"All Men are bastards."
"All Women are terrible drivers."
"All Asians excel at math."
"ALL Black people are of lesser intelligence."
"There are no good apples out there. White people make my blood boil."
As a long-time rural southerner (who has never voted for a single GOP candidate in my life), I can't see much space for air between any of the above cliches. (While I live in a place (rural SC) where likely >80% of white folks, including my neighbors and relatives, are Trump worshippers, I also know local white people who fight racism, and always have.)
And we must never forget the martyred Mr.s , Goodman and Schwerner (not forgetting Mr. Chaney) of Mississippi Burning fame, or the many white American abolitionists and post-Civil War allies lynched as "race traitors". (Not a criticism, just an observation. As we know, American education has been sorely lacking in racial truths.)
I'm the first to admit that my "white ignorance" may have nearly gotten an innocent Black child killed. The fact that it was unintentional would not have mattered to his mother. And perhaps that is the sort of point being made, and of which people of all races might at some some point in their lives been guilty of in some manner, and to varying degrees..then to regret their actions for the remainder of their lives:
https://foofaraw.medium.com/white-ignorance-and-the-small-black-child-59f0299451ae
But ignorance isn't (necessarily) racism, regardless of the possible horrible result.
I answered your questionnaire as "honestly and objectively" as I am able, but my results (while not perfect) do not prove all white people are racist to their souls, as was apparently supposed to be the anticipated result.
Somewhat the opposite, actually:
"If every White reader of this article can truly answer these questions honestly and objectively, then Dr. Khilanani will have been justified..."
I'm sorry, but your statement sounds biased, and anticipatory of failure. It makes the claim that any white person who answers honestly (regardless of actual degree of racism, apparently, or racial direction of responses) proves a statement about ALL white people being racist scum. It sounds perhaps closer to an unbiased result (which, from a statistical viewpoint, would be much prefered, as well as for wider distribution of this article) for the statement to have read, "If every white reader of this article CAN'T truly answer these questions honestly and objectively...", but that's just one viewpoint.
If the goal is to prove that no white person is racially perfect, I’ll have to agree. But except for (maybe) the Dali Llama, i suspect the “Perfect List” is mighty short, regardless of race.
I once wrote to a Black Medium writer (who I respected then, and do now) that I had not been raised to be racist. This writer refused to understand (or perhaps, believe), and asked for me to relate the story of my "change". When I wrote an extended piece on how racism had simply never been a personal part of my youth (yes I did observe it around me. In my youth segregation was still the law of the land. How could I not, as I have written on Medium, link below), this writer AGAIN asked me to relate the story of my "change".
https://foofaraw.medium.com/the-past-becomes-our-racist-present-dc1b54db99fb
I suspect it's not uncommon to compare "white privilege" to racism. They are not the same, and I've tried to explain that as well:
https://foofaraw.medium.com/white-privilege-is-not-the-same-as-white-racism-2b5ed1c5e73b
And I am all too aware that I've had three police encounters (and with no legal issues beyond “one point” speeding tickets) where I am very likely only alive because of the color of my skin. That is white privilege, but it is not racism. (Not on my part at least.) As a white man I basically have two options: address race as honestly as possible (which means including my own perspective)…or ignore race. I choose the former.
Thank you for sharing this important idea. And thank you for welcoming input, and allowing me to supply one specific viewpoint.
