Monday, August 06, 2007

Sick of Hearing the Term "Race Card'


Did you get your race card?
Hell no, I didn't get my race card
Did you get your race card?
Hell no, I didn’t get my race card!
Everything ain't black and white.
Did you get your race card?
Homeboy, when you get your race card
Did you get your race card?
White boy, what is a race card?


Indeed, what the hell is a 'race card'? It's a right-wing creation for starters that I absolutely despise.

I'm sick of people, usually of European extraction throwing out that conservaline 'you're just playing the race card' any time a serious discussion is taking place that gets to the root cause of negative race relations in the United States.

The color line.

It wouldn't be necessary to 'play the race card' as you peeps so derisively put it if you Euro-descended Americans ancestors hadn't set up a system that demonizes non- whites, maximizes benefits to your ethnic group, stacks the deck to maintain that advantage, marks the biggest face cards in the American cultural card deck for themselves and passes them on to their children.

As far as racial face cards go the 'white card' trumps all. I'm tired of having my ancestors 200 plus years of pain and suffering during slavery and our very real experiences with 100 years of Jim Crow racism dismissed, trivialized and disrespectfully compared to a card game.

There are two Americas, a white one and a Black one which are separate, unequal and more hostile to each other thanks to GOP misrule. One of the reasons it's hard for us to talk to each other on many subjects is because we don't see things the same way.

And if we can't at least come to a decision on mutually agreed ground rules for the conversation, the end result is that it devolves into a disorganized mess once the words 'race card' are injected into the discussion.

Using the words 'race card' is for the intellectually lazy. If you can't make your arguments without using reason and logic to buttress your viewpoint, then don't get into a discussion that's turbocharged with race to begin with.

Sooner or later this country is going to have to come to terms with what your ancestors did to mine. Until we get that apology for slavery by whoever's occupying the White House, we African-Americans are going to continue to have bitter feelings toward whites in this country. It makes slavery for us impossible to 'get over'. Until whites come clean on what happened, you're going to be defensive about the subject of race.

In the end, to solve the vexing problem of race relations in the US, we're going to have to deal with it like we've dealt with other problems in this country. We've got to tackle it head on. Both sides need to honestly verbalize their feelings instead of tap dancing around the subject. Only then will we come up with solutions that everybody can be happy with.

And if y'all stop using that BS 'race card' line, it would make me and other African-Americans extremely happy.

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