So, I was walking around in downtown DC with my tall, blonde friend. We spotted a wallet on a corner and decided to investigate. We check it a and found about $90 in cash an an array of credit cards. We immediately wanted to return it to its owner, but decided to find the closest police station.
We both noticed a very uptight looking white dude in a gray power-suit staring at us and shaking his head. My friend jokingly tells him that we weren't stealing the wallet and we were looking for its rightful owner. The uptight dude sarcastically replies "sure you are." Hearing this, I turn to the dude with more sarcasm. I tell him "Well, its a good thing I didn't pick up the wallet. Being a brutha, you probably would have called the police on the spot.'' Now at this point I usually get an uncomfortable grin or maybe an eye-roll from my Caucasian counterparts. But this dude looks at me and my beautiful white female friend and dead-pans… "Now you're pulling out the race card."
What the hell?!
Do people even talk like that? I was floored. Race card? Is that something that us minorities keep in our pockets and pull out to the bemusement of uptight white politicians? I was speechless, which isn't easy for me. DC is certainly a very strange place. I stated scratching my head about the whole "race card" thing. Do white people pull out the "white card" when it comes to racial profiling by police? Absurd statement, I know, but now you're getting the gist of what I was thinking. I've heard this term used to politicians like Jesse Jackson et al, but I was just a dude on the street corner. Somehow I've got to work this one into my cartoon "Cafe con Leche."
Any thoughts?
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