Playing the Race Card

2 Tropes 2 Movies
Table Of Contents

Main Description

Conservatives love to accuse the left of playing the race card. It's one of their defense propaganda tactics they employ after using racist dog whistles or just flat out saying racist stuff. And if it is one person's word against another, they also use this tactic. As such, any instance in real life or on screen depicting minorities unscrupulously "playing the race card" to get something helps promote their conservative agenda of covering for racism that has grown in their party and base over the years especially under Trump.

Conservative Trope Examples

  • Ocean's Eleven (2001)
    Linus Caldwell (Matt Damon) and Frank Catton (Bernie Mac) play the race card together as a distraction so that Linus can steal an access card from Terry Bennedict. Linus pretends to be from the gaming commission saying Frank hid criminal behavior that should have prevented him from working at the casino. Frank feigns anger and says a black man can’t earn a living in this city, “Might as well call it whitejack”. Linus then "accidentally" refers to Frank as "colored" which Frank feigns a charge at Linus creating the distraction for him to pickpocket Terry Bennedict (Andy Garcia).
  • Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)
    Zeus (Samuel Jackson) is depicted as someone who falsely accuses people of being racist multiple times. When John McClane says to Zeus, "You don't know how to shoot a gun?" Zeus responds with "all brothers don't know how to shoot guns, you racist motherf#cker." When John McClane later says, "You know how to pick this lock?" he responds with "Is this some black-shit again?"