And in real life, people's beliefs and prejudices frame the issue regardless of whether they're logical or even based in fact. Try explaining to the KKK that race isn't real and see how far you get. Racism isn't a problem that will be solved by a clearer definition of terms

If the term "colourist" caught on, I'd be perfectly happy to use that, but it hasn't. And the point is, these semantic quibbles wouldn't make any material difference to anybody's life anyway. All we'd be doing is talking about how colourism (rather than racism) impacts people's lives.

So forgive me if I was abrupt, but when somebody makes a suggestion about my choice of words that would only serve to make my writing less clear to everybody who knows what the word "racism" means but has no reason to know that "colourism" was being used as a synonym, I’m left, as I was originally, confused about your point.

And yes, I’d agree with your list. But I’d say that a) the indifferent were more likely to simply rationalise away what they were seeing. I saw plenty of them doing it. And b) George Floyd’s murder was portrayed, wrongly in my opinion, as a racially motivated murder which made some people feel like they needed to take sides. Again, Tony Timpa’s death and many others raise doubt about this.

George Floyd was murdered primarily because the police force operates with almost no accountability. It’s an incredibly difficult, dangerous job combined with a toxic culture that punishes cops who might intervene when a fellow officer crosses the line. As long as police brutality is viewed as a ‘black’ issue, our attention will be focused in the wrong place.