I'm back. I have ignored most of my more hostile notifications, but I'd like to point this out to the haters: it's quite extraordinary how many of you think I have never witnessed or experienced racism. I came to the UK from Pakistan at the end of the 1970s, 1/

My father was a visibly brown man. So, although I may present as white (mostly), when people insulted Pakis, they insulted me & *I* knew that (which is the important thing). This is WHY I know that skin colour is a poor proxy for origins & an unreliable marker of privilege. 2/

Yes, I know racism exists. I just firmly believe that the way to tackle it is not by introducing a kind of moral caste system, or by encouraging white people to perform self-flagellating theatrics: 3/

Most of this woke Critical Race Theory stuff in practice is either corporations covering their arses with HR mumbo jumbo that employees resent or snooze through, people virtue signalling with cheap slogans or (mostly) women with weird humiliation fetishes. 4/

It's divisive. It distracts us from the real issues: police brutality & irresponsibility; the idiotic war on drugs; lack of access to good schools, healthcare, public transport, services; environmental degradation & climate change (I could continue). We need to work together. 5/

We don't need to become racial bean counters. It's important to alleviate suffering. It's not important to gauge exactly which groups are most affected. We're almost all affected & we're almost all interconnected. 6/

Half of all black men & one third of black women in Britain are in relationships with non-black people. Add in their mixed race kids & blended families & it quickly becomes impossible to know how to even classify. This is a trend that is only increasing. This is good! 7/

It's enlightened self-interest to work together and the first thing we need to put aside is our obsession with race. We're one humanity. It's time we started acting like it. 8/

Racism itself is divisive and it helps no one. It debases even those it materially benefits & in many cases it serves simply to distract poor & underprivileged white people from their hardships, comforting them with a wholly imaginary status based on race. Throw it out. 9/

The best way to create a better society? Stop pigeonholing people based on superficial characteristics like skin colour. Create solidarity. Widen the circle of empathy. Work towards shared goals. 10/