Great article. I wouldn’t worry about your white friends being hurt and offended – if they can’t laugh at themselves they probably aren’t worth keeping around.

Exactly the same logic applies to minority groups too or course. There is no semantic difference between comments about soy latte, and curry, or rice and peas. Labelling the latter as racist whilst enabling the former will ensure you get race segregation by the back door.

I think it’s very sad that ‘cultural appropriation’ and ‘weaponised offence’ is getting in the way of friendly sharing of cultures, customs and foods. The ideological left and right are both causing problems here and both blame each other for perpetuating it. That’s short sighted. As the left tend to take the more intolerant position and usually he most radical – the demos shifts right.

Like your friend who was a vocal ally but now isn’t – when everything in the world is racist it logically follows that nothing is – and we need to be careful about how that plays out in the next few years.