I don't dispute any of those things... the evidence is there and it's peer reviewed - you are more likely to die if you going to an ER. The question isn't whether racism exists or not, the question is how do we go about changing it.
Ultimately, if we leave it to the Conservative Right Wing to change anything, you will continue to be at disproportionately at more risk of death for some time to come. Which means, the quickest way to get a better world is to vote in a left-wing and somewhat progressive Government and it's here where the whole thing comes tumbling down.
When you make the race argument, and consistently bring skin-colour into the debate, you simply highlight the differences between people. You end up very quickly with a highly mobilised middle class of BIPOC activist who insists, as Allison does, that skin colour is the most important facet of privilege. This is broadly accepted by most liberal middle class white folks - and you'll see them in their supportive bubbles all race-writers work on this site.... but that only tells half the story.
Because.... when you mobilise a middle class of BIPOC writers to insist that their concepts of privilege are the only real argument, you create a disaffected white working class. We'll call them, for want of a better word, Trump voters. The Right Wing is very good at radicalising the white working class to vote against their own interests - racism is part of the reason your country doesn't have functioning Unions. Something which hurts all poor people.
And here's the rub, whilst you're far more likely to be poor if you're black, there are a lot more poor white people. MLK knew this, it features in a lot of his speeches. It's far worse to be poor and black than it is to be poor and white... .but it's far worse to be poor and white than black and middle class (at least I'd make that argument). And so, in following the skin colour arguments you end up with a situation where white folks in poverty are radicalised against the left - and continue to vote in the right wing. Nothing changes.
Woke is a self defeating argument.
What is required is greater societal cohesion, more emphasis on social mixing, better childcare, better maternity and paternity leave, better wages and above all else - better and more mixed schooling and scholarships and an end to white nepotism in the jobs market. I didn't say that Black people are dividing themselves up into smaller and smaller groups. I'm saying the left wing is doing it. Well meaning white folks and well informed black folks... but it's a flawed methodology... because we're seeing racism getting worse rather than better.
The problem is systemic, it needs to be tackled systemically and it needs to be tackled in a way that doesn't cause a right wing backlash... because another four years of Trump and this shit will get worse.
I unpack my views a little more here https://medium.com/p/c1bb249ab94e and here if you're interested. https://medium.com/p/f5bb6d4f228a
