Fr Leon Pereira, OP, agrees with the wisdom of a childhood hero, Easy Reader

I was raised on a different televisual diet as a child. Instead of the über-politically correct Blue Peter, we had The Electric Company and The Banana Splits, which, like The Magic Roundabout, was both fun for kids and apparently inspired by hallucinogenic drugs. Long before the film Driving Miss Daisy made him better known, I was a fan of Morgan Freeman, the "Easy Reader" on The Electric Company. He's come a long way from teaching children to spell to playing Nelson Mandela on screen, but the progression from one to the other is natural.

This year Mr Freeman became a mini-hit on YouTube with a clip of an interview with him. The interviewer asks him about Black History Month, which Mr Freeman is opposed to. He says, in effect, that he doesn't care for it and challenges the interviewer, "Would you be happy with a month for your history?"

Mr Freeman is not arguing for more time spent on Black history. He is arguing that Black history is American history (this was an interview for American telly after all). When the interviewer asks how we are meant to combat racism, Mr Freeman says quite simply, "Don't talk about it." It is an admonition I agree with.

The well-meaning politically correct people who harp on about minorities (qua minority), reinforce the idea that "these people" are somehow not part of "us", and need special help in a way that "we" don't. It is inevitable that sooner or later the part of society representing "we" will get annoyed with the "them".

The situation already exists in Britain, and certainly exists in Leicester.

I am told by a human-rights lawyer that an easy way to check if a statement is anti-Catholic is to substitute the word "Catholic" with "gay" or "Muslim", because the groups society and the media fear (to upset?) the most are gays and Muslims.

It's interesting, isn't it? It's precisely the emphasis on minority status (or the threat of discrimination faced, whether real or imagined), that can set a group apart; set apart as "them", rather than part of "us".

I don't believe the word "race" conveys much meaning. There is only one race, the human one. The differences between people are not so much genetic. They are cultural.

How do we move beyond racism? Don't talk about it, the Easy Reader advises. Don't talk about race and differences. See "them" as "us".

Fr Leon Pereira, OP, is the prior of Holy Cross Priory in Leicester.