White people don’t like being called a racist. Many times, this accusation shuts down a conversation. Somehow, calling someone a racist is worse than being a racist. But we can’t change what we don’t name. Some people are using this blackface/brownface controversy to fight about whether Trudeau is a racist or not. They’re going to point to Trudeau’s record of standing up for injustice and his party’s pledges of anti-racism and assumed commitment to diversity. They are going to say that Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is the real racist and that we should be focusing on his ties to white supremacists and xenophobic views . They’re going to say that at least Trudeau is the lesser of two evils. They’re right. The Liberal Party has a better record for keeping the interests of marginalized groups in mind than the Conservatives. The Liberals talk about multiculturalism a lot; they talk a big game. But Black and Brown people are still disproportionately incarcerated and face harsher sentences than white people in this country. Indigenous women are still victims of genocide in this country. Professional spaces are still overwhelmingly white and male. Marginalized groups are still up against discrimination in their schools, their jobs, their hospitals, and in their everyday lives. That has a ripple effect. As activist Ritika Goel tweeted, “political spaces continue to be disproportionately white and male, thereby shaping policies impacting the lives of racialized people through privileged lenses that don’t actually reflect our country.”