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The fact that there is such a consensus has driven the forces of hate to the desperate nostrum of accusing those that they hate, for reasons of envy or political disagreement, of being racists. At times, it requires Job-like patience to keep in mind what a mighty victory for the tolerant majority the desperation of this scum represents. There are very few racists, so the psychotic malcontents are cornered in our society with no tactic left but to accuse others of what afflicts them.

It is beyond stupid to treat someone differently on account of their race, gender or sect

In the same measure that racism was a prevalent view a hundred years ago, when most whites considered non-whites inferior, most Chinese considered non-Chinese inferior, and most whites considered many other whites inferior, those prejudices rarely surface now. When I was born, though I was too young to be aware of it, the inheritors of the splendid civilization of Goethe and Beethoven were massacring millions of people for religious, sectarian, ethnic and political differences. I and a very large number of readers remember the murder of millions of Chinese and Cambodian and Vietnamese non-communists, and of Rwandans and Sudanese of a minority tribe or religion.

Of course, some of this persists in parts of Africa and Asia, but in advanced countries, racism is reduced to a handful of deranged or sub-humanly stupid people. The great nation ruled when I was born by the Nazis has in the last three years admitted a million penurious refugees from Africa and the Middle East. It has been difficult and controversial and could not be allowed to continue indefinitely, but the German government that did so is almost certain to be re-elected this month. In the United States, 143 years after the abolition of slavery and only 43 years after segregation was outlawed and most African-Americans were enabled to vote, the country had an African-American president and attorney general. Nothing is perfect and we are all sinners, but mankind has moved overwhelmingly and irresistibly against discrimination for any reason except conduct. In Martin Luther King’s resonant phrase, it is “the content of (a person’s) character” that determines how people are treated.