Gareth O'Callaghan: We are failing to hear the rising charge of racism

Racists are screaming their vile bigotry from the rooftops, and the reason no one calls them out is because racism has become more trivialised now than ever before

Many people have asked when and where racism originated. There’s no real definitive answer, but it’s a fact that white people have always been and continue to be given benefits in society because of a structure that was set up solely for their once exclusive wellbeing. File picture: iStock

“A riot is the language of the unheard,” Dr Martin Luther King Jr once said. He was talking about racism. It feels as though his words have been dangerously commandeered lately. 

Many people still believe you can be prejudiced without being racist — an argument that never really held up. There was a time when racists were difficult to spot. It was usually in pub conversations, in huddled groups of drinkers, where you might overhear the racist slurs, comments you might think we had outgrown.