If everything is racist then it logically follows that nothing is racist. If your actions and inactions are both labelled as racist, where’s the motivation for doing anything? There was a great deal of hope when this wave of social justice arrived that it would lead to meaningful change – but the subjectivity of the term ‘racist’ has rendered it meaningless. Wokeness jumped the sharp and the average social justice warrior killed off any chance of meaningful discourse or common sense.

Racism is a form of othering, usually perpetuated by the majority against a minority group. Skin colour is one immutable characteristic on which ‘othering’ takes place but knowing this doesn’t solve the problem of othering… see the Rwandan genocide, the Jewish Holocaust and the rape of Nanking for instances in which skin colour was a negligible part of ‘othering’.

To really understand the psychological bedrock on which racism is built, you have to look beyond skin colour. Using identity politics (which promotes othering and exclusion) to fight racism is like spotting a house fire and then trying to put it out with your flamethrower.

Conversations are necessary. Racism is very prevalent in the west and a real problem – it cannot be solved easily and anyone who suggests it can hasn’t really thought about it. The current format of the discourse is making things worse and not better for POC and that the competitive game of oppression bingo is what needs sorting first – then perhaps a meaningful direction can be agreed upon.