“No, but I know some really fucking racist people, friends I vehemently disagree with. They’re not white supremacists, they would never be that extreme, but they are anti-immigration and absolutely voted to leave in Brexit. And I’m still friends with them because I don’t think that friendship should be drawn along those lines. That’d be a really sad way of viewing the world. But yeah, I definitely have got first-hand experience with this. And also, just get into a cab in London. Some of the most unbelievably racist shit I’ve ever heard came out of a cab driver’s mouth in London, and you just go, ‘Dude, you’re taking a chance. I know I’m white, but you can’t just assume that I’m gonna agree with you. My girlfriend was in an Uber the other day in L.A., and the guy was like, ‘So, who are you voting for?’ Why is that small talk in a 45-minute cab ride? At the beginning, she was like, ‘Hillary,’ and then she couldn’t help herself and asked, ‘Are you voting for Trump?’ And his actual response was, ‘Yeah, just to see what happens.’ Which is just the worst. It’s the same people who say, ‘Well, I just love Trump because he says what he thinks.’ But isn’t the problem that he thinks that in the first place?”
– Daniel Radcliffe, after being asked if he spent some time with real white supremacists to have a better understanding of the script for his new film Imperium in which he plays an FBI who goes undercover as a white supremacist.
The fact that you can continue to be friends with racists is white privilege. Many people don’t have the luxury of deciding they can tolerate such unacceptable “points of view”.
Yes, yes, Harry, Brexit was about racists, people who vote for Trump are all racists, worry about unmonitored people crossing the border just because they have the right passport in an era when the EU is seeing homegrown terrorists is racist, wanting a little anarchy is racist, not voting for Hillary is racist. We get it. Everything is racist, everything is sexist, everything is homophobic, and we have to point it all out.
I have no doubt there are cabbies who can say some racist shit, Daniel, but the shit you’ve cited here is not an example of it. It’s just disagreeing with you and your hillary supporting girlfriend.
Racism is the belief that one race is superior to another. That is all. It can influence your actions and speech, making your actions that of a racist. Disagreeing with someone, while the thoughts might be racially motivated, is not automatically racism.
This is a must see: Harry Potter as an American Nazi. I believe in the theater they call this a stretch.