Blog | Myrtle Beach reader can’t define “race card.” Can you? (Video of one version of race card included)

A simple question:

Can you define just what the “race card” is and provide a few examples?

I’m seriously curious about just what people are referring to when they use that term, because I honestly don’t know, and I hear people using it often, usually when someone says or does something concerning race with which they disagree.

After a long-time reader sent me an email about President Obama, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and their supposed use of the race care, I asked him to define it.

This is what he came up with:

“C'mon Isaac, The race card is a threat to get people to do what is desired.”

Am I wrong in saying that’s not a definition at all, or if taken literally, it would apply to not only the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s but also to the Tea Party of today?

Also, I attended a celebration this morning of the 50th anniversary of the integration of Myrtle Beach High School. According to that reader’s rather broad definition, the four black students who decided to integrate the high school in 1965 were also using the race card.

ABC sitcom “Blackish” had fun with this term in an episode. In it, the race card was an actual card - Race Card Titanium - in a fancy box and delivered by a white-gloved butler.

When you use the term race card, what are you talking about, specifically?

This story was originally published January 29, 2015 at 12:31 PM with the headline "Blog | Myrtle Beach reader can’t define “race card.” Can you? (Video of one version of race card included)."