I don't think I did disparage you, but sorry for being short with you. I think you caught me at the end of a long day of answering less than enlightened comments (also suggestions that I have an “agenda” are guaranteed to get my back up). Funnily enough, you were also the third person that day to get my name wrong. I guess you caught my frustration from the other two people too. The correction of your overbite is appreciated.

You wrote a very long reply, so I didn’t get around to answering each of your points. But as most of them were references to things I hadn’t even mentioned in my article (like CRT and Jan 6th), or variations on the theme that racism does indeed exist (I’ve never claimed that it didn’t), I didn’t see much point in responding to them. Yes, racism exists. We can address that fact without pretending that black people are a different species of human. In fact, it’s the idea that black people are a different species (or at least a sub-species) that enables racism.

But I was, and still am, struggling with your assertion that a colourblind society is either impossible or that it's not what what King wanted.

As for the impossibility, what do you think people would have said 100 or even 50 years ago about a society where gay people were allowed to marry? Or where black people and women would be the CEOs of multinational corporations? What do you think they'd have said 200 years ago about a society where we no longer burn witches?

There are always people claiming that change is impossible in society. That things cannot get better. They're wrong every single time. It just takes longer than we'd like.

As for King, maybe we're not agreeing on what a colourblind society is. I'm not, I hope it's clear, talking about a society where people literally don't see the colour of people's skin. I've seen this straw man employed a few times and yes, obviously this is impossible, and not particularly desirable.

To me, a colourblind society can be neatly summarised by King's famous line; a society where people are judged by the content of their character and not the colour of their skin. If we achieved this society, it would be perfectly colourblind enough for me. Again, we aren't there yet. But we're far closer to this society than we were in King's day. Largely because King wasn't among those who insist that change is impossible. There is no "agenda" in admitting this.