Because no-one demanded it: Another sermon against racism!

Looking for a fun way to spend 15 minutes? Wait until someone says something racist. Immediately afterwards say: "Why do you hold these racist beliefs?"

When confronted by the fact that their comment is racist, more often than not said racist will launch into a spirited defense, arguing either that the comment is in no way racist, or that their racist beliefs are justified.

The most common tool used by the racist is that of previous experience.

For example, a racist making a throwaway joke about the odour of someone from a different race will defend this because they once encountered someone who smelled like that. In their mind, this proves their point.

Similarly, someone who says all people from said race are lazy/violent/filled with natural rhythm will back that up by relating a tale of how they once met someone who fit both criteria. In their mind, this proves their point.

Insidiously, the previous experience method is used to justify both arguments. The 'I'm not racist' argument ("I'm not racist, I simply speak the truth, like Jesus did"), and the 'justified racism' argument ("Yes I'm racist, how could I not be given that in 1976 a person of a different colour to me was drunk in the street? Remember that football club trip to Adelaide where I threw up a watermelon on passers-by? That was raucous.")

As an aside, I've now used the word racist thirteen times. Solid evidence that I am either a left-wing nutjob or, possibly, communist. Sadly, speaking out against racism seems to attract more scorn than racism itself in many situations.

We've all had negative experiences. Where the 'previous experience' argument falls down is in allowing them to influence your opinion of people who were not there, not involved, and will never do anything of the sort. Would you punch Steve Martin in the face because the last season of SNL sucked? I think not.

I have often heard it said that, by the time you are about 15, your personality has been all but set in stone. Therefore, the "my parents raised me a racist and now I can't change" argument comes into play, a subtle change of the 'previous experience' method.

There is truth in that. Fundamentals are established early, setting you on a lifelong path of telling your therapist about your mother's cuddling technique and its impact on your lost promotion before you've even old enough to understand the film 'Mommy Dearest'.

However, as Buffy spinoff show Angel teaches us, we are all capable of change.

In high school I allowed myself to be swept up in the uninformed, racist rambling of my peers to a certain extent, many of home lent on the 'I'm not racist' argument. During these formative years I, like all of us, had experiences that could have cemented lifelong racism, if I was so inclined.
I allowed these experience to form my beliefs for some time. During a concurrent period I held the belief that I could drink 700 millilitres of vodka and gain invincibility, suffering no ill-effects. I also had the related belief that Sundays did not exist.
I shook off all these beliefs in time.

We can change if we want to. We need not change immediately. We don't need to believe we can singlehandedly achieve a utopia to maintain beliefs of equality.
The vision of an equal world has not been attained. Pretending it has is dangerous, writing it off as impossible equally so.

It's in admitting we're not there yet, and continuing to work towards it, that we show that we care.