My thoughts on racism.
I think it's impossible rid the world of racism completely. I think people are inherently a bit racist. Human beings just tend to pick on whatever makes anyone else different.
It's like, if you had brown hair, and you met a blond haired person who was a bit of knob, you might refer to them as "that blond ****" or something. It's not nice, but it's not because you have anything against blonds, it's only that particular person. Their hair colour is just one of the most striking things that makes them different from you. It's something we do as humans. It's not likely you would be demonised and called a "hairist" for that.
I think the same happens with race, except that it has a different outcome in that you do tend to get demonised as a racist. In reality, you're just using race as an obvious way of differentiating someone you don't like from you. Generally, if someone is a decent person, I don't think people care about their skin colour.
Of course there are people out there who do have a very real hatred for another race, and they hate people of that race whether they're nice or not. But whilst you might not agree with that viewpoint, I think it is important to respect people's opinions, no matter how extreme, for the sake of freedom of speech and thought. I don't believe you can have a truly free and successful society without those things, and in any case, what really matters is whether people act upon their "racist" opinions.
So if someone said that they hated white people, that would essentially be fine, because it's just their opinion. But if they then went and actually harmed some white people, that's where we should draw the line.
The problem today is, it's getting to a point where holding certain opinions or saying certain things is literally becoming criminal. It's worrying how people can get punished by the law in the UK and other western countries for just saying certain things, or even telling certain jokes. It sounds remarkably similar to somewhere like North Korea.
As a rule of thumb, I think it is always best to err on the side of freedom of speech when it comes to these sort of issues. So if someone says something that you consider to be racist, I think it is best not to vilify them or try and have them silenced - just respectfully disagree with their opinion. If they're not harming anyone, it doesn't matter.
Words should only be criminal when they become directly threatening.
On another note, if the last year or so has shown one thing, it's that one of the most prevalent forms of discrimination isn't actually to do with race, or gender, or sexuality, or religion... it's politics.
The amount of discrimination that occurs due to political differences between people is insane. I personally know someone in my family who refuses to let anyone in her house who supports Trump. You also get some Democrats, who supposedly oppose racism against blacks, who have been awful to black people because they support Trump. At the same time, Trump supporters are often thought to be racist, but it seems they're mostly happy to welcome black Trump supporters into their clan because they share the same political view. It's often fundamentally political, not racial, discrimination.
I believe you can sort of teach yourself not to be racist, as a lot of our younger generation have attempted, but it's tricky because it's easy to take it too far and start discriminating against your own race, which still makes you racist. There's also that inherent subconscious racism in us, which is hard to avoid. I think the best way to deal with things is to try not to be racist but not be too finicky about it.
So if a movie happens to include an all-white cast, instead of throwing up a fuss, I think we should just watch the movie and enjoy it, because there may have been no racist intentions at all. Even if there were, that would be their choice, and if you don't like it you can simply not watch the movie and support other filmmakers who are happy to have black people in their cast.
With the younger generations today actively trying not to be racist, I think we're heading in the right direction, we just need to be careful not to take it too far. Freedom of speech and thought need to be maintained. Embrace that people will always have opinions on other people!
