Advisors, Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity

Rewriting History: Playing the Race Card – by Terry Howard

 ‘DEI Hire’ and other dog whistles 

I have something to say and will say it on a few issues I’ll get to shortly. 

Why me? Well, I guess it is because I’m blessed with several platforms to educate, elevate, cajole, annoy, encourage, or enrage based on what happens to crop in the latest news or on the sociopolitical menu. And this is a privilege I don’t take for granted. If I win or lose friends, well so be it. It comes with the territory. 

Now class, pull out your notebooks and ready yourselves for a lecture beginning with how one migrates from “Rewriting” to “Revealing” to “Amending” History. After lunch, we’ll switch to “Responding to the ‘playing the race card’ nonsense then finish up with boogeyman number three, dubbing someone a “diversity hire.” 

Now to give you a heads up, Dr. Elwood Watson, author of several books and today professor of history, Black Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Tennessee State University, happened to be town and graciously agreed to stop in and offer his candid perspectives on these issues. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Watson. 

Let’s begin with a look at typical knee jerk reactions by those who’re petrified by change, typically shifts in demographics not to his/her liking. Case in point, here’s a snapshot of what happened when a statute was erected in recognition of a relatively previously unknown Barbara Johns that sent many of those panicky folks into an emotional tizzy of bellyaching. 

What started the whining was when a statue of African American Barbara Johns, a teenager who led hundreds of students at her high school to walk out in protest of conditions at their segregated high school in Virginia in 1951, was unveiled at the U.S. Capitol. The NAACP took up the students’ fight which became one of the five cases that the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed in Brown v. Board of Education, and its landmark 1954 ruling declared school segregation unconstitutional. Johns’ statue replaced the one of the Confederate leader Robert E. Lee. As for Johns, she was sent after the walkout to live with relatives and finished her schooling in Alabama due to safety concerns. She attended Spelman College and graduated from Drexel University before working for the Philadelphia Public Schools. She married and raised five children before her death at age 56. 

Oh boy, that’s when the opportunistic “rewriting history proclaimers” came crawling out of their lairs. So, after sitting on the sidelines and observing the proverbial chicken little “the sky is falling” trollers saturating social media – and not wanting to let a delicious controversy to slide by – I baited my hook and dropped the following into a recent exchange of comments. 

“It seems a tall task for some to distinguish the difference between “rewriting ” versus “amending” history. Think about it. It’s silly and preposterous to “rewrite ” Lee out of a history that everyone knows about. And similar to what some schools are doing to remove books with uncomfortable racial, cultural, etc. topics to avoid offending “little Johnnie,” do you anticipate now a ferreting out every history book ever published and redacting Jeffrey Epsten-like Robert. E. Lee’s name from every page? Of course not. And do you anticipate that we’ll force every American to undergo a brainwashing medical procedure to “erase ” Lee’s name from their memories? Yeah, right! In the end the commonsense removal of a statue and its replacement with one that’s been ignored in history is a “revealing,” an “amending” of history – not something as nutty as rewriting history. My good friend suggests that this seems to be more of historical reparations than anything.”

Of course, I wasn’t naive enough to assume that my message would magically calm the waters. If anything, judging from some of the testy feedback it seemed to have struck nerves that perhaps needed to be struck. 

Now before we shift to another boogeyman, let’s hear from Dr. Watson, a real historian if ever existed one. 

“Good morning class. The fact is that slavery has been deeply embedded into the fabric of American society since the nation’s inception. Its raucous, rapacious, dehumanizing, vile spirit deeply lingers with us to this very day. So, any notion that it can be erased is utter nonsense.” 

Turning now to the ‘playing the race card’ gambit. Here’s what got me chomping at the bit to step out on this issue. 

You see, a high powered African American district attorney “on trial,” if want to call it that, pushed back at her interrogators asking them why they were not interested instead in investigating the death threats and N-word invectives leveled at her and her children, so bad that she had to move out of her home. Well, as if right on cue, social media was flooded with nitwits who mouthed racist comments that she’s “from the ghetto,” “uneducated,” “can’t speak good grammar,” “a little monkey,” and even more deviously, disparaging the HBCU (Historically Black College and University) one of which from whose law school she graduated. Her actual experience being the target of some of the vilest racial hatred imaginable be damn. She “played the race card” they said after she told them what she’d experienced. 

Okay, let’s peel back the onion on the “race card” nonsense. 

“Playing the race card” is the go-to insult hurled by those who run scared when a “card player” suggests that race was or thought to be a factor in how in they were treated. Author Robin D’Angelo in her best-selling book, “White Fragility,” puts this behavior in context as when many – I didn’t say all, mind you – whites are confronted with the reality of race and racism. The hurling of this insult is a catch-all bit of gaslighting designed to malign the emotional state and mental faculties of its target and dismiss the possible facts and truth of the target’s experience. The insult is levied to shut the conversation down and immune the accuser from looking at the face in the mirror and dealing with his/her ignorance, privilege and guilt. Claiming that someone “played the race card” has become a standby; a quick and convenient slur allowing the accuser to sidestep actual facts and mask their refusal to have a meaningful debate. 

Now before class is dismissed, let’s have Dr. Watson give us the last word on playing the race card insults and getting labeled a “DEI hire.”

“Personally, I respond by saying “yes I am a beneficiary of Affirmative action and DEI. And guess what, my institution benefited from my skills and cultural competence. To be honest, if a woman or person of color, particularly a Black person is in a position of authority or has achieved significant accomplishments, you can best believe that they were twice as good to get there. So, if someone suggests that you are a DEI hire, thanks them with this; “I’m a “Definitely Earned It” hire and damn proud of it.” 

The class broke out in laughter. Said one, “When someone accuses me playing the race card, I ask what am I supposed to do, sit on it? If I played it you can believe that, like the district attorney you mentioned, it was based on a real experience.” 

So, students brace yourselves for what is sure to happen in the days ahead. If history is a good barometer, we should expect to see more doubling downs and insult hurling by those unable to deal with change. It will say more about them, and less about you. 

Now to sharpen your response repertoire, feel free to cheery pick from this narrative to develop your responses to what emerges from the lips of the “great dividers,” the ‘sky is falling’ chicken little crowd and media trolls who will continue to show up like those annoying dandelions in your lawn. If you must respond, do so with a quiet discombobulating calm. State your case but don’t hang around since a long, drawn-out debate is unlikely to change your mind or theirs. Then bless them with your immediate absence….and exit stage left! 

Okay, class dismissed! 

Hey Dr. Watson, since you’re here, I’d like to treat you to one of the best soul food restaurants in the city,

Terry Howard
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