It's about time. When talking about race it's a mistake to think that it refers to something objective and that rac ism necessarily refers to a conscious state of mind. By race I mean the set of beliefs about the relationship between personal qualities of, say, temperament, character, and abilities, to skin tone and related physical characteristics, such as, hair, eyes, nose, and the like. By racism I mean the way in which those beliefs affect our judgment of others, our reaction to them, and our treatment of them. There are other ways of identifying who's in or out, such as, patterns of speech or lifestyle, but while speech and lifestyle can be changed, skin cannot.
Color is forever.
Not so where color is concerned, for having a notably different skin tone or features means a perpetual identification with the status and lifestyle of origin. It is in this regard that race is not objective and racism not necessarily a conscious state of mind, for the significance attached to variations of color is so pervasive and deep-seated as to be taken for granted. Not uncommonly, this struggle becomes so severe that it brings out the worst in people. The substance of people's very lives, after all, is at stake. And the worst in people is beginning to emerge.