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Originally Posted by JRutledge
It is not a racist remark.  The coach was accusing him of something. Not sure how it is racist to accuse someone of a certain behavior or action.
I also did not say he could not discuss it, but this is not the "race card." Race is never a card; it is a reality of life. When I stop hearing about burning crosses in communities and race issues go completely away, then we can call it a card. Until that time racial issues are a fact.
Peace |
When someone disingenuously uses one of society's hot-button topics or values, such as race or gender or religion or sexual preference or anything else for that matter, to further his or her own agenda or twist a situation, then that is playing an advantage, as in a game of cards. "Playing the race card" is taking a real issue and falsely injecting the negative annotations of that issue onto someone. That makes it different from the "real" issue, of which racism and all the nasty history associated with it is one. Playing the race card is different from the reality of racism, and race is indeed all-too-often used as a card for advantage.
A few years ago I was calling a rec game in Panama City FL. The coaches and all the players on both teams were black, my partner was black, the scorekeeper was black, and the 20-30 or so people watching the game were black. The only other white guy in the gym besides me was the clock operator who was about 70 years old and weighed all of 130 pounds. At some point during the game I made an out-of-bounds call. One of the players on the bench didn't like the call and loudly called me a racist. I'm not sure who I was supposed to be racist against, but he was obviously trying to intimidate me. It didn't work. I wasn't (and am not) racist, but he tried to influence me and the people present just by making the accusation. That is playing the race card.