play the race card
play the race card verb: to assert that race or racism is involved in a situation, especially in order to exploit racist or antiracist attitudes.
Verb
play the race card (third-person singular simple present plays the race card, present participle playing the race card, simple past and past participle played the race card)
- To assert that race or racism is involved in a situation, especially in order to exploit racist or antiracist attitudes.
- The defense played the race card, but Ito let them.1997, Mark Fuhrman, Murder in Brentwood, page 153
- Moreover, some leaders on both sides of any racial divide love to play the race card to keep themselves in power.2002, Donald A. Carson, Love in Hard Places, page 94
Forms of play the race card
| third-person singular present | plays the race card |
|---|---|
| present participle | playing the race card |
| past participle | played the race card |
| past | played the race card |
Questions about play the race card
- What does play the race card mean?
- Play the race card means to assert that race or racism is involved in a situation, especially in order to exploit racist or antiracist attitudes.
- What part of speech is play the race card?
- Play the race card is a verb.
- What is the past tense of play the race card?
- The past tense of play the race card is played the race card.
Words near play the race card in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: play the race card (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-play the race card.ogg.
Cite this entry: “play the race card.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/play_the_race_card. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.