20:20 Racism - A Blurred Vision

In a time where we have the greatest access to information and a multitude of portals that enable us to glimpse into the personal spaces of people around the world, why is it that our understanding of each other is becoming more superficial? Why has empathy and our desire to dismantle injustice been replaced with ignorance, where the most unqualified people speak to applause and enjoy bathing in the pain of others, whilst simultaneously revelling in the indifference. 

How did we ever reach the point where the tackling of racism has become, boring, troublesome or not worthy of mention when it occurs? Oh I'm sorry, are you tired of hearing about yet another incident? Well try being amongst the affected target group - now that's tiring and often frightening. Then of course comes the disbelief and dismissive rhetoric from the least qualified people to pontificate; "They are just playing the race card. Racism doesn't exist anymore. We live in a post-racial society..." These are probably my top 3 most annoying statements made from people who will never face a day of racism in their life. Thank you for the perspective from within your safe bubble of complete ignorance - now let the actual victims speak. This race card, what exactly does it get people? I imagine it is a protest flair that is fired when things aren't going their way - right? What happens next? Does firing it automatically get you millions of pounds in compensation? Or perhaps an automatic promotion at work? When you find out how this race card has worked in the past, please let me know.

Actor Laurence Fox “To call me a white privileged male is to be racist,” he claimed."

Good grief - when did conversations about race become so asinine and unsophisticated? How can a white male actor of a privileged background claim that racism doesn't exist, then within the same conversation accuse a non-white person as not only racist, but as being racist towards him! Is this some sort of alternate universe that I have woken up to, with an inverted, inside-out logic that even the highest minds of Vulcan couldn't fathom. Oh how the fruits of a perpetual lack of education in what racism is and how it operates is now having its most bountiful season in ages! Who wants to place a bet on the same circular conversations happening over and over again, never leading to an actionable resolve.

I could explain it, I mean I have done in other articles, but even with the furore that has followed Meghan, The Duchess Of Sussex's relationship with Prince Harry, we have witnessed the severe lack of understanding about why the attacks on her were actually racist. What a monumental waste of a national case study, but let's be truthful; people don't actually care as long as they are not the affected. Meanwhile, as time marches on, "racism" is fast becoming a powerless baby cry of a word, an annoying complaint that doesn't really describe anything or inspire people to act justly. As for the confusion over the term 'white privilege' look at it as a state that can leave you positively neutral or unaffected in all areas of life - the privilege lies in being able to get ahead without moving or at the very least be left alone because you are not denied, challenged or tested due to your race. If everyone around you is discriminated against and therefore disqualified without you having to do a single thing, you constantly gain a beneficial societal pole position.

But We Live In A Post-Racial Society Right?

It would seem that if overt football style racism (monkey chants and the throwing of bananas) is not employed, too many people are completely oblivious to when racism is occuring. First of all, let us start with the ultimate foundation of all discriminatory acts: classism. Classism is used to rank everybody in society and the closer you are to the ruling class, the more accepted you will be. Classism will use the lens of race, gender, sexuality and all the other categories that we use to define ourselves, as its measuring stick to deem how worthy you are of your position and if you should even be allowed to ascend to a higher one. After Meghan's 'examination' it would seem that the establishment and consequently the people, even those who would be considered beneath her, have found her not to be worthy and so cue the passive-aggressive attacks. 

Current arguments surrounding racism are missing one essential point; that it is quite easy for an individual to dislike someone or a group and still be on the edge of 'clever enough' to know what to and what not to say. A racist doesn't have to make derogatory statements about race to inflict damage, when they fully know that they would end up being the ones lambasted and publicly destroyed...even by people that agree with them. Therefore, attacks on a person/people can be drawn from a variety of other sources that can still cause insult, ridicule and pain, but the golden rule for self preservation is that you never, ever, ever cite the real issue. In the case of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, people objected to a foreign / black-enough / different race entering the royal family - that was the real issue and so character assassination became the order of everyday. Attacks on The Duchess have appeared as criticism in how she touched her baby bump, her child rearing skills, her fashion sense, her body etiquette, her choice of flowers for her wedding, her eating of an avocado and many other ludicrously boring things. Each persecutory story was spun in such a way that her character was questioned and tarnished and she became further vilified, which in turn rallied more daggers to the cause. ​

Fortunately, in all the haste to slander Meghan, media outlets forgot that for every story and criticism written and said about Meghan, there were original duplicate stories said and written about Kate, The Duchess Of Cambridgeshire and the Queen herself. However, for some mysterious reason the stories that pertained to the latter royal figures, were all positive - why? How can the exact same stories have wildly different interpretations? Answer: The Classism Filter liked Kate but didn't like Meghan. Bored Panda Article Exposing Media Bias 

The new defence system to excuse racism seems to now lie in 'willful intention' did the person causing offence mean to? Well, unfortunately for those who flock to the banner of 'I take no accountability upon myself' your new strategy will eventually lead you to not being able to operate in life - it's just simply a stupid way to live. However I would love to see that same excuse used in a court of law for every crime committed "Your honour I didn't mean to stab my friend 45 times, I didn't know I was doing it". If you stand by that flimsy type of rhetoric, if you propagate racism, especially as casual humour (Danny Baker) and you don't even know that you are in fact being racist, then it simply confirms that racism is so interwoven into our society, that you are actually unaware of its existence all around and IN YOU. 

Ultimately, we have too many programmed robots who don't even know that they are robots let alone running a programme. They are unconsciously biased and all toxic behaviours surrounding the maintenance of the status quo have been approved and normalised. If I were to fill up a Question Time studio, with an audience of only white people and told them that there was a fully safe but irreversible surgical operation that could turn white people into black and we wanted as many people to take part for a payment of £1,000,000 each. I imagine not one person would sign up because of the unconscious knowledge of discrimination would rise to the conscious forefront and out of pure self-preservation, they would fully acknowledge that black/brown skin colour means something in this particular society and £1,000,000 is not worth the degradation and hassle you would receive for the rest of your life.  

Some cowards don't openly attack, but they will defend people that they think support their value system, fully in collusion they are the enablers automatically validating the assailant. Those who stand in opposition to this evil need to now realize that these people don't want to change or admit their ignorance because they understand their position of power and want to maintain it. Remember when early day feminists tried to leverage race against gender? How could a black man get the vote but not a white woman. You'd think that in knowing how it feels to be discriminated against, that they would have gladly fought for everyone to be equal. Well, when it comes to ideology Vs policy, we have seen that personal beliefs trump policies that could give people the greatest life they could ever imagine. If a policy offered a 100% fantastic life, but in anyway involved having a particular type of person being above them in a hierarchical society, their inferiority complex and displacement in the food chain would lead them to sabotage attaining real happiness from their perceived one. In short, they would rather lose in real life and win superficially. Imagine having a Bentley car parked in your driveway, it has no engine, but it looks good to the neighbours. People would rather have that, then a functional Mazda that could actually take you places because of the perception of status. With that level of conceit, perhaps now is the time for punishment without discussion or a laying out of what they did wrong. Discourse has been proven to be pointless because you have to actually care about your fellow human beings in the first place to want to make changes. Howabouts from now on, we will tell you why you are out of order and deliver the punishment and then in your free time you can go off and learn what you did wrong because I can no longer be bothered.