Why do these budding political discussions always get the race card pulled up?

Because race is a key factor in American politics, especially when it comes to discussions about civil rights like voting. Because there are heavy racial divides in partisan alignment in the US. It is impossible to have a meaningful discussion of voting rights in the US without the subject of race coming up, any more than it would be possible to have a discussion of environmental issues without discussing carbon emissions, or of reproductive medicine without discussing gender.

Hey, no one's forcing the Republicans to try to disenfranchise black people or peddle racist ideologies. They did that all on their own.

Sources? I am genuinely interested why you think they do.

Look up the realignment of the Republican party and the Southern strategy, the Voting Rights Act, and the various hurdles that some states began to re-implement after the gutting of that act in 2013.

It's kind of a thing.

Because black people vote Democrat by a massive margin.

because race is the (possibly unfortunately named) trump card in a simple back and forth like this in a public forum