Reply #19: a letter I just sent to several media watch orgs and KO [View All]

[CitizenPatriot]

Hi,

Here's my issue: McCain keeps accusing Obama of playing the race card. When you look up the definition of playing the race card, Obama clearly can't be playing the race card as one has to stand to GAIN something from it -- such as, to get out of being accused of something. In fact, the closer one studies the definition, the more it becomes painfully obvious that the only people playing the race card are McCain's people.

The very accusation against Obama ONLY holds up when you assume that American's will vote with affirmative action in mind and I think we all know better than that. There is no affirmative action in the hearts of the American people. The race issue can't help Obama win the race; in fact, any still-breathing and mildly alert adult can see it's the very hurdle he needs to overcome. So what exactly does he stand to "win" by "playing the race card" and why doesn't anyone ever call Rovian Schmidt-ites on their utter lack of logic? This sort of nonsense drives me insane! If it weren't for Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddows, I'd think the entire MSM had lost the ability to think critically.

I am so fed up with rich white men playing the victim and getting away with it. Come on! I thought they despised " victims"? Where is that mentality? They are the first to jump on the victim bus and cry race card? I need an air sick bag. Call me, John McCain, after your people have been stolen from their families, shipped to a far away land and used as machines for years and you just barely got the vote. Oh, wait, do they really have the vote yet? Seems like that is up for debate in several states in 2008! Call me then with your whining. Why is it OK for him to cry racism but we can't say anything about his captivity? I am sick of walking on eggshells and being emotionally blackmailed about what can and can not be discussed in this country. Doesn't Obama have more of a reason to get on a soap box about the history of African Americans in this country than McCain does his shady captivity "heroism"? But Obama isn't going to play victim here and neither should John McCain. Grow up, Johnny.

Here's the wiki defintion, for god's sake. Notice the last line, as it is exactly what McCain is doing.

wiki snip

Playing the race card is an idiomatic phrase referring to an allegation raised against a person who has brought the issue of race or racism into a debate, perhaps to obfuscate the matter. It is a metaphorical reference to card games in which a trump card may be used to gain an advantage.

In the less critical sense, the phrase is commonly used in two contexts. In the first, and more common context, it alleges that someone has deliberately and falsely accused another person of being a racist in order to gain some sort of advantage. <1> An example of this use of the term occurred during the O.J. Simpson criminal trial, when critics accused the defense of "playing the race card"<2> in presenting Mark Fuhrman's racist past (e.g. his recorded use of the word "nigger" in addition to his being accused of tampering with murder evidence in prior cases, as well as his use of the Fifth Amendment to avoid potential self-incrimination upon questioning) as a reason to draw his credibility as a witness into question. Another example would be a criticism of Georgia Representative Cynthia McKinney's assertion that she was the victim of "racial profiling"<3> after she allegedly struck a United States Capitol police officer who had grabbed her at a security checkpoint. A more recent example would be criticism of Yale University student Jian Li's formal complaint against Princeton University, which asserted that Princeton and other elite universities discriminate against Asian Americans while setting the admissions bar lower for other minorities, including African Americans and Hispanic Americans.

In the second context, it refers to someone exploiting prejudice against another race for political or some other advantage. The use of the southern strategy by a political candidate is said by some to be a version of "playing the race card", such as when former Senator Jesse Helms, during his 1990 North Carolina Senate campaign ran an ad showing a black man taking a white man's job, intended as a criticism of the idea of racial quotas. The ad was interpreted by many people as trying to play to racist fears among white voters.

On the other hand, George Dei, Karumanchery, et alia in their book Playing the Race Card <4> argue that the term itself is a rhetorical device used in an effort to devalue and minimize claims of racism.

End

WHERE IS THE LOGIC, THE SANITY, THE COOL HEADS PREVAILING???? Wag the Dog, indeed!