Reply to Ewan Birney: Thanks Ewan. These are great points. I still think we are fighting this blindfolded, as I cannot see anyone putting forward a credible hypothesis of what racism actually is, functionally and conceptually. Is it a list of extreme biases? What produces these biases ? What benefits to they bring the individual who harbours them – as racism seems to be socially very persistent. Which actions do we know of that weaken these biases, which strengthen them ? Are some methods of communication more effective than others ? Are they staged. Is it a failure of communication or of information processing ? What is actually going on to produce a racist mind? This is a deep structural problem, that will require the aligned engagement of many parts of society.
