Racism is a major issue. Yet you seldom if ever hear a definition of what exactly racism is. It’s assumed everyone knows and it’s something no one, other than extremists and undesirables, ever concede to being.

So what is racism? I doubt if I’m going to answer that here. Rather I’m more likely to raise more questions which may show just how confused we are about what it means to be racist and how few of us are genuinely clear of the charge.

• In recent years the expression ‘institutional racism’ was brought into use further complicating the matter. Whatever racism was to be defined as, this was the suggestion that it could be structural, almost indigenous to the culture of a particular organisation. In this case it was the police who were being exposed. If they were being accurately branded in this way then it would be of a different order, wouldn’t it, say to that of the German Nazis who are the archetypal racists of all time. They believed that Jews should be expelled from the world and they were the ones to do it. Is the British police force really characterised by attitudes associated with one of the most contemptible organisations in human history? A serious charge indeed.

• If the police in general as a group can be racist then so could any other organisation, group or community. Is it racist for the Scots to hate the English? Many of them do, and do so vigorously with no hint of shame or the need to reflect upon this as something that might just be a tad dubious.

• Is it racist to prefer one race above another? This would be a kind of positive racism and unlikely to be held against anyone. And yet, almost by definition, having a preference probably means judging one to be better than the other. In a way this inversion of standard racism might be a rather insidious form of the same bad thing.

• Is it okay to think racist as long as you don't speak or act in a racist manner? Presumably yes as we consider it a sacred tome within liberal societies that people must be free to hold thoughts and opinions with impunity. As long as they don’t act out their prejudice in word or deed, in theory we allow them to hold the view. As soon as any evidence of its existence is apparent, however, out come the big guns. It’s easy to deduce from this that there is to be no debate around racism as anyone daring to advance a racist argument would be shouted down and not allowed to speak. Here a liberal society shows itself to be not so liberal by putting serious limitations on freedom of expression. The danger here, in not allowing racist views to be articulated, is that the principles go underground where the effects over a longer term can be damaging to society’s fabric. Better, in general, to have the stuff we don’t like visible and accountable than to proliferate elsewhere able to gather momentum and be a much bigger threat later on. This is a very hard lesson for humans to learn as it’s natural to want to put the undesirable out the way. As with racism, so with a litany of other of life’s darker forces.

• Another thing. We tend, falsely in my view, to accord victims of racism a kind of moral superiority. This is always a mistake. Morality is about what you do, not what happens to you. It’s perfectly possible for individuals subjected to racism to be every bit as racist as the perpetrators. Would they, if their minority group became the majority in power, act with appropriate equanimity? Not necessarily. In fact, were they victims with a long history of persecution then the odds are that there would be a strong impulse for retribution.

• I think that racism exists in everyone to some degree. It may be relatively minor such as in the form of a fear of difference. That fear in less advanced communities is probably greater possibly because of the inheritance of long established, entrenched attitudes being passed virtually unchanged down the generations. Anything new or different is often perceived as a threat in such communities. This is true I think in large areas of British society. Outside of the cosmopolitan orbit racist views are often held and language used without them even being aware of it. In general these communities tend to be intimidated by anything different from themselves. In this respect the racist problem runs much deeper than is widely realised.

• Lurking in the depths of racism might be that apparently innocuous tendency among human beings to exclusivity. As soon as you introduce exclusivity into the habits and practices of human conduct you’ve established the principle of identifying yourself and others in terms of differences. You are then overly concerned with who or what is to be excluded. This is only a step away from segregation which in turn goes to racism. Until the need for exclusion is diminished in the hearts and minds of most, until people can reduce their dependency on identifying themselves with a group consciousness, one that seeks to exert itself at the expense of the other, there will always be racism and its many offshoots.