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Race Cards and Level Playing FieldsRichard Thompson Ford takes readers' questions about real and percieved forms of bias.


Posted Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, at 4:38 PM ET

Slate contributor Richard Thompson Ford was online at Washingtonpost.com on Jan. 24 to discuss his new book, The Race Card: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse, and offered ways to separate valid claims of prejudice from mere bellyaching. An unedited transcript of the chat follows.

(Continued from page 2)

Arlington, Va.: I enjoyed your article on Slate and was wondering if you devote any space in your book to reacting to racist accusations. After Kanye's comment about Bush I remarked one day that it's hard not to think that Bush is a racist sometimes, and I was informed by a black colleague that as a white person I am not allowed to discuss racism because I have no idea what it's like to be black. Experiences like that make it hard to empathize, especially when I grew up poor in a trailer park where both of my parents died because of alcoholism. People assume that because I am white that I am privileged, and I am finding it hard to "feel sorry" for people because they are simply not white. Which in effect seems like racism because I am being forced to treat non-whites differently for fear of upsetting them.

Richard Thompson Ford: I hate the idea that you're not allowed to discuss racism because of your race. How can we hope to improve race relations if most of the people involved are not allowed to join a civil conversation about the issues. A lot of the book is about the reactions to these accusations—I try to explore when and why people make accusations of bias, when such accusations have merit and when they don't and to discuss the cost of making accusations when they aren't warranted. One of those costs is that people just stop talking to each other and we settle into an attitude of mutual suspicion and resentment. I hope you don't give up and keep trying to engage people of all races on these important questions

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Silver Spring, Md.: Racism is not something that is always perpetuated by evil racists. Racism is racism—it doesn't become something less because a person is supposedly "decent" and appears to have no ill will, or because the person who is racist is the same color of the race that they are prejudice toward. (Black folks have been brainwashed since slavery to feel inferior.) I think that is the problem: firstly, the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others, and secondly discrimination or prejudice based on race. This is racism! It needs to be applied equally without all these qualifying outs.

Richard Thompson Ford: I agree with some of what you say. I entitled a chapter of the book "Racism Without Racists" precisely because I do think we can have racial injustices without racists. But too often we act as if there must be a racist to blame when there is a racial problem and people blame the guy nearest to hand.
I also spend a chapter of the book exploring different legal and social definitions of racism. In the law, we find that "discrimination on the basis of race" is extremely hard to define—it's an ideologically contested term—not the simple matter you imply it is here. I hope the book helps people to think through the issues your question has raised.

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Washington: Have you seen the John Stewart video on the "Race Card"? Extremely relevant.

Richard Thompson Ford: I haven't seen it but I'm going to as soon as I'm finished here—thanks for the tip

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Richard Thompson Ford: Thanks to everyone who submitted questions. I would like to have answered them all, but time wouldn't permit. My apologies to people who I couldn't answer.

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Richard Thompson Ford, a Stanford University law professor, is published regularly on the topics of civil rights, constitutional law, race relations, and antidiscrimination law. He is the author of Racial Culture: A Critique.
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