Racism is a form or subset of bigotry. I view bigotry as bad - elevating one subgroup at the expense of another or it’s reverse. It’s a group property as well as an individual’s property. Different treatment based on colour, religion, language, …, is “bad” unless you’re in the top group. It’s really always bad, but you have to see past the groupthink to see it.

I’m white, which is bad. But both sides of my family come from non-dominant European groups, which is good. The Irish portion was discriminated against in the 1800’s, which is bad. Depending on when they actually came to the us, they might have fought for the North in the civil war, which is good. So how do I parse my actual goodness/badness based on the current tv scores?

Nobody I’m aware of can change the past. We all can change the future and even aspects of the present if we give a shit and try to change. It requires seeing others as people, rather than “them”.