[Vision2020] The "race card"

[No Weatherman]

Ms. Roskovich:

I don't despise the phrase as much as I despise what it represents.

I can't say for sure who coined it but I remember the first time I
heard it — it was during OJ Simpson's criminal murder trial in the
early 90's.

OJ gave Geraldo a one hour show every night on MSNBC and Geraldo
created the talking head sensation where one host gathers a panel of
experts to hash out the subject de jure.

Geraldo put together an all star panel of legal whizzes to break down
each day's proceedings and before you knew it, OJ's defense team put
detective Mark Furman on trial for saying the word "nigger."

For me, this was the first time I heard the term "race card" because
the talking heads on Geraldo made all sorts of hay out of "the race
card," etc. because the defense team was clearly pandering to OJ's all
black jury.

For the record, I don't doubt that Mark Furman is a racist pig and I
don't doubt that the "N" word is regular staple of his vocabulary.

But just because a man is a racist pig who uses the "n" word doesn't
mean he planted evidence to frame a black man who, by all other
accounts, killed his ex wife and a complete stranger in cold blood.

The term "race card," at least as I understand it, denotes the
deliberate attempt to exploit race in a circumstance where it has
absolutely no bearing.

It is racism at its worst.



On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 7:43 AM, Ellen Roskovich <gussie443 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> You have no idea how vehemently I dislike use of that phrase "the race
> card". . . . who coined that anyway?
>
> You know what it really does?  It perpetuates fear, hate and
> misunderstanding. . . and it can go both ways.  And every time it's used, it
> empowers bigotry. . . I don't care who's saying it.
>
> Ellen A. Roskovich
>
> ________________________________
> Stay organized with simple drag and drop from Windows Live Hotmail. Try it
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
>