The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse

Richard Thompson Ford

Macmillan, Mar 3, 2009 - Psychology - 416 pages

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

What do hurricane Katrina victims, millionaire rappers buying vintage champagne, and Ivy League professors waiting for taxis have in common? All have claimed to be victims of racism. But these days almost no one openly defends bigoted motives, so either a lot of people are lying about their true beliefs, or a lot of people are jumping to unwarranted conclusions--or just playing the race card. Daring, entertaining, and incisive, The Race Card brings sophisticated legal analysis, eye-popping anecdotes, and plain old common sense to this heated topic.

Contents

• PLAYING THE RACE CARD: 3
• RACISM WITHOUT RACISTS: 37
• WILD CARD RACISM BY ANALOGY: 93
• CALLING A SPADE A SPADE DEFINING DISCRIMINATION: 178
• THE CLASH OF ENDS CONTESTED GOALS: 266
• POSTRACISM WHY THE RACE CARD IS A CRISIS OF SUCCESS: 308
• AFTERWORD: 351
• NOTES: 371
• BIBLIOGRAPHY: 383
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: 393
• INDEX: 396

About the author

Richard Thompson Ford is the George E. Osborne Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. He has published regularly on the topics of civil rights, constitutional law, race relations, and antidiscrimination law. He is a regular contributor to Slate and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is the author of Racial Culture: A Critique, The Race Card and Rights Gone Wrong.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse
• Author: Richard Thompson Ford
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Macmillan, 2009
• ISBN: 031242826X, 9780312428266
• Length: 416 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / Social Psychology; Social Science / Discrimination; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies; Social Science / Minority Studies; Social Science / Race & Ethnic Relations