"I have visited some places where the differences between black and white are not as profound as they used to be, but I think there is a new form of racism growing in Europe and that is focused on people who are Middle Eastern. I see it"
About this Quote
Williams is doing something a lot of American public figures still stumble over: refusing to treat racism as a solved problem or a single storyline with one set of characters. He starts with a cautious note of progress - “differences between black and white are not as profound as they used to be” - a line that sounds like relief, but functions more like setup. The phrasing is deliberately observational, not triumphant. “Visited some places” frames him as a witness moving through societies, clocking atmosphere the way a traveler feels a city’s temperature.
Then he pivots to the real point: racism mutates. The phrase “a new form of racism” is the key rhetorical move, suggesting Europe’s prejudice isn’t disappearing so much as changing targets and justifications. By naming Middle Eastern people specifically, he refuses the safer abstraction of “immigrants” or “outsiders.” It’s a moral choice and a cultural one: the post-9/11 world turned “Middle Eastern” into a catchall suspicion category, braided with debates over terrorism, borders, and national identity. Williams is pointing at that braid.
“I think” and “I see it” work together as both humility and insistence. He’s not claiming to be an academic authority; he’s claiming the authority of lived perception. As an entertainer, he’s also speaking in the language of broadcast clarity: quick, legible, hard to mishear. The subtext is a warning to audiences who want to celebrate racial progress without noticing who gets scapegoated next. Progress for one group can coexist with fresh hostility for another, and that coexistence is the uncomfortable truth he’s trying to keep in frame.
Then he pivots to the real point: racism mutates. The phrase “a new form of racism” is the key rhetorical move, suggesting Europe’s prejudice isn’t disappearing so much as changing targets and justifications. By naming Middle Eastern people specifically, he refuses the safer abstraction of “immigrants” or “outsiders.” It’s a moral choice and a cultural one: the post-9/11 world turned “Middle Eastern” into a catchall suspicion category, braided with debates over terrorism, borders, and national identity. Williams is pointing at that braid.
“I think” and “I see it” work together as both humility and insistence. He’s not claiming to be an academic authority; he’s claiming the authority of lived perception. As an entertainer, he’s also speaking in the language of broadcast clarity: quick, legible, hard to mishear. The subtext is a warning to audiences who want to celebrate racial progress without noticing who gets scapegoated next. Progress for one group can coexist with fresh hostility for another, and that coexistence is the uncomfortable truth he’s trying to keep in frame.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
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