So what you have done is taken my points to the extreme end of their possible interpretation to try and make them less valid and have accused me of suggesting that racism is non-existent in another attempt to shut down the discussion.
It was you that took the extreme view, and suggested that prejudice should not be described as racism until, you or some formal process had determined as racism.
I am not saying that its only racism if i have approved its use. I am not saying that its not racism unless i accept it as such. I am not suggesting that racism is of little consequence. I do think that other people have just as much right judge sentiments as me and that is exactly the point. I should be able to say that i don't agree with an accusation of racism without an automatic accusation of being racist.
So you do want to examine every allegation to determine if you think it is racist, otherwise it must automatically not be considered racist and the victim is weaponising the term. You originally said, "At the moment, the woke brigade are pushing the 'if a black person thinks it's racist then it's racist'.
But for me it isn't that cut and dried."
For example, i do not thinking asking your entire workforce to wear black face masks (where the corporate workwear is also black) is racist and i should be allowed to state that i don't think its a valid accusation without being accused of being institutionally racist.
This sounds like a nonsensical scenario. The corporate workwear is black, and there's been no complaints, yet you expect us to believe that suddenly there is an objection against wearing black masks.
About 20 years ago i was in a position where i had to make redundancies. I made 4 people redundant, one of whom happened to be black. He accused me of making him redundant because he was black. I was suspended whilst the company (a multi national manufacturer) investigated.
I had selected him through a matrix and he had a poor absence history, shorter service and was less skilled than the person he was compared with who happened to be white. I coincidently had a 50:50 record of employing people from white/non-white backgrounds which reflected the make up of the population in that area of west london. The accusation was therefore dismissed, i was reinstated and the redundancy upheld.
The accusation of racism was unfounded and malicious. The individual concerned knew the real reason for his redundancy, but openly told me he was going to 'take me down'. If it happened now, i suspect that the redundancy might have been overturned because of company's fears of bad press associated with accusations of racism.
On that basis you want to examine every allegation of racism to see if it's justified?
The automatic assumption that every accusation of racism is valid should not be the default. Every accusation should be considered and if found valid should be dealt with robustly, but there should also be the right to challenge whether it is actually racism without being hauled over the coals as a racist.
Like rape? I can make an allegation of rape, and if the rapist disagrees with the allegation they have a right to defend themselves against the allegation.
But you want to prevent the allegation of racism before it can be examined.
Imagine the scenario:
Officer, I want to report that I've been raped.
Sorry, miss, you can't make that allegation until it's been judged to be rape, and I think you're weaponising the allegation.
Can you see how nonsensical your comment is? You want to deny all allegations of racism until each incident has been judged to be racist.
With regard to your analogy about rape, if you allow people to weaponise non-existent rape then it absolutely diminishes the seriousness of genuine rape. People that cry wolf about rape or maliciously accuse other of rape absolutely make it that much harder for those who genuinely have suffered rape.
That is why such allegations are investigated. But with racism, you want to decry all allegations until they have been determined as racism.
See my scenario above.
Similarly:
To whoever it concerns, I want to make a complaint about being abused
Sorry, Sir, you can't make that complaint until it's been determined to be abuse, and I believe you're weaponising the allegation because you're woke.
And you have only thought of this when racism is involved. It never occurred to you about rape, theft, etc.
