The Race Card

[honeychile]

Let me say up front that I have a biracial cousin, who identifies more with being black than white - even though she could easily "pass".

During the OJ trial, we got into a discussion, and I asked her why most of the black community felt that OJ was innocent, and the white community felt that OJ was guilty. I naively asked, "Why does it always have to be a racial issue?"

She responded, "Because to us, it always is."


My question now is WHY? Why do we have to state someone's race in any given situation, as if it's that's the "real" issue? Have we not yet learned that we're all people, not a representative of our entire race? While I understand a return to heritage, in this case, is it a good thing, or a bad thing?

[Tickled Pink 2]

Happy Belated b'day by the way!

Your cousin was just being honest in a sense. But it's not always about race in just the AA community. Perhaps after being slighted so often - we're quicker to call people on it (let's see if this can be an intelligent discussion w/o the eye rolling and name calling).

I think backgrounds and experiences shape what many of us believe and how we see things. Some simply can't fathom that there are still racial issues because they've never experienced racism (and that's anyone of any race - some AA's with different backgrounds don't believe it). Some see race in everything.

Look at the Susan Smith case. When she first described her children's "kidnapper" my supervisor at the time & I had a major disagreement (we were like that - we could disagree, still like each other, & still work together). She was all up in arms as were alot of white people at work- looking out for this assailant - going off at the lunch table. I told her (& everyone else there) the pic looked like a stereotypical "Sambo" and I thought she made it up. They looked at me like I was crazy. I was so mad. I didn't think she was racist - but I couldn't understand for the life of me why she couldn't see the image as I saw it. Turns out - that heffa.... I mean woman... drowned her children.

Anyway, that's my opinion. Oh - & I don't think OJ killed Nicole either. Too old & decrepit. But I do think he was involved and he's not completely innocent - and I don't know too many people that thinks he's completely innocent either.

[jubilance1922]

Originally posted by honeychile
Let me say up front that I have a biracial cousin, who identifies more with being black than white - even though she could easily "pass".

During the OJ trial, we got into a discussion, and I asked her why most of the black community felt that OJ was innocent, and the white community felt that OJ was guilty. I naively asked, "Why does it always have to be a racial issue?"

She responded, "Because to us, it always is."


My question now is WHY? Why do we have to state someone's race in any given situation, as if it's that's the "real" issue? Have we not yet learned that we're all people, not a representative of our entire race? While I understand a return to heritage, in this case, is it a good thing, or a bad thing?

This is a good question, and a discussion I had in an American Race Relations class I once took. I think that for minorities our race (and on some level with women, our gender) is constantly on our minds, because that is how most people in society view us. For example, a friend of mine was describing my research group, and I'm the only African American, and my race was singled out in the descriptions, but no one else's was. Add to that the many negative stereotypes of minorities that continue to persist today, and you have a situation where certain people must always be "on guard".

In general, I don't see race/heritage as a bad thing. I am proud of my history and my people, and I would expect anyone else to be the same way. The problems begin when people say "I'm better than you because I'm (fill in the blank)" or "You can't do XYZ because you're (fill in the blank)". And yes, things like this still happen.

[KillarneyRose]

Originally posted by Tickled Pink 2
Turns out - that heffa.... I mean woman... drowned her children.

I think you got it right the first time, TP.

[starang21]

because as the minority, people of color are almost always identified partially (as completely) by their race by the majority.

[Phasad1913]

I think the phrase "playing the race card" in and of itself is insenstive and is indicative of the larger problem of dismissal of race related issues that are important to us and not to others. When I hear people say "so and so are playing the race card" it bothers me becasue who are they to say, as I assume they mean, that a person's perception that race is the central issue of a particular situation is less than valid or real? That by itself highlights the oblivion and nonchalance that a lot of people who have the luxury of a larger population with which THEY identify relative to our smaller population with often a smaller voice live in.

Off-Topic Somewhat: I have driven on the road Susan Smith took to John D. Long Lake (I live in SC) and saw the "starting point" for her car. She had a looonnnnggg drive from the "starting point" to the end. You get on this one road and you have turn off of that road and there's still a ways to go. It was a good 45 minutes or so drive for her. 45 minutes to really think about what she was going to do.

Along the lines with Susan Smith, I don't think it was a racial issue. I believe it was just a crazy woman doing something unimagineable. She had to think of a description of someone that didn't look like any of the people in Union because everyone knows everyone in Union.

With OJ Simpson, I believe he was the one that planned the whole entire crime and hired someone to commit the murder. He has bad knees from his football career. Granted, he's strong enough to beat someone up, but the way the prosecution described the crime scene, I don't believe he could have ran fast enough or been nimble enough to climb anything to get out of sight.

I don't identify anyone by their race. I don't know many people that do identify someone by his or her race, and I know a lot of people. I also live in the Southeast, which still has the stigma of having racial issues. Granted, there are areas in the Southeast that are racially-charged areas. Every geographic area of the United States has somewhere that has groups of races which don't get along or they have some kind of preconceived notion about another's race or gender. Other races have precconceived notion about white people, and so on and so on.

I identify someone by their character and personality and intelligence. I don't care what gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation you are. If you have the qualities I seek in a friend, then, so be it . . . let's be friends and go on with our lives. I may be one of the few people that have that attitude. I just see people as people. If I were hiring someone, I am not going to hire you because of your gender or race. I will hire you because you have the qualities and qualifications for the position and the company.

[honeychile]

Originally posted by Phasad1913
I think the phrase "playing the race card" in and of itself is insenstive and is indicative of the larger problem of dismissal of race related issues that are important to us and not to others. When I hear people say "so and so are playing the race card" it bothers me becasue who are they to say, as I assume they mean, that a person's perception that race is the central issue of a particular situation is less than valid or real? That by itself highlights the oblivion and nonchalance that a lot of people who have the luxury of a larger population with which THEY identify relative to our smaller population with often a smaller voice live in.

I'm sincerely sorry to have offended you. I was seeing red after the thread about the Congressman, and that was the first phrase I thought to use. Obviously, I should have thought a little harder.

I think it's a disgrace that ANY politician uses his or her power to save his or her things, and hangs the rest of the population out to dry. I think that Susan Smith is a waste of DNA, and photos of the lake where she drowned her children should be in her cell, not photos of her precious children. She needed a scapegoat, and chose the one which would rile the locals the most. And as for OJ, I feel that he's cupable to some extent (if not completely), but I also think that Nicole's family used his connections to the max.

I place nurses aides in peoples' homes. If I had a dime for every time I've heard, "I'm not a racist, but my mother..." I could retire tomorrow. I've heard things that have so appalled me, I've called the authorities.

Yet, I love how some of these same people just love Oprah, Montel, and the athlete of the moment! It's really time that the hypocrisy ends.

[Phasad1913]

I'm sincerely sorry to have offended you

Oh, I apologize. I wasn't referring specifically to you. I just took the opportunity to speak on something that has bothered me for some time.

[starang21]

the only way a white person could possibly understand the racial dynamics and truly know what it is to walk in a person of color's shoes is to travel to a country where

a. they are the severe minority
b. the racial climate is similar to america

[Phasad1913]

Yet, I love how some of these same people just love Oprah, Montel, and the athlete of the moment! It's really time that the hypocrisy ends

and this is what I am talking about. This sort of strange hypocrisy. It shows how people who are racist on the not-so-overt level but who effect people everyday and don't even see it! Meanwhile, when a person talks about how they feel about things like this, they're told in so many words that they're overreacting or somehow making these things up. Its just a matter of people not being able to relate to the plight or feelings of others and that fact being the cause of the dismissive attitudes.

[a.e.B.O.T.]

I think also since so many people identify actions based on race, they are quick to defend their own. If a black person does something, there are going to be dumb hicks who are like 'silly black people,' and so suddenly, if your a black person, your a murderer, cause one other black person is, so its kind of second nature to hope for their innocence for your own sake.

well, I say silly niave hicks!

[Tickled Pink 2]

Originally posted by ztawinthropgirl

Along the lines with Susan Smith, I don't think it was a racial issue. I believe it was just a crazy woman doing something unimagineable. She had to think of a description of someone that didn't look like any of the people in Union because everyone knows everyone in Union.

With OJ Simpson, I believe he was the one that planned the whole entire crime and hired someone to commit the murder. He has bad knees from his football career. Granted, he's strong enough to beat someone up, but the way the prosecution described the crime scene, I don't believe he could have ran fast enough or been nimble enough to climb anything to get out of sight.

I don't identify anyone by their race. I don't know many people that do identify someone by his or her race, and I know a lot of people. I also live in the Southeast, which still has the stigma of having racial issues. Granted, there are areas in the Southeast that are racially-charged areas. Every geographic area of the United States has somewhere that has groups of races which don't get along or they have some kind of preconceived notion about another's race or gender. Other races have precconceived notion about white people, and so on and so on.

I identify someone by their character and personality and intelligence. I don't care what gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation you are. If you have the qualities I seek in a friend, then, so be it . . . let's be friends and go on with our lives. I may be one of the few people that have that attitude. I just see people as people. If I were hiring someone, I am not going to hire you because of your gender or race. I will hire you because you have the qualities and qualifications for the position and the company.

I don't think the murder was racial, but the fact that she implicated that a black man abducted her kids and that awful stereotypical description that she gave was. But the main point in that case - which America rightly did not overshadow with the racial point - was that she murdered her kids...(as a mother of 3 - one being an infant - I still get very emotional about this).
I can't believe you drove down the road. I would've gotten ill.

And I think you're right about OJ.

I spent most of my childhood in a verrrrry small town in SC (big culture shock after leaving NY)with one stoplight. When I was a teen, I remember loosing a ring during a play and going to the customer service booth for help (Charleston). I was talking my head off and the man behind the glass looked right through me as if I wasn't there. We call it "the stare" (the philosophy that 'you are nothing - therefore I see nothing') and growing up - were used to it. And this was in 1989. In 1991 or 1992, my husband - then boyfriend - went there with our college choir. At the hotel, my hubby was trying to get assistance in finding our rooms. The person (I think he was the janitor, but I can't remember - 3 kids'll do that to you) looked right thru him as if he wasn't there and refused to respond. Being from Brooklyn, he thought the guy didn't hear him and kept pressing the issue. I had to explain to him what the "stare" was.

Things must've changed alot in the past 10+ yrs in SC, but I doubt it. I applaud you, however on not being that way.

[AchtungBaby80]

I agree with whomever said it's all about prior experience. Of course I don't understand why minorities can be quicker to point out a racial issue than I (as a white, middle-class, Southern girl whose family is about as white bread as it gets) would--but that's because I haven't had the experiences that they've had. I think in some areas, like the one where I'm from, people are moving away from all-out discrimination to just pretending that race issues/differences/whatever don't exist...which is probably just as bad, in a way.

[starang21]

Originally posted by AchtungBaby80
pretending that race issues/differences/whatever don't exist...which is probably just as bad, in a way.

it is, because it marginalizes the experience