Paul's meaning was to say "a completely alien group of people" and made the assumption that nobody reading his blog was a cannibal. If he had said "Sam would ev

Paul's meaning was to say "a completely alien group of people" and made the assumption that nobody reading his blog was a cannibal. If he had said "Sam would even impress a group of people of color", that might be racist. Certainly equating cannibals with people of color is racist. The racism at play is not found in Paul's original phrase, but rather is latent in the listener's mind. Don't blame the messenger. Of course it may be that, today, 51% of this site's readers are white native English speakers. Do you believe we should therefore interpret every statement according to how it's likely to be understood by this particular group? Remember these posts will be archived for posterity. To fight racism is to promote racism. To ignore racism is to destroy racism. As for your subtle quote-fudging: a "casual assertion of racism" isn't an "accusation of casual racism", so I don't think I can address that assertion.