Bond: "Racism alive and well to all non-whites"

Bond: "Racism alive and well to all non-whites"

"To ignore race is to ignore our present and deny our history" and to brush off the existence of racism in America is politically incorrect, NAACP Board Chairman Julian Bond warned Monday saying the disease of racism is still "alive and well." even though Jim Crow laws are dead.

"The phrase `playing the race card' is like the phrase `politically correct' intended to mean one thing, in actual usage each has come to mean something very different," Bond said.

He made his remarks during the 92nd annual NAACP convention held in New Orleans, to more than 20,000 people attending.

He said the phrase politically correct "began as an ironic, self-mocking and self-deprecating comment among liberals. It made fun of those who took special steps not to offend by substituting often clumsy euphemisms for descriptions now regarded as demeaning or offensive.

"Playing the race card gained widest usage in the aftermath of the O.J. Simpson trial," he recalled.

"Simpson's lawyer, Johnnie Cochran, `played the race card,' we are supposed to believe, by improperly appealing to Black jurors' misplaced racial loyalty to his Black client.

"Today," said Bond, "the phrase has broader application. Now, in some quarters, at least, it covers any mention of race and by the new standard, it is always inappropriate.

"In this formulation, any discussion of race in any context is wrong, but, we believe ignoring race, what Bill Clinton calls `the oldest demon in human society, is always wrong. To ignore race is to ignore our present and deny our history," Bond warned.

Saying the NAACP's numbers and revenues are rising including a record number of youth units across America, Bond said his organization was not "thwarted" by the racism of the past and today "is stronger now than ever.

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