Purchase

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Books-A-Million

Indie BookShop

Ripped Bodice

Add to Wish List

Also by Richard Thompson Ford:

Dress Codes, February 2021
Hardcover / e-Book
The Race Card, February 2008
Hardcover

THE RACE CARD
By: Richard Thompson Ford

How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse

Farrar, Straus and Giroux
February 2008
On Sale: January 22, 2008
400 pages
ISBN: 0374245754
EAN: 9780374245757
Hardcover
Add to Wish List

Non-Fiction

What do Katrina victims waiting for federal disaster relief, millionaire rappers buying vintage champagne, Ivy League professors waiting for taxis, and ghetto hustlers trying to find steady work have in common? All have claimed to be victims of racism. These days almost no one openly expresses racist beliefs or defends bigoted motives. So lots of people are victims of bigotry, but no one’s a bigot? What gives? Either a lot of people are lying about their true beliefs and motivations, or a lot of people are jumping to unwarranted conclusions—or just playing the race card.

As the label of “prejudice” is applied to more and more situations, it loses a clear and agreed-upon meaning. This makes it easy for self-serving individuals and political hacks to use accusations of racism, sexism, homophobia, and other types of “bias” to advance their own ends. Richard Thompson Ford, a Stanford Law School professor, brings sophisticated legal analysis, lively and eye-popping anecdotes, and plain old common sense to this heated topic. He offers ways to separate valid claims from bellyaching. Daring, entertaining, and incisive, The Race Card is a call for us to treat racism as a social problem that must be objectively understood and honestly evaluated.

Media Buzz

Lou Dobbs Tonight - February 19, 2009
News and Notes - November 21, 2008
Lou Dobbs Tonight - July 17, 2008
Lou Dobbs Tonight - April 4, 2008
Colbert Report - February 21, 2008
Colbert Report - February 13, 2008