Thank you very much for your response! I should point out that I absolutely agree anti-black sentiment is present in many parts of the world, not just the USA, especially in the former empires such as UK, Netherlands etc. In Ireland we also unfortunately have a lot of racism towards not just black people but also those from Eastern Europe as well as the far and Middle East. I would say that here it’s not necessarily as systemic as it is in the US and UK, not due to any benign reason, moreso because up until the mid 90s there were very few non-Irish people living in Ireland. It was a poor nation that produced a lot more emigrants than attracted immigrants. I would also say that unfortunately it appears that a lot of English speaking countries are importing the racial prejudices of America through TV shows and other media.

I think the demonisation of the white working class in the South is a big issue that needs to be addressed more often. As you said, of course it is not on the scale of anti-black sentiment, but I would say still warrants conversation. From my limited knowledge of this area, it usually appears to be centrists liberals from Northern states who are the worst culprits in this case. It seems almost a form of classism, where those in the North consider themselves better educated and more politically aware than Southerners.

Finally I should say that I hope I did not convey any idea that white privilege and anti-black sentiment are not enormous issues. My main gripe with white privilege is that it is almost the sole talking point when considering race relations,and that racial conflicts in non-western parts of the world are largely ignored, both by the media and academics. White privilege as a concept is useful for understanding racial issues, but cannot be universally applied as it sometimes appears to be.