Word.ws English Dictionary

playing the race card

playing the race card is the present participle and gerund of play the race card.

Meaning of play the race card

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)

  1. (derogatory, idiomatic, often) 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

Questions about playing the race card

What is playing the race card the present participle and gerund of?
Playing the race card is the present participle and gerund of play the race card.

Words near playing the race card in the dictionary

  1. playing the man, not the ball
  2. playing the mischief with
  3. playing the Nazi card
  4. playing the odds
  5. playing the ponies
  6. playing the race card
  7. playing the same tape
  8. playing the skin flute
  9. playing the something card
  10. playing the system
  11. playing the wag

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing the race card (page history and authors); 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.

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Cite this entry: “playing the race card.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/playing_the_race_card. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.