play the race card
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
To unfairly use racial issues for personal advantage
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
lợi dụng vấn đề chủng tộc để đạt lợi thế cá nhân
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: using a card to represent race
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The politician was accused of playing the race card to win votes
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “play the race card” mean?
To unfairly use racial issues for personal advantage Literally: using a card to represent race
Is “play the race card” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.