Racism
For the record - racism is a despicable and irrational ideology that denies individual liberty and responsibility. And throughout history racism has been practiced by governments, religions, warriors, and people. And, yes, there has been widespread racism throughout the history of the U.S.
That said, a charge of racism is one of the most vile and terrible accusations one can bring. Especially in the U.S.
But we seem to lack the vocabulary to characterize a false charge of racism. "Playing the race card" is as close as it gets, and it sounds almost like fun - why wouldn't you play the card? What's there to lose.?
Recently, I've tended to call out race-card players as "racists". If an unfounded accusation of racial bias is being brought against a group of people, isn't that the same philosophical crime as that of "racism"?
To that end, we read Noni Rose (recently of the Dreamgirls movie) talking about playing in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof", in an all-Black cast, on Broadway. "It is wonderful to have a black audience feel like there is a reason for them to come to Broadway and that their money is wanted, desired and appreciated...For so long, the subliminial message has been, 'We don't even want your money because we're not talking about you.' " [Hollywood Reporter, 5 March 2008].
So Broadway producers are racists because they don't put on shows that....what, exactly? When Hollywood meets Broadway, the fault lies not in the skin-color of the stars, but in the lazy racism of identity politics.
