(R)Ace Up My Sleeve

When applying for a column in the Spectator, I jokingly told my friends that I was thinking of naming it “Race Man.” I thought this funny because of its multiple layers of signification. In a much older sense of the phrase I would be in the tradition of using the written word to “fight for the race.” Or perhaps, like the term “race music,” my writing would be written off as something only targeted toward black people and other folks of color. More cynically I had a feeling that no matter what I called my column that I would be painted pejoratively as a Race Man, someone who can’t see beyond race. Ironically, this view comes from an inability to see past a limited conception of race and racism.

There has been no shortage of events at Columbia this year that point to our need to deal with racism. Yet often when I and others have pointed out the need for collective analysis and action against (institutional) racism, we have been accused of “playing the race card,” sometimes in those exact words, but often in subtler formulations. This accusation poses that we are putting race where it doesn’t belong, using a trump card for unwarranted advantage. But the “race card” phrase in itself has become its own trump card, a rhetorical strategy used to shut down much needed communal interrogation of the pernicious and insidious manifestations of racism in our community. It is a deep negation, a great refusal to think about race beyond biology and racism, beyond hate crimes and epithets. However, I don’t think that this point of view necessarily comes from a place of hatred or explicit ill will, but rather a limited, albeit harmful, conception of race and racism.

We know that race is more than phenotype. It is socially constructed, just like gender, sexuality, class, etc., and its social force is painfully potent. We also know that racism is not simply prejudice or hate crimes, but also a diffuse and subtle phenomenon expressed through institutions like the prison industrial complex, the education system, or the pervasive residential segregation of our society. Racism also can not be examined in isolation either, as it is always inextricably linked to class, gender, sexuality, etc., giving rise to bell hooks’ term “white supremacist capitalist heteropatriarchy.” Why then is there a refusal through the rhetorical device “playing the race card” to conceive of race in these terms and to engage in the challenge of thinking through and combating racism and white supremacy in all it forms, from the crudest to the most subtle?

I think this denial comes from the conceit that we all tell ourselves: “I am not racist. Racists are terrible people who should be shunned, and certainly I could not be one.” This self deception works to externalize racism and shirk our personal responsibility to combat it, not just because it offends our sensibilities and morals, but because we are all personally implicated. I don’t go around yelling slurs at people, and I spend a great deal of time and energy trying to figure out how to combat racism and other oppressive social forces. But, I had to realize that if these forces are omnipresent in our society, then they are present in me too. I’m not alone in this realization. Among others, Cornel West paraphrases the non-racist conceit: “You know, brother West, I’m not a racist at all, I’ve transcended that ... No, mmm-mm. I’m a liberal, I’m a progressive”, to which he says, “That’s wonderful, I appreciate the effort. But if there’s white supremacy in me, my hunch is there is still a little in you—you better check yourself.”

It doesn’t feel like lifting a burden to take ownership of one’s oppressive behavior, nor am I trying to get props for being so down and liberated. Actually, it feels pretty shitty to think about, although not as shitty as it does to be a victim of racism, homophobia, sexism, or exploitation. We are not all equally implicated nor do we experience race and racism in the same ways. However, we are all responsible for dealing with our own behavior as much as we seek to confront racism externally. It takes courage to take personal responsibility for racism and other forms of oppression, a courage this nation has always lacked. But it is absolutely necessary for us to call out and confront our own privileges and oppressive behaviors.

Throwing out the accusation of “playing the race card” is a conversation-ender. It seeks to evade our personal and social responsibility for thinking critically about race. By denying our own responsibility, it becomes all too easy to deny that anyone is responsible for racism, or that it even exists, and we then concentrate the burden on crude, exceptional, and external acts and caricatures rather than everyday experience.

Christien Tompkins is a senior majoring in African-American studies.
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