs with a mediocre 8–8 record, but because he was Black. In New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin was given ample warning that Hurricane Katrina was headed directiy toward his city, one that is below sea level and therefore vulnerable to flooding. Rather than use all available school buses to evacuate the city, he chose to do little. Mayor Nagin delayed the evacuation order, had no one ready to drive the buses, neglected to prepare the Superdome with supplies, and allowed looters to run amok while police stood by. The race card players choose to blame the resulting deaths not on an incompetent Black mayor but rather on racism emanating from Washington, D.C. Former President George W. Bush, a Republican, was routinely excoriated because of a poor response by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and some critics charged that he intentionally let people die in New Orleans because poor Blacks have a history of voting overwhelmingly Democratic. Playing the race card made it more difficult to objectively analyze the cause of the flood damage as well as how to improve the response of federal, state, and local governments to reduce the loss of life in future crises.

The issue of illegal immigration also provides an illustration of playing the race card. The traditional theme consistent with playing the race card involves portraying Americans as preoccupied with the race of illegal immigrants rather than the behaviors in which they engage. For example, it is not uncommon to see headlines such as “Is Racism Fueling the Immigration Debate?” “Racist Groups Exploit Immigration Issues in Effort to Promote Anti-Hispanic Agenda,” “Anti-Immigrant Sentiments Fuel Ku Klux Klan Resurgence,” “Anti-Immigrant Racism in the U.S. Growing,” and “Deadly Toll of Anti-Immigrant Racism.” According to this line of reasoning, the enforcement of federal immigration [Page 684]laws is motivated by an intense paranoia that the United States will be overrun by darker-skinned people. In this case, playing the race card focuses attention on immutable traits such as race while largely ignoring behaviors such as crime and disorder that can be controlled.

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