Explain the difference for me....

[exdos]

Hmmm, last time I walked my streets I saw no such thing. Could it be specific to a particular area?

But were you out on the streets in Brixton two nights ago? Me neither.

[Z4C_er]

But were you out on the streets in Brixton two nights ago? Me neither.

Maybe that's it.

[KevBrowne]

I am a white guy with 3 black mates. They call themselves black, they also expect other to do the same. They say all the exaggerated hype is from white people, "thinking" that black people are offended all the time. Apparently chess is now racist - white goes first. REALLY??
Maybe we should ban all black & white films as well - or are they OK because they are not called white & black films...

[exdos]

I am a white guy with 3 black mates. They call themselves black, they also expect other to do the same. They say all the exaggerated hype is from white people, "thinking" that black people are offended all the time. Apparently chess is now racist - white goes first. REALLY??
Maybe we should ban all black & white films as well - or are they OK because they are not called white & black films...

I am also a White guy who remembers the earliest phases of mass immigration from the West Indies and the Asian sub-continent. As such I remember immigrants being referred to by various racially offensive titles, which is now largely a thing of the past. You say that your mates call themselves "black", but if I were to refer to them as "coloured" or "people of colour", as I have heard many commentators in America do, including Afro-Americans themselves, many younger White people in the UK now would consider this as racist language and I have to use the term "black". During the coronavirus epidemic, we now have the new collective term "BAME" (Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic) to refer to non-White people in the UK.

It's never my intention to be deliberately offensive to anyone, but it seems to me that White people just can't "win" if someone (of any racial origin or skin colour) chooses to accuse any of us of being racist because we use the "wrong" terminology.

Likewise, whilst we have the Black Lives Matter campaign in the UK, I wonder if Black people include the Asian and other Minority Ethnic groups in their demands and how, as the multicultural society which we've become, we can ever prove equality of opportunity as a meritocracy where, say, 10 people, each of different ethnic background, might apply for one job/opportunity, because 9 failed applicants could each claim racial discrimination was at play, including whites?

ADDENDUM https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53194376 Even more confused.