I feel like you've misunderstood my point. It was not my intention to conflate those two claims, I assumed when reading your comment that you are referring to s

I feel like you've misunderstood my point. It was not my intention to conflate those two claims, I assumed when reading your comment that you are referring to some subset of people, not all people. As I mentioned, the type of interaction you described sounded less like someone arguing in bad faith, and more like someone who is under-informed. Yes, many people are in fact under-informed on this topic, especially since many are learning about it for the first time as a result of recent events. Accordingly, I would expect that there are many more people fitting this description, than there are people who argue in bad faith. This on its own would be a reasonable explanation for experiencing low quality discussions. So, you could have originally replied with something along the lines of, "to be fair, many people have only just learned of systemic racism, and as a result, casual discussions on the topic are often low quality and just muddy any debate." But why focus on these low quality discussions in the first place? Don't they exist for nearly any topic? Are they really the highest priority when trying to have a constructive discussion? This was the main point of my comment, to point out that your reply focused on the existence of low quality discussions, and in turn does more to perpetuate the idea that "systemic racism" is not well defined nor well founded in general, than it does to contribute to better understanding. Rapind's reply also points this out, that very low quality arguments are similar to strawman arguments, and even if it wasn't your intention, solely focusing on them can actually hinder the discussion. If you acknowledge that better definitions of "systemic racism" exist, but you omit them and focus on poor definitions instead, you are contributing to the low quality of the debate yourself. In regards to being honest with oneself, I mean being aware of your own understanding and it's limitations. How would you describe the depth of your understanding on this topic? Do you have resources you can share with others so they can better understand what you mean when you discuss systemic racism? Perhaps you can recommend a favorite book or specific author that you think covers the topic comprehensively and in good faith? Do you feel like you know what an expert means when they're using the term, as well as the common misconceptions faced by non-experts? Are you asking yourself these questions before you ask them of others?