Ladies and gentlemen I present to you: the race card. What is the race card you ask? Well it's a must-have for any person of color. Seriously, you shouldn't leave home without it... or should you?
The race card works in the sense much like that of a real credit card. You can use it when you find yourself in uncomfortable situations or in case of emergencies, however I have to wonder; are people of color overusing the race card?
I am black and I am very aware that racism is definitely still a thing even in the year 2016 and white guilt is also a thing but are we not helping to perpetuate many stereotypes when we use "the race card" to capitalize on said white guilt or when we use it as an escape from an awkward situation?
For instance, I work in a restaurant and there was an occasion where some African-American guests were being loud, distasteful and ill-mannered around other guests. When it was brought to their attention that another guest had complained about their antics, they responded with the "well what color were the people who complained?" question.
I get really bothered when people respond like this. Why does it matter what color they are? They didn't complain because you are black, they complained because you were being obnoxious and disturbing they're dinner. I mean if I was trying to have a nice dinner out with my family and someone was disturbing that by being disrespectful, I'd complain too.
Pulling the race card in moments like these where you are clearly in the wrong doesn't just make you look bad, but us as an ethnic group look bad. All you're doing is giving them more ammo to use against us. Plus, we all know it's not like you don't know how to behave publicly.
I know every black person in America has heard the phrase from their grandmother, mother or an elder at some point say to them "sit down and act like you got some sense." So the next time you go out in public, leave the race card at home and SIT DOWN AND ACT LIKE YOU GOT SOME SENSE. Besides you wouldn't want "Big Mama" to find out about your behavior now would you —
because Big Mama is watching, she is always watching.To my other people of color, if I ask you repeat something to me a couple of times I'm not being racist or making fun of your accent; I simply can't understand you.
To wrap this up, you should only use the race card if someone is actually being racist towards you and yes, systematic racism does count for this too.
Better yet, why don't we just throw out the race card all together? Find better, more intelligent solutions to handle racism because as Steven Hawking once said, "intelligence is the ability to adapt change."
