Just as Big Brother was eternally engaged in hunting down the Brotherhood and eliminating Goldstein. So the political left will forever be fighting racism, sexism and homophobia. Whatever the reality of their existence.

The racial grievance industry is enjoying a boom time. There are careers to be had and fortunes to be made. Who cares if we’re speaking the truth if we can make a buck from spreading falsehoods!
Robin Di Angelo, Ibram X Kendi and Layla Saad are basically arms dealers in the culture war.
We’ve reached a point where, regardless of how well-meaning people might be, before engaging in any worthwhile cultural or political debate, those taking part must first decide what sort of discussion they wish to have – one that sits comfortably within current moral fashion, or an honest conversation that deals with actual facts (however uncomfortable, or unfashionable, they may be).
Unless all participants agree that a real and honest conversation is preferable, then daring to voice perfectly justifiable thoughts in certain quarters will lead to (unchallengeable) charges of racism and kill any chance of rational debate.
It is also sadly true that the identity of the messenger is often as consequential as the message itself. The matter of one’s race, gender, age or creed should not add a jot or subtract a tittle from the validity of one’s argument – but we know that it does in today’s marketplace of ideas. Writing as a British, middle-class, middle-aged white man, I am on much thinner ice tackling contentious issues such as race than if I were black, or younger, or any of half a dozen other differentiators. Because according to Critical Race Theory, the very fact of my Whiteness supposedly stops me from being able to discern systemic racism – and thus I can be safely ignored. Any attempt to push back against that is dismissed as defensiveness and further proof of my racism – apparently.
It is therefore crucial that enough black intellectuals and writers take on the divisive racial myths being peddled by race-baiters, the leftish media and the ever-growing army of (largely well-meaning but chronically misinformed) young, indoctrinated liberal woke – who I like to call the Children of the Quorn – who parrot this stuff and take it as Gospel. Of course they think race relations are the worst they’ve been for generations, they’ve heard little else from the media, and seem almost to want to believe it, for reasons unknown.
When I’ve tried to read and understand the messages put about by Ms DiAngelo and her ilk, it appears that the arguments rest wholly on guilt, and cynically seek to exploit that guilt for perceived gain. Organisations such as BLM seek to feed into a culture of guilt among whites, and victimhood among the black community. Rather than empowering those they claim to champion, it enfeebles them. It is frankly demeaning to imagine black people as perpetual victims of systemic white racism. It removes the idea that any Person of Colour has agency. It absolves such “victims” of the need to take responsibility for their actions, their choices and their future. Such infantilisation of an entire racial community has been the principle behind much that is holding people back.
Thomas Sowell has been making these points for many years. Now into his 90’s, and with BLM in the ascendency, his voice is needed more than ever. Thankfully there are other intellectuals taking up the challenge – Glenn Loury and Coleman Hughes very much among them.
Here in the UK, Trevor Phillips, once considered righteous by the BBC and Guardian, is now vilified because he dared speak the truth, he dared push back against the false narrative that the UK is an irredeemably racist country – his crime was merely to point out that, by almost any metric you can find, the UK is just about the most tolerant, diverse country on planet earth. Or witness the immediate denigration of the authors of the recent Sewell report. The comments made about them (in mainstream as well as social media) were overtly racist and deeply unpleasant, all because they challenged the race-baiters and pointed up the fact that poverty, social class and culture were determining factors of far greater significance in holding people’s life-chances back than merely race.
But not only does the politics of grievance divide us, it makes us weaker. It glorifies victimhood and vilifies anyone who tries to suggest otherwise. The #metoo movement could have been empowering, yet insisting that a clumsy advance, or an unwanted touch of a knee, is somehow equivalent to rape is insane. Who is that empowering? Telling every woman they are a victim, teaching impressionable young women they are likely to become victims, that all men are naturally predatory? Does that heal divisions in society or exacerbate them?
Similarly, teaching young black men that they are oppressed, that society doesn’t value them as much, that the police are not to be trusted. Who does that help? Does it improve their chances of success in life or does it weigh them down with unnecessary baggage? Does it drive a wedge between communities, between groups? Of course it does.
In the end, the politics of grievance can only be defeated by a better politics – but that has to be rooted in honesty, not what fits the narrative. Honest assessments of a situation probably sell fewer newspapers, or get fewer Youtube views, than sensationalised hyperbole. This poses a dilemma for any media outlet that has bought into the identity fixated woke agenda.
Identity politics is the very antithesis of the principles of universalism – it suggests what differentiates us is more important than what we have in common. Surely we should treasure more what we share as members of a diverse community rather than seek to silo people and segregate that community into ghettos based on our racial identities, sexual orientation, age, gender or creed?
How do people who claim to speak for progressive attitudes justify shifting the argument from Martin Luther King’s dream of a future where people are judged according to their character rather than the colour of their skin to the point where these activists are calling for PRECISELY THE OPPOSITE? That you are defined, as a person, solely by the groups to which you belong. To abandon that call for universalism in favour of separatism is surely a retrograde step?
That point seems so incontestable to me that I am utterly baffled how “progressives” can think this present strategy is advancing the cause of equality.
For each anecdotal instance of intolerance that gets trumpeted as “proof” of widespread bigotry, racism, sexism, homophobia, etc there are a million other instances of just everyday acceptance of people, – regardless of colour, nationality or gender – that aren’t worthy of anecdote simply because they are so everyday.
The activists and writers who seem so keen to push this agenda, seem not merely willing, but positively hoping, to see the country divided, pitting their ideas of racial antipathy against the reality of a tolerant and accepting society. In an attempt to appear Woke they are sleepwalking the country into the very same dystopian future that they imagine our present to be.

Trying to counter the narrative with facts seems to add fire to the polarization. What is evolving in the aftermath of constant declarations of racist is the word is gradually losing impact. But the worst fear is the stoking of animosity and race consciousness in the public. Perhaps liberals will be Ok with constant apologies for “being White” but it doesn’t sit well with the average person, IMHO. I do wish that the race baiting and factual distortions come to haunt those that participated.

I note that the UK branch of BLM does not seem greatly exercised over the Black Lives of those crossing the Channel in small boats.

“There were over twice as many unarmed whites killed by police as blacks but, as John McWhorter, author of the new book Woke Racism notes, this never makes the news because it doesn’t fit the narrative of white racial violence against African-Americans.”

But given that there are four to five times as many white Americans as black (depending how you categorise) this is still a massively higher rate.