Channel 4 has become good at squandering its rich reputation for being a credible broadcaster. It drunk from the murky pool of Big Brother and has paid a price ever since. Watching it having to bend over backwards to avoid the stain of racism is such a low ebb. It is caught in its own predictable snare.

Recently another inmate got evicted from the horrible house for making racist remarks. Apparently she used the N-Word. She said “nigger” which is a big crime in the modern world. Using the term is worthy of the strongest reprimand. You have to be put up in front of the hordes and made to squirm. The poor soul who was subjected to this punishment was so eager to show contrition she could hardly string together a sentence.

There is nothing more pathetic these days than white society's attempting to deal with its racist history by displaying right-on credentials. As if the using of a word makes all that much difference. Curiously it's not okay to use this word if you’re white. It's okay if you’re black because that is your choice. And blacks are different you see. They have their own codes and values.

Oh dear! Oh for some wisdom on this issue. But there is none. Genuine intelligence, insight, perspective, maturity and leadership in our world has gone to the wall. What it means to be racist is complex. The idea that its worst form is the use of a bad word is juvenile and ridiculous. To dump so much retribution on these young women whose lack of intellect doesn't give them appropriate command over the language so as to avoid saying things that will get them in trouble is preposterous. Real racism, the stuff which has done the real harm and still does, lurks in the heart and mind of humanity. It includes black racism alongside racism of every other creed and colour.

Racism combines two natural tendencies: the fear of difference and the tendency of the powerful to persecute the weak. Both these are deeply set in nature it seems. Black people were an ill-treated minority in European cultures because they were different and because they had no power. Although it is essential to try to reduce how these behaviours manifest socially the best place for them to be addressed is internally within the individual. Part of that addressing would be the acceptance of natural racist leanings, not the denying of them as everyone does currently. “I am not a racist” has become something of a badge. It should be “Yes I am racist but dealing with it”.

Racism is a species of tribalism and humans are deeply tribal to their cost. They cleave to the tribe for security. Were social relations and human connections more secure and individuals more self-aware then there would not be the same need for such tribal structures. This is the key to the solving of the racism problem not scapegoating young women for their poor intellects.

Watching this fiasco play itself out is pitiful. I am sure radical blacks must look with wry amusement at society's contortions in trying to atone for a dodgy past. As if being called a nigger was the worst that had happened to them.