Posturing and indignation do nothing to curb racism Britain has put its foot in its mouth. We've all made the heroic decision to withdraw from any discussion about race. What would be the point? The discussion is already taking place for us on our TV screens. John Terry, "racist"; Luis Suarez, "racist"; Alan Hansen, "racist." Why risk a mealy-mouthed contribution that might make you a racist too, when you can just sit at home and spit indignation at an identity parade of bigots? Look what happens when you fall foul: Diane Abbott exchanges views with a constituent on the homogeneity of the black community and makes an error. She says that white people try to divide and rule the black community. She's been branded racist. By Twitter. Even, implicitly, by her own boss. Her crime? Forgetting to add the word "some." Does anyone really believe that Diane thinks every white person is out to "rule" over the black community? Or that she was deliberately inciting racial hatred, issuing a call-to-arms to every black Twitter follower to watch out for the white conqueror? Diane may be passionate, witty, Leftist, reactionary and occasionally boorish, but racist? Or take the case of Alan Hansen. Hansen made the mistake of using the word "coloured" and not "black" or "Asian" when discussing race relations among the current crop of Premier League players. The next morning, my inbox was flooded with emails from Fleet Street's finest asking for my thoughts - as a "black MP" - on Hansen's "racist outburst." A cursory scan through my Twitter timeline revealed people who were aghast that the BBC could employ a "racist" like Hansen. Now let's add some objectivity. Hansen is a staple of British football, first as a player and then as a pundit. Just as my first memories of the game were the gravelly tones of John Motson's voice, my children will remember the long scar that bisects Hansen's forehead. He has played alongside pioneering black English players like John Barnes and has shared punditry with Ian Wright and Garth Crooks. If he were a racist, he's done a great job of covering it up for so long. I suspect he is less a card-carrying member of the BNP and more ignorant of what now passes for common parlance. In calling people like Alan Hansen and Diane Abbott racists, we delude ourselves. Not just because we drag the name of a perfectly honest, decent person through the mud as the result of a mistake. But because we lose all sense about what race and racism is. There are only two profiles that you can fit: the oafish EDL member who rallies on the streets on Luton and Tower Hamlets, or the shrill liberal who finds all mention of race intolerable. Unlike any other debate, it isn't the person who can make the most valid, succinct argument who wins the day, but the one who can talk for the longest and the loudest without slipping up and offending anyone. And where offence does occur, bonus points are awarded for whoever can justifiably claim to be more offended. The "perpetrators" almost lose the right to say sorry and move on. If you try to explain the context in which the remarks were made, as Diane did, you merely add fuel to the fire. Only a complete withdrawal of the comments will do. Partial justice finally being served in the Stephen Lawrence trial has afforded us the opportunity to reflect. The media treated Norris and Dobson like zoo animals that were cryogenically frozen and transported to us from the "racist" early 1990s. That an apparently similar murder took place just a week before the verdict was glossed over. No doubt this weekend's papers will carry some analysis about race relations then and now. Back in 1993, they will say, an England captain calling someone a "black bastard" would be met with a shrug of the shoulders - look how much things have improved. They have. But we're also kidding ourselves. We've entered into a false sense of security, where we are assured that because we have been louder and more intense in our indignation, racism and racists are being purged from our society. All the while, real racism - the ongoing racist attacks on the streets, the racism in classrooms and job interviews - is crowded out by a more banal discussion about whether John Terry should keep the England captaincy. We've cut off our nose to spite our face. David Lammy is MP for Tottenham and author of 'Out of the Ashes: Britain after the Riots'