Race Card

I keep hearing people talking about someone "playing the race card". The problem I have is it's always a white guy talking about some one non-white. I am in no way biased against any race. My theory is jerks abound, come in all colors and have at the moment there is no product to repel them. The thing is if you aren't a minority you don't understand the treatment one can receive. Folks may say well I was discriminated against once, but that's not what matters. Even large examples of discrimination don't matter as much. It's the subtle ones. The examples you tend to accept, those that are less bitter that build up into large glaring proof. The weary eye that I have for the police as a result of several things that have happened to myself and others. The fact that until the last 5 years it was hard as hell to get a job if you had locks or a bush or anything besides a low-cut. The way security guards eye you, even the way some security guards greet you to kind of say " I'm not on that stupid "watch-the-blackman-shit". For instance: me and my friends, enroute to spend my tax cash, stop at Starbucks. The guy behind the counter seems apprehensive. As we are leaving the cops are coming in and one of my friends goes back to buy a newspaper. He comes back out to let us know that the cops were getting on the guy because he hit the alarm when we walked in the store without reason. We don't go back to make a big deal, we just laugh at him getting ripped as we proceed with our day. It's not so much that this type of thing could happen, but that it happens often enough that we begin to expect it's a possiblity in certain areas. It's like an ex-con expecting that he may not get a job or that he may be look at with suspicion. Except there is no prior crime. Far be it from me to think that a white person has never been treated in a racist manner. The issue here is that they don't have that expectation in the back of their mind. When things cause concern and alarm people consider them an issue, but by that time we're just reacting. The big problems are like asbestos exposure as oppossed to gas leaks. A gas leak will eventually cause an explosion and an explosion causes instant damage and death. Asbestos will kill you but not quickly, it corrupts you and eats away at you until you just can't live anymore. That's really tragic. Society sees things like affirmative action as big steps forward. What ever steps the law makes cannot change the opinions of people and that's what matters. I used to say I don't care what people think. I've realized that though I can't let what people think bother me, it will affect me. That's the problem. The problem is those who I should gain knowledge and learn my history from possess a reality/media generated fear of me, even though I personally don't warrant it. That is the race card and those that experience it don't need it to be pulled because it gets thrown into your face.