There Are No Winners in the Race Card Game

The terms "racism" and "racist" are being so overused and abused that their real meaning and implications are being diluted.

This causes real harm to efforts to identify and correct actual instances of racial bigotry.

There is enough actual racism in our country, past and present, without exploiting it for political gain.

The problem is that the accusation that someone, something, or some action is racist has become weaponized by Democrats and the left to attack those who have differing political viewpoints on solutions to some of the nation’s most pressing problems—especially Republicans and conservatives.

Unfortunately, too few of those falsely accused of being a "racist" or supporting "racism" fight back.

Most cower in silence.

All too often they allow their bare political backs to be branded and lashed with these offensive allegations by their left-wing political enemies and their allies in the mainstream media.

That’s to be expected when the two highest elected officials in the country, President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, lead the "America is a racist nation" chorus.

Biden has said that the country is plagued by "systemic racism and white supremacy."

And, Harris remarked in Atlanta that racism, xenophobia, and sexism are "real in America" after six of the eight people in a shooting were of women of Asian descent.

Those comments come from Biden, who was Vice President for a two-term Black president, and, from Harris, the first female vice president of the United States. She also happens to be of Black-Caribbean and Asian-American descent!

If our country is so racist, how do Biden, Harris, and much of the radical left, explain that our country has had two Black national Security advisors to the President of the United States—Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice—who also served as the first Black Secretaries of State—all under Republican presidents.

If the country is so riddled with systemic racism and white supremacy, how do they explain significant numbers of Black police chiefs, mayors, and superintendents of schools throughout the country many in cities controlled by Democrats?

These racial hypocrites are rarely called out by the Democrats' state media--or by Republicans and conservatives.

What does it take to be called a racist by Democrats, Big Tech, many in the mainstream media, and often timid politically correct boardrooms in today’s hostile and divisive political environment?

Not much.

The list grows longer every day:

• Oppose ending the filibuster in the U.S. Senate.
• Advocate opening schools.
• Support voter ID.
• Oppose the "Critical Race Theory" and indoctrinating children on racial identity.
• Oppose defunding of police.
• Oppose open borders and illegal immigration.
• Oppose statehood for the District of Columbia.
• Believe that states, not the federal government, should control elections.

Blacks, Hispanics, or Asians who dare share any of these positions are often considered "sell-outs," "traitors," or "props" by many of their Black and white media cohorts.

In many cases, they refuse to let their views be known for fear of social, political, or professional retaliation and ostracism in today’s “cancel culture” America.

It is time to put the brakes on "racism phobia!"

It tramples debate and inhibits a marketplace of ideas and meaningful political discourse.

Worst of all, it cheapens the real meaning of the word and the actions and attitudes that "racism" represents!

Those who are so quick to yell racism at the drop of a hat remind me of the story of the little shepherd boy written by the Greek slave and storyteller Aesop in the famed Aesop’s Fables.

The little boy falsely cried "wolf" so often that no one believed him when a real wolf came and attacked the sheep.

It is time for Black Americans to tell Democrats and progressives--including the President and Vice President of the United States—to stop playing the race card game and using them for political gain.

If they didn’t play the race card, they would have an empty deck!

They may think that exploiting the pain of racism gains advantage with Black Americans.

However, they will find that Black voters are not as naïve as they believe and that playing the "wolf" race card once too often—as was the case with the little shepherd boy—will backfire.

Clarence V. McKee is president of McKee Communications, Inc., a government, political, and media relations and training consulting firm in Florida. He is the author of "How Obama Failed Black America and How Trump Is Helping It." Read Clarence V. McKee’s Reports — More Here.