The Rise of the Race Card and Black Complicity

Has it come down to this?

Are we, in America, really no longer able to “call a spade a spade,” as it were?

Has the threat of having mainstream media outlets accuse black people of “playing the race card” become so great that it is no longer possible for us to speak publicly about an actual, race-related injustice, or a documentable race-related disparity, of any kind?

I don’t know, it just seems that way.

Take New York’s Governor, David Paterson, for example.

Last month, Paterson, New York’s first black governor, was interviewed on a local Manhattan radio show by an African-American journalist and, in the process, felt comfortable enough, in that particular format, with that particular interviewer, to say what was actually on his mind. Paterson observed that he felt that he and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, the country’s only other incumbent black governor, were, in his opinion, being treated unfairly by the media, due to the color of their skin. Paterson went on to say – and this is where he must have completely forgotten what time it actually still is in America – that he believed the same thing is happening to Barack Obama, the nation’s first black president.

He, then, had the temerity to criticize what he felt was the media's blatant support for his expected gubernatorial challenger, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and to point out for the benefit of reporters, who were already painfully aware, that their very newspapers were in danger of going out of business and that the state government, by comparison, was strong and would probably outlast their companies.

Well, that was it.

The next thing you know, there were bold, "Race Card" cover stories in New York newpapers that trivialized Paterson’s opinion, and that referred to him as a “whiner.” There were headlines that said: “Dave’s downfall all bumbling, no bigotry” and there were the obligatory, strongly anti-Paterson columns written by "journalists of color," just to make it all seem, somehow, fair, and even-handed.

That wasn’t all.

Two days later, there were stories that said that the Obama White House was “furious” that Governor Paterson had “dragged” the President into a “rant” about racism and that his aides had sent "a message sharply criticizing" the Governor’s comments.

As if all of that hadn’t been enough, the very next day, the New York Times piled on, publishing an interview with New York City's first, and only, black mayor, David Dinkins, whose headline read, “Dinkins Advises Paterson: Stop Calling Your Critics Racist.”

In rushing to accommodate the media, the esteemed former mayor said – and see if you understand this any better than I do: “I don’t think he (Paterson) means they’re picking on him because he is black. I suspect he more means that, were he not black--and maybe it’s pretty hard to make the distinction – those kinds of comments would not have been made.”

Huh?

I think Mr. Dinkins just put the “D” in the word “doublespeak.”

As confused as he seems to be at this stage of his life, Mr. Dinkins, even in his rush to agree with his friends in the media and to “trash” his long-time family friend, Governor Paterson, probably made the most astute observation I’ve ever seen about the way in which the term “race card” is being used to stifle black dissent, when he said: “Definitely he (Paterson) should get off the racist thing. Right or wrong, it’s a fight you sure can’t win.”

What happened to Governor Paterson is done hundreds of times, every year, across the country. A black public figure or private citizen makes an honest observation about an incident of race-based police abuse, job discrimination, unfair media coverage, or lack of access to business opportunity and the whole thing is reduced to the term “race card.” The phrase is then quickly used to pound the black victim into submission.

According to one definition, “race card” is "the use of the issue of race, e.g., in legal argumentation, or in a debate to win an advantage or make a point."

No less outrageous is the emergence of a related phrase, in which the discriminated, unfairly treated, under-employed, or unfairly incarcerated African American is, now, accused of having a “victim mentality.” The whole “victim thing” is now being presented as a mass, negative, self-defeating psychosis which, in and of itself, keeps black folks from pressing their legitimate advantage.

According to this theory, it’s not the fact that you’ve been denied economic opportunity that's holding you back, young Negro. Your real problem is that you dare to discuss that lack of opportunity in a public setting. The logic, I guess, is that if we just stop talking about black economic marginalization, the jobs and contracts will mysteriously begin to flow in our direction. Just shut up and wait. Sounds like a good idea for a t-shirt for the new, spineless approach to racial equality.

That and the whole “race card” phenomenon really demands our close attention – not so much because it’s being used by others as a tool against the black community, but that black people, themselves, actually believe it and have become intellectually and philosophically involved in spreading the same, stupid gospel.

I guess I used the word “gospel” because I was struck by something I read recently by a guy named Rev. Michael Bresciani, who describes himself as a “Christian author, who has written two books and hundreds of articles online and in print."

“The 'race card' in America,” says Bresciani, “is beginning to lose its punch. It is fast becoming the card the cheating gambler (I guess, there, he means black people) has hidden up his sleeve and pulls out by sleight of hand when he knows he’s holding a losing hand.”

By the way, after the "race card" onslaught against Paterson and following a quick post-radio interview poll showed that his favorable ratings had dropped even further and that he now trailed Andrew Cuomo 65 to 23, among likely voters overall; by 56 to 36 among African Americans; and by 90 to 4, among Latinos, Paterson decided to change his public stance: “I was wrong to get into an assessment of how the media views me," said the Governor, "and I do not think that race has anything to do with my poll numbers or anything to do with my political issues in this day.”

It’s interesting to note, here, that one of the Governor’s black political colleagues in New York City compared his embarrassing retraction to “moonwalking” on the issue of race. It makes for a funny image and, if it weren’t so sad, I’d have to laugh at that one, myself.

As this case clearly shows, as long as black people, ourselves, accept the concept of the “race card” and reject the valid need for honest, open discussion of justifiably race-based issues, then Mr. Dinkins is probably right when he says: “Right or wrong, it's a fight you sure can’t win.”

Most of the time, the things that still keep us from being a part of the economic mainstream in this country really are race-based, it's not just our imagination. It reminds me of the old saying: “I’m not paranoid, my enemies are real.”

Sometimes, it simply is what it is, and we have to have the courage to address such circumstances forthrightly--in the political arena, in the board room, in the work place, and in our own neighborhoods. Regrettably, however, that appears to be a concept that has been lost, for the time being, on black Americans.

I hope it’s not too late to get it back.




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