The Race Card

Daniel J. Sharfstein

The fear that opportunistic claims of racism will make reasonable ones suspect has long since been confirmed. As a result, there is a well-primed audience for Ford's funny, if familiar, tales of how the race card gets played, but once readers move beyond the passages on Thomas and Simpson, they will find themselves on much more challenging terrain. When Ford delves into the intricacies of post-racist America, the book crackles with insight and pierces the pieties of left and right.
—The Washington Post

Orlando Patterson

…a sharp, tightly argued and delightfully contentious work…To left-leaning readers and victims of genuine racism, Ford's relentless evenhandedness and cost-benefit balancing act may seem at times to skirt the edges of conservative reaction. But a patient reading of this astute and closely reasoned work reveals an exquisitely subversive mind. Ford is adept at stealing the best-defended intellectual bases of the right on behalf of a pragmatic, antiracist liberalism unflaggingly committed to the increasingly scorned goal of integration—and to relief for the truly disadvantaged, who suffer the persisting injuries of past racism in the absence of those who engendered their plight and, perplexingly, in the presence of growing racial tolerance.
—The New York Times Book Review

William Grimes

Mr. Ford, a clear and lively writer, probes and prods and provokes as he steers his way through this contested terrain. He takes dead aim at racial opportunists, opponents of affirmative action, multiculturalists and the myriad rights organizations trying to hitch a ride on the successes of the black civil rights movement. All, in different ways, he argues, are playing the race card. All are harming the cause of civil rights…Mr. Ford is bracing. He clears away a lot of clutter, nonsense and bad faith. Best of all, he argues his humane, centrist position without apology or hesitation.
—The New York Times

Kirkus Reviews

A well-considered, nuanced look at "post-racist" America. Since the 1960s, writes Ford (Law/Stanford; Racial Culture, 2004), racism has become socially and legally unacceptable, reflecting a major change in our values. Today's racism is far more complex and ambiguous, a matter of interpretation and a card that can be played to one's advantage. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas accused his critics of bigotry; Michael Jackson blamed prejudice for his declining album sales; Oprah Winfrey suggested skin color was a factor in her being turned away by a chic Paris store; O.J. Simpson's lawyers alleged his framing by racist cops. Since such accusations are plausible in America, Ford avers, questionable claims are often made. His reasoned text delves behind the headlines to examine these and lesser-known accusations of bias. He finds an instance of "racism without racists" in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, where government ineptitude combined with the legacy of pre-civil-rights-era housing segregation to victimize African-Americans. Elsewhere, he sees accusations of "racism by analogy" when people charge discrimination over their size or appearance, as if to invoke the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination strictly on the basis of "race, color, sex, national origin, or religion." Noting that there has never been a "weight riot," he explains, "Weightism or lookism aren't problems of social order or of social injustice." The real danger in unmerited charges of racism, Ford concludes, is that they draw attention to trivial slights and distract from the pressing need to address larger social injustices. He writes with authority, fairness and even humor as he examines profiling,affirmative action and other issues, reminding us that we have come a long way on race but still have a great distance to go. Provides welcome perspective on an explosive topic.