A few thoughts on racism

Racism works in complicated ways. Often this is not clear to those whose acts may be racist despite their thinking that they are innocent of it.
Occasional efforts to have extreme racism classified as a serious psychological illness have foundered against the general wisdom that although it constitutes unacceptable social behavior, it is the product of economic, social and political factors rather than illness. One argument for this is that if we were to classify everyone who is part of a group that oppresses another, or expresses hate against it, as ill, then we would all be ill. How else, when this would involve the range of bigotry from Nazi murderers, fundamentalist Islamist and right-wing terrorists to many good citizens of Western democracies?
The result is that we come to consider racism as something to be condemned but also as "natural." This argument, however,...