> Well meaning people are racist and say racist things and when they are called out, they apologize and try to make it right. I'm not sure if this is a tangent

> Well meaning people are racist and say racist things and when they are called out, they apologize and try to make it right. I'm not sure if this is a tangent or not, but I suspect there's a lot of social pressure to apologize for racist statements even when the speaker continues to hold racist beliefs. On numerous occasions, I've tried to have reasoned debate about topics such as race, religion, etc. I've been disappointed by how frequently those discussions go off the rails when I'm arguing for the possible validity of less-than-popular positions. Based on those experiences, I can easily see how a person would fear the consequences of not recanting certain statements about race, religion, politics, etc., irrespective of his/her actual beliefs.