So ALL white people are the problem? What a racist thing to say.
No. Because for a start racism is an institutional construct predicated on the idea that your skin colour is a predictor of your worth as a person. Racial prejudice is not the same because it’s not embedded in institutional power structures.
But white people, even those who individually bear no sense of superiority to black people. Every black person who doesn’t get a taxi because they are black, means more taxis for white people.
Every black person who doesn’t get a job, or even an interview because they have a “black name”, makes it easier for white people.
It’s the same way that all men benefit from male violence, while not being violent men themselves. A woman won’t take a job working at night, or in a remote location because she fears for her safety, which directly benefits men who now have more job opportunities.
And these are small examples, but multiplied over days and months and years and millions of lives, create enormous advantage for those who are most powerful.
And while I think Munroe Bergdorf is a twit, being a twit doesn’t mean you don’t experience systemic racism because of your skin colour. Being oppressed doesn’t mean you’re any kind of person, just that you’re a person living in an oppressive system.
So Bergdorf may not be sensible, they may be narcissistic, but they also have every right to speak about their own experiences of racism. And that experience is real, whatever their character.
The big corporations are neck deep in continuing racism and sexism. They profit directly from both systems, as they hope to profit from being seen to support racial equality.
I don’t like to think of myself as a racist, and hope that in my life I try and dismantle what I can reach, of structural racism. But I do benefit directly and indirectly from other people’s oppression, so I need to pay attention to some humility in my thinking.