Those who routinely and recklessly make obviously spurious charges of racism to silence those who disagree with them at any and all political opportunities obviously never have read the story of the little boy who cried wolf so often that he was ignored when the wolf really appeared.
As in the story, the cries have become common and proven to be false so often that they now are ignored as having no credibility. If they have any direct effects at all, the accusations have come to be counterproductive from the intent and standpoint of those who make them.
Unfortunately, however, this also has had and is having a very unfortunate and potentially dangerous unintended indirect effect. It has revived and is giving new vitality, to some presently unascertainable extent, the acceptability and legitimacy of real racism. I know quite a few people -- mostly very financially successful and well along in years -- who have long harbored but muted and kept private definitely racist views. In the atmosphere resulting from the misuse of accusations of racism, these individuals now feel comfortable proclaiming their racist views openly and far and wide publicly.
Other younger individuals, seeing that criticizing, or disagreeing with anything said or done, or any position taken by a member of minority group results in their being accused of racism, react by saying "the hell with it." They insist on being free to express their substantive views . . . and the charges engender in them hostility toward members of the minority group they never previously disparaged and toward whom they never previously were at all antagonistic.
The divisive effects of the bogus accusations are shattering and reversing a half century of progress toward racial healing and harmony. Such progress probably was largely illusory but it was becoming or at least on the threshold of becoming real.
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