Somehow, that rings a bell.
Posting by Robardin’s wife:
I think “playing the race card” implies that the person is deliberately using race to manipulate someone. And “asshole” is assuming that the person has been angered and has responded angrily. But lets take a look at the typical person who has just honestly believed they were treated in a racist or sexist way: hurt and quiet. It hurts as much to believe you are being mistreated as to actually be mistreated. I’ve seen this reaction often and do my best to reassure them.
Example: the white secretary lets a white student into her office to make copies and then stops a black student. The black student often looks shocked and horrified. I point out that the white person is a work study student and is making copies for the department and that students are not allowed to make copies for themselves in the office. I don’t mention black or white but the black student is usually relieved by the explanation, no longer feels oppressed. This black student was not an asshole or playing the race card.
I would like to add that I see this reaction much more often from older black students returning to college, presumably because they have suffered from much more segregation than the younger black students.
Example: A young women faculty member gives a presentation and an older male faculty member tears it apart relentlessly in front of everyone. If I am sure he isn’t sexist, I will often tell the young woman on the side that “he’s an asshole to everyone” and relate an incident where he took down one of the men. This gets her mind out of feeling like she’s been treated in a sexist way and into either rethinking his remarks as possibly constructive but relayed in a rude way or thinking he is a jerk. Believing that you are working with a bunch of individual jerks is easier than feeling there is a line up of sexist old men holding you back. While the latter might have legal recourse, most people just suffer it until they can’t take it anymore and quit. Again, the women more likely to presume someone is racist are women who have worked in racist universities where men openly tell them on a regular basis that women can’t be scientists or that their brains aren’t adequate for real research. Yes, there are universities like these. No, you don’t want to send your daughter’s to them.
Posted by Robardin’s wife.
I’d call it a Jesse Jackson reaction.
People like this tend to assume the worst. Guilty until proven innocent, at least as far as racism is concerned. Jesse Jackson (mentioned by Kizarvexius) is an archetypal example of this mindset. A black man gets killed by the police, and Jesse goes around shouting
(Whether or not the shooting was justified is another issue entirely. A shooting can be unjustified and not racially-motivated.) Yes, it’s possible that such a person might get offended about a comment that was genuinely racist, but even a broken clock is right twice a day.
It occurs to me that we’ve overlooked another good adjective: thin-skinned. A thin-skinned person takes offense easily, although it could be for any reason.