Everyone's a little bit racist

This evening I want to talk about an issue that makes me even more hot under the collar than the Spanish sun: RACE. Even though I'm next to a fan, I'm actually sweating merely due to the risky nature of this subject matter. What if I offend a load of people and get thrown off the internet forever? Similarly, what if I sound too PC and people think I just talk a load of yellow-bellied liberal clap-trap? Someone's not gonna like it...
Well I'm going to try not to do either of those things. I just want to tell you a story of when I discovered just how confused we get about race and how I too came a cropper...



First year of uni- me and my 8 flatmates were watching a rugby match. The usual laddish banter, nothing out of the ordinary: most of the "isms" were covered. Then, suddenly, one of my housemates (who shall remain nameless- but let's call him Cecil) made a comment about one of France's black players. Don't get me wrong, I know a lot of racist comments can be sarcastic but this was different- it had pure malice within. Oswald Mosley would have probably said "Steady on old chap. That's a bit harsh". Cecil had crossed an invisible line- not the PC line but the common sense line. I must have spat out a whole mouthful of coffee along with half my cream bun as it was that bad. Take my word for it, ok?

Then the next day, we were talking about Australia, and I described Aborigines as "native Australians". Cecil chimes in: "you can't say 'native' Rav. That's racist that is."
"But yesterday you called Serge Betsen a (censored) and said he was (also censored)
"Yes, but I said that sarcastically"
I was dumbfounded. Cecil was technically right. He had abused a black guy so sarcastically and with such high-brow irony that I had failed to spot it. I had used the term "native" in total seriousness, so I was the racist one. I had to admire Cecil's cutting satire, as he moved on to other choice obervations about the gypsies, gays and Jews...

I think this shows how British attitudes towards taboos have changed. We've been through the political correctness phase and now suddenly it's ok to be racist again as long as you're making a serious point. Everyone does it and often it's satirical and really makes you think- e.g. David Brent's irrational fascination with Denzel Washington. But when does the boundary end I wonder? Is Cecil racist or just a dickhead? Am I the dickhead?

I'm just saying that if we care too much about political correctness maybe we'll ignore the real prejudices people have inside their brains! Maybe having a fear of using words like native, foreign, black and white makes us racist in itself. I just don't know...
Please tell me so that this torment may end. I'm off for a cold shower.

I think I've just opened a can of worms....we'll soon find out!