Meaning:
To attempt to gain advantage in an election by pandering to the electorate's
racism. Also, more recently, to attempt to gain advantage by drawing
attention to one's race.
Background:
This term is now more often used in the USA than in other countries. A `race
card' is the name of the card that lists the runners and riders at horse
races, but that's not the race card being referred to in `playing the race
card'. The expression alludes to the trump card in card games like whist.
Following an influx of immigrants into the UK in the 1950/60s there was known
to be a degree of racist discontent amongst the predominantly white
indigenous population. Reputable politicians avoided acknowledging this
openly but there was an informal gentlemen's agreement not to benefit
electorally by pandering to this racist element. Peter Griffiths, the
Conservative candidate for the parliamentary seat of Smethwick in the UK's
1964 General Election, was accused of using the slogan "If you want a n*gger
neighbour - vote Labour", in an attempt to capitalize on the electorate's
fears of being `swamped' by immigrants.
Whenever a phrase is seen to match the circumstances, folk-etymologists (the
jargon name that etymologists give to amateur etymologists) are eager to make
claims like "Peter Griffith coined the term in 1964". In fact, he didn't. It
was later, once the phrase `play the race card' had become part of the
language in the 1980s, that commentators wrote pieces suggesting that
Griffiths `played the race card' in order to get elected. No one said it at
the time. This form of skewwhiff theorising is called back-formation.
There is another back-formation relating to the phrase `play the race card'
and although, like all back-formations, it is an invented derivation, this
one is more plausible than most. In 1863, US President Abraham Lincoln issued
an Emancipation Proclamation, which proclaimed the freedom of black slaves in
certain US states. The London based magazine Punch didn't support Lincoln's
tactic and published a satirical cartoon entitled Abe Lincoln's Last Card;
Or, Rouge-et-Noir. The cartoon showed a card game between Lincoln and a
confederate soldier. Lincoln, in the form of the Devil, was about to slam
down the Ace of Spades, in the form of a black man's head, onto a tub of
dynamite. The implication was that Lincoln was making a reckless political
and military gamble by pronouncing slaves to be free. This wasn't the
cartoonist John Tenniel's finest hour; he was of course better known as the
illustrator of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (see `off with his head`,
`grinning like a Cheshire Cat`, `as dead as a dodo` , `jam tomorrow` and `as
mad as a March hare`).
It would have been perfectly reasonable to say that Lincoln was `playing the
race card' in that cartoon. However, no one did say it at the time and the
notion that the phrase derives from Lincoln's `Last Card' cartoon is
erroneous.
The earliest example that I can find of the expression `play the race card'
in print is from the Indiana newspaper the Kokomo Tribune, November 1989:
Judge [Alcee L.] Hastings has been playing the race card ever since the
F.B.I. closed in on him in 1982.
That usage, which refers to someone attempting to gain advantage by drawing
attention to their race, became commonplace in the USA around the time of O.
J. Simpson's trial for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
Several US newspapers used the phrase to describe the tactics of Simpson's
defence lawyers; for example, this piece by Roger Simon in The Daily Herald,
October 1995:
"Why was playing the race card necessary in order for O. J. Simpson to go
free? Because it was the only way for the defense to deal with the massive
physical evidence against him."
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
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In the old country, where the government regulates everything, minorities played
the race card as a matter of course. I used to envy them their de jure benefits
in housing, extra rations, job opportunities, etc. But now I think privileges
took away some motivation in life, especially bad for a young person.
