In Britain's Degraded Politics, Fighting Racism Is A Cynical Game Gary Younge

'The very serious function of racism is distraction," Toni Morrison argued in a lecture in Portland, Oregon, in 1975. "It keeps you from doing your work.

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It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and so you spend 20 years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn't shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is... Somebody says that you have no kingdoms, and so you dredge that up. None of that is necessary. There will always be one more thing."

So, in the furore over Frank Hester's comments, let us not be distracted by the question of whether they were racist. Let us not demean ourselves by explaining why the statement "you see Diane Abbott on the TV and... you just want to hate all Black women" is racist. We do not need to explain that this is not a question of rudeness. Racism is an issue of power and equality, not politeness and etiquette. Those who don't get it, won't get it.

Nor should we squander any time on how the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, should respond. Earlier this month he took the extraordinary step of addressing the UK from outside 10 Downing Street to denounce the fact that "MPs do not feel safe in their homes".

Now he defends taking millions of pounds from Hester, who said he thought Diane Abbott "should be shot". That is hypocrisy. It's not a tough call. Sunak may be the first British-Asian prime minister. But that merely describes the ethnicity and job title of the hypocrite. Adding the adjectives does not change the noun.