Good article. I especially agreed with the following excerpt:
“Politics has always relied on symbols, rituals and performance. Today, though, it can feel as if politics has been consumed by performance. Consider the way that we now talk more about “white privilege” than about “racism”. The problem of racism is primarily social and structural – the laws, practices and institutions that maintain discrimination. The stress on “white privilege” turns a social issue into a matter of personal and group psychology.
“White people, you are the problem,” writes the Chicago Tribune columnist Dahleen Glanton. “For white people,” the US-based British writer Laurie Penny insists, “acknowledging the reality of racism means acknowledging our own guilt and complicity.” White people wash the feet of black faith leaders as atonement for their sins and religiously acknowledge their guilt. Such demonstrations of public obsequiousness are performances that make individuals feel better about themselves but also keep the structures of power and discrimination untouched
And that is also what statue removals and protests have become. Actions where the true purpose is to be a virtue signalling performance which barely scratches the surface of things but wow does it feel good. It’s about keeping up appearances, not actually correcting the deep down foundations of systemic inequality, racism and injustice.