The term "playing the race card" is racist.

[gollygee]

3. I'll add a few more links that illustrate the problem with this term

http://stuffwhitepeopledo.blogspot.com/2008/04/play-race-card.html (whole thing is worth reading - hard to choose what to copy)

As I pointed out in an earlier post ("explain away racist incidents&quot , whites often imply that they know more about what it is to live as a non-white person than non-white people themselves do. Derogatory charges of "playing the race card" are often another instance of this tendency.

However, an irony here is that whites have race cards of their own, and they do often play them. Indeed, as Wise goes on to explain in his article, this common white response--the denial of non-white interpretations of reality--is itself the playing of a card, a move that Wise calls the "denial card." To continue with the extended metaphor of a card game, if the first card, played by minorities, is perceived as a "race card," then this white denial card played in response is a race card too (it's one of several common instances of "white denial" that Wise describes).

Actually, there are many other circumstances in which whites commonly play a race card. In most cases, though, they don't seem to realize that they're doing so (so really, it's somewhat difficult to blame them for doing so). When they step to the curb of a busy street, for example, and raise a hand to hail a taxi, they expect empty taxis to stop for them. And if any empty taxis don't stop, they rarely if ever think that those taxis didn't stop because of their own skin color. But such is not the case, of course, for those who wear, say, black skin. As so many who wear it have pointed out, even if their black skin is mostly encased in very expensive, "professional" clothing, it can be difficult to get a taxi to pick them up.

When the white passenger steps to the curb and raises her hand, it's as if that hand has a card in it, a card that bears the word "white."


http://racisminamerica.org/why-racists-and-the-privilege-believe-in-playing-the-race-card/

Racial injustice is not a “game,” racial disparity is not a “card,” and the oppressed are not willing “players.” Accusing someone of playing the race card completely marginalizes their experience.

Racism consists of numerous elements to maintain the positions and powers of the dominant society. Part of that power is permeated in white skin privilege. The benefit is not something that white people do, create, or enjoy purposely. Unlike the more overt individual and institutional manifestations of racism, white skin privilege is a transparent preference for whiteness that saturates our society. It serves as “several functions,” including providing white people with “perks”‘ that are not earnable and those that people of color cannot enjoy. Also, white skin privilege immunes those from certain challenges that minorities are subjected to and shapes the world in which we live—the way that we navigate and interact with one another.

Having such an advantage not only blinds those to systematic racism, but prevents them from understanding or empathizing with the oppressed. Furthermore, it is easier to ignore, overlook, deny, or marginalize racial inequality than to project the voices of the oppressed through acknowledgement. Thus when racism is exploited, the race card is being played, racism is being discounted and will “hopefully” just go away.

In layman terms, the expression says that “because it doesn’t happen to me, it doesn’t exist.” It is an insidious racial microaggression that aims to subvert claims of racism and its impact. The phrase prevents the accuser from not only being able to recognize their tone and insensitivity to the subject, but also to challenge their own bigotry and bias.