I’ve seen a few of the Avenue Q numbers online and it’s so bad a friend and I were thinking of passing out leaflets when it came to town in order to limit the damage of its message. The “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” song is particularly harmful. Like you say, the song suggest racism is alright if everyone is racist. Of course, this is not how racism works.

In “Retaining Benefits, Avoiding Responsibility,” Paul Kivel says, “Today we redefine racism as a mutual problem by saying, ‘This country is just a big melting pot,’ ‘Anybody can be prejudiced,’ or ‘People of color attack white people too.’” That is to say, the “everyone’s racist” argument is a redefinition of racism that allows Whites to retain the benefits, and avoid taking responsibility for, racism.

I suggest everyone read the linked PDF of Kivel’s article. He uses “the history of the relationship between white Europeans and Native Americans to illustrate how these tactics [for retaining the benefits of and avoiding taking responsibility for racism] have been (and still are) used to cover up the violence that white people commit toward people of color.” His illustrations are particularly worthy of consideration on a day when 49 U.S. states are celebrating “Columbus Day,” and only one U.S. state, South Dakota, has declared today “Native American Day.”