The question you raise is this: Is it important to individually point out every single tree in a forest?

I didn’t mention the Native American genocide in the United States, either, despite growing up in a Native cultural context. Was that to discount it? Was that because I don’t feel it’s important? Of course not, don’t be thick.

I didn’t detail every demonstrable aspect of racism across the Western world because I was trying to get a very specific message across in a ten minute speech to a specific audience?

This is not an “article,” it is the transcription of a speech. Words have to work differently in a speech than in an essay. I think of that as a basic appreciation of the English language because that’s my mother tongue, but that’s the reality regardless of your language, so you have no excuses if you speak one.

It’s really easy to sit from a comfortable position and pick apart every little piece of something when it’s written down. You have time, you can re-read, you can make sure any nuance that you want represented is pointed out if not present. But that’s only sensible if you want to argue about bark on the trees, and it’s not sensible in a short speech.

With a basic appreciation of language, one realizes that when one writes a speech, they have to be conscious of the fact that people are listening, they are not reading, and we need to keep our focus on using a cadence, structure, and specific examples that keep the focus on the topic that we are speaking about.

So no, I didn’t specifically point out your tree, and I didn’t point out that other tree either. I didn’t specifically point out every single aspect of racism in the Western world because it would’ve made for an incredibly long and stupidly boring SPEECH.