Was the ‘race card’ pulled??

Because the thread has become a general discussion of whether sometimes people might use a characteristic to deny bad behaviour or oppose a reprimand. Upthread I mentioned my situation from years ago, as outlined. The teen accused me of picking on him due to colour and I had to get union involvement. A poster then said that I was apparently quite likely to be displaying unconscious bias rather than justifiably moving the seat of a misbehaving student. I haven't yet had any clarification on how that would manifest..should I move a different student who wasn't spitballing?

@Tandora

That would imply that racism is a system that racialised minorities are able to manipulate and “cheat” to their advantage.

Of course racial minorities can use false accusations of racism to manipulate and gaslight to their advantage. And sometimes some of them do, because they are human. I’m not sure why this is a point of contention.

Otherwise, either you believe racial minorities are perfect and would never do such a thing, or don’t have the moral capacity to do so. Which is it?

The race card is lazily used to try to shut down any legitimate (race unrelated) challenge.

In my child’s school there was a group of kids from a particular ethnic background who were often very noisy and rowdy during lunchtime.
A supervising teacher would tell them to calm down or leave the cafeteria, in response to which they called the teacher racist, more than once.
So just because someone’s been accused of racism doesn’t always mean it’s true.

So what's the problem. We've even got somebody asking for photos, as proof. @Glittercloud17 get online and download a stock image of an airport queue.

Just because it doesn't suit you, to admit it does happen amongst all races, doesn't mean it doesn't indeed happen.

What are you even on about? I was one of the first people on the thread and I said ‘You met some twats, they exist in all races.’

No one has said any race is twat free.

Another example.

This is the problem. I am not racist and neither is the OP by using this term. Everything is racist these days isn't it? Which when real racism occurs, people take less notice, which is a problem.

Oh, of course - and you've made yourself the arbiter of what constitutes that kind of thread? Got it.

I will leave responding to the stretching, as I've got to go out. On another thread, I was responding to a similar situation. The world is full of devious, manipulative people, who come in all shapes and sizes. Just because it doesn't suit you, to admit it does happen amongst all races, doesn't mean it doesn't indeed happen. Its been a breath of fresh air to see posters be able to put their view across, with only minimal distortion of what OP was asking.

No. Only on the obviously “stirring” ones.

What’s the post I was responding to got to do with the thread?

what's that got to do with this thread?

They sound like an angry, nasty bunch of people who have a giant chip on their shoulder. They seemed to have sent the kid to push in because they were testing you and to “prove” something e.g teenagers need to be more assertive or that everyone is a big racist. Whatever it was, their actions were unjustified, unnecessary and really bloody irritating. Loads of passive aggressive conversations to try and get a rise out of you too.

It becomes very dark when you say one of them violently hurt you in your back. That’s a whole other level of aggression and they clearly have some deep seated resentment at the world. That person should be done for assault and I would have made sure security were made aware so that I could report them.

Is the thread now going to be a free for all?

When a white woman called me a ‘fucking animal’ for not letting her push me in front of me in a queue, I didn’t see it as an excuse to tar white people as white privilege enforcers.

based on the idea of "gaming" the system, i.e. using whatever the something is to gain an advantage. So race card, sexism card, disability card etc are all valid phrases in this context - cards which can be played in a game.

no no no no. That would imply that racism is a system that racialised minorities are able to manipulate and “cheat” to their advantage. This is a complete misunderstanding and denial of what racism as a system is/ does.

So would any reasonable person, but surely not in front if one had pushed in. Most of us still adhere to unspoken rules around queueing.

The title of this thread speaks volumes in itself. I’d be interested to see your take on “genuine racism” situation since you see race as a card to be played…

Sounds to me that the aunt genuinely believed her niece didn’t push in, hence her comments to her niece. The context of what you have told us they said afterwards doesn’t make sense for a family just trying to push in.

I'm still waiting for someone to tell me how "unconscious bias" made me treat the black teen who was spitballing in my lesson unfairly when I moved him. As opposed to him being treated in accordance with his behaviour.

Quite right

Good fucking lord. Racism is “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.”

The term is generally thought to be used by people who minimise racist behaviour, which is why many think it has racist connotations, however that doesn’t make the actual term in itself racist. The term in itself describes a situation where someone of a marginalised ethnicity is calling a person or act racist even though there is nothing to suggest that. Which of course happens.

We can’t call everything racist/sexist/xenopobic/homophobic just because it involves someone who fits into these

The term "playing [whatever] card" is based on the idea of "gaming" the system, i.e. using whatever the something is to gain an advantage. So race card, sexism card, disability card etc are all valid phrases in this context - cards which can be played in a game.

I've been accused of "playing the disability card" in the past, e.g. I can't attend away days at work due to travel, seating, being able to get up & move about etc, but have been told I'm playing the disability card to get out of going, or playing it to get out of carrying heavy items at work. However what I don't do is use my mobility disability as a reason why I can't do certain non physically related tasks, as one person I knew in the past did - on the lines of a lower body mobility issues meant they "couldn't" do certain boring spreadsheet data entry, even though they could do more interesting work.

I've also seen the "race card" used in the past. One place I worked the admin for another team had low performance, but if this was ever raised in reports or by his bosses he would scream racism and it would be dropped. I can assure you that it WAS low output and poor performance, as when the 2 teams were merged and I took over his job as well as my own, it took me about 3-4 hours a week to complete the tasks he'd taken all week to do. This was once I'd had to clear up a load of mistakes & mis-filings he'd made of course. Or was that unconscious racist bias on my part thinking that, as some posters have implied above?

Unfortunately a small minority of people will use whatever differences they have to try to accuse others of bias, as an excuse for behaviours or failures. In some of these cases it may have been a factor, but often not the root cause e.g. there is still plenty of unconscious bias against women in STEM subjects, but that's no excuse not getting a job because your exam results are crap.

obviously not when calling out actual misogyny. But that’s not what PP is saying. Maybe if for example, a woman hit a man, he pushed her back and she said she’s just a small vulnerable woman and he’s a big misogynist. That would be an example of “the sexist card”, and I’d be fine for it to be used in that situation. It’s when it’s used to minimise ACTUAL issues

You were not unreasonable in your actions. You are VVVU to use the phrase 'race card' which in my (white) opinion is an incredibly racist phrase.

A better way to have phrased it would be to ask 'was this woman implying I am a racist?' And it sounds like she was.

As someone that's experienced racism multiple times in their life, YANBU.