I am tempted to say that the difference is because I live in a civilised country (the UK)! But that may be a shade too cruel.

But my experience has been in the UK, where things are very different. I was a Trade Union rep in a Civil Service department and before that a lecturer in Further Education.

Let me be clear, I am not denying that racism exists here, but it is of a different nature. For one thing, it is bound up with and altered by the far more established and important class system. By which I mean that the Black man with the Old Etonian tie (yes, Black people can and do get into Eton if they can pass Common Entrance and their parents can afford the fees) and the second-class degree from Cambridge University will get the job or promotion in preference to the white man who went to a local grammar school and holds a first-class degree from Warwick University.

However, both as a teacher and a union rep, I found that PoC in general, and in particular those of Indian, Bangladeshi or Pakistani descent. were far more eager to raise issues of ill-treatment by managers or senior colleagues, and that they invariably put this treatment down to racism. However, I always investigated such cases thoroughly, by talking with the entire team and any other people in a position to witness the behaviour, since one persons' word, while enough to trigger the process, was seldom sufficient to bring about a satisfactory conclusion. It also effectively blocked the 'malicious complaint' defence. Subsequently, while auditing my records, I found that in, on average, three out of every five of such cases, there was clear and incontrovertible evidence of general, not to say universal, bullying behaviour on the part of the individual complained of. It is therefore reasonable to assume that racism was not the only, or even the major motivation for the behaviour.

I was forced to conclude several things.

One was that the complainants clearly felt that they stood a better chance of winning their case by postioning themselves as victims of racism.

Secondly, by so positioning themselves, they seemed to want to centre the case entirely upon their individual experience and were either ignorant of, or totally disregarded, the experiences of their colleagues.

Thirdly, that those of African or Afro-Caribbean descent were more likely to complain about general bullying than specifically racist bullying.

Fourthly, that the degree of bullying had to become extreme before a white person would even consider complaining.

Now I fully understand that the experience of PoC in the US is radically different from that in the UK. Nobody here burns crosses in peoples' gardens, and while a considerable amount of 'Paki-bashing' did take place in the 1960s and 1970s, it is far less common now. As a result, your experience is different and your views reflect this.

I find I have almost written an article here and apologise for taking up so much of your time. My aim was to place before your the context and circumstances that gave rise to the views I expressed.