"It seems useful to identify and separate the different expressions of racism"

Yep, I couldn't agree more. One of the many problems with racial discourse at the moment is the way that the word "racism" has been stretched to so many different uses that it's often difficult to know what's meant by it. If there's no difference between systemic racism and individual racism then what are we even talking about??

I have no idea what the end game of the people who try to pretend that these two things are the same might be. All it does is make racism harder to talk about.

That said though, I disagree that the US is less racist than Europe. Or maybe to be more precise, I think the US has more of an issue with race than Europe. James Baldwin spoke about that difference a lot after he decided to move to Europe and I think a lot of what he said still applies today.

The immigrant issue in the EU for example is more correctly described as xenophobia than racism. In England, people complained about the white immigrants from Poland and Albania just as much (if not more) as the darker skinned immigrants from Turkey and India. Brexit too was about employment and resources and a childish dream of a long dead Empire more than racism (and also the complacency of the politicians who thought a Leave vote could never happen).

For other countries like France the issue is more about religion (specifically Islam) which tends to select for a certain complexion but isn't necessarily related to it.

I'm not trying to claim that there isn't racism in Europe of course, or in most places in the world. One of my favourite places on Earth, Japan, has serious issues with racism *and* xenophobia. But as I was just saying to Dave, I think America's legalised racism, like that of South Africa, is what leads to the majority of the tension we see today.