It is something of a rare delight to write positively about race relations in recent years. As such, these stories deserve be amplified as much as possible.

This is especially the case when this story is of someone who is entrenched in an industry marinated in Woke ideology – namely, Hollywood.

The man in question is the popular and charismatic British actor Idris Elba, whose parents are from Sierra Leone and Ghana. In a recent interview with Esquire magazine, Elba said something that’s very sensible, and which inevitably sent the Wokesters up the wall. He dared to espouse the idea that:

As humans, we are obsessed with race. And that obsession can really hinder people’s aspirations, hinder people’s growth. Racism should be a topic for discussion, sure. Racism is very real. But from my perspective, it’s only as powerful as you allow it to be. I stopped describing myself as a Black actor when I realised it put me in a box. We’ve got to grow. We’ve got to. Our skin is no more than that: it’s just skin.

Mr Elba touches the point of the needle. A person’s worth, character, capabilities, virtues, and vices have nothing to do with skin colour. But to be collectivised by immutable physical traits is indeed to cage one’s own potential. This is what Dr King successfully advocated for all those years ago. Ironically, were he to make the same speeches again in 2023, he would be labelled by the Wokesters as ‘problematic’ – this is how far the termites have burrowed into the cultural fabric.

Instead, what is being taught to a lot of young black people, by voices such as Ibram X Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, and Nikole Hannah-Jones, and others who became immensely wealthy in the process, is that they are victims in their own communities. Worse, it is a sure way to sow division and resentment among neighbours, friends, fellow citizens, and even family, where there shouldn’t be any. The end result is people who are self-pitying and entitled, an unappealing mixture of traits.

The so-called anti-racism movement in the US has done all it could to keep racism alive and to generate racial tensions by pretending that racism is huge problem in the country, when it is objectively not. They peddle this narrative at a time when the US has had a two-term black president, an incumbent black Vice President, and when about a third of the country’s top 100 cities are governed by black mayors (including the top four largest cities, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston, as well as the capital Washington DC).

The BLM riots in the mid-2010s and again in 2020 caused billions of dollars in damages, chiefly in poor, minority neighborhoods, and dozens of needless deaths, again mainly of blacks and minorities. The idiocy of the ‘defund the police’ movements that followed resulted in devastating increases in crime wherever it has been tried. Average citizens, of all colours, have been made poorer, less safe, and less harmonious. And BLM has bought a lot of mansions with donated money in the meantime.

Thanks to their efforts, race relation in the US has plummeted in recent years. Gallup polling show that the percentage of US adults who think that the relation between White and Black Americans are very or somewhat bad has risen from 30 per cent in 2013 to a high of 55 per cent in 2020.

Elba’s words are refreshing as it comes from a big name in Hollywood. The Sexiest Man Alive 2018 no less, if you believe People magazine. But, while rare, he is certainly not the only black actor to speak sense. Morgan Freeman has long made it clear that he does not like to be seen as a black man or actor. Denzel Washington has repeatedly stated his opinion that black inequality is caused not by systemic racism, but what happens at home. So Elba’s stance should be welcomed, as it paves the way for more people in that industry to join this mighty set and to voice what the majority knows to be true.

In addition to Hollywood, scores of prominent black scholars, public figures, commentators, politicians, and celebrities are out there, making a case for the country to move away from the obsession over racism. While they are often maligned or ignored by the legacy media, many are garnering immense followings on independent platforms, which are overtaking the likes of CNN and MSNBC in a hurry. An anti-anti-racism movement is well underway.

As to the tepid and whiny backlash to Elba from those insisting on race-based thinking, Elba replied on Twitter, with suitable and delightful vinegar:

There isn’t a soul on this earth that can question whether I consider myself a BLACK MAN or not. Being an ‘actor’ is a profession, like being an ‘architect’, they are not defined by race. However, If YOU define your work by your race, that is your perogative. Ah lie?

You can almost feel the Wokesters writhe and wither away under his toxic, commonsense, nonracial, and black masculinity.

Get 10 issues for just $10

Subscribe to The Spectator Australia today for the next 10 magazine issues, plus full online access, for just $10.

SUBSCRIBE 10 issues for $10 REGISTER 3 articles a month

Already a subscriber? Log in