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@mooks
I can't multiquote on my phone, but if I put your comments in inverted commas, I'm sure you get the idea...
"No, I promise being racist is not a crime, I promise ! honestly ! :)
Telling your girlfriend: *"these fucking Chinese bastards, they come over here and think they own the place, all they do is bring disease and scrounge off the state." * - is simply not a crime, nor should it be."
But it can be a crime. This is a question of extremes and interpretation. Someone - anyone - could read that, interpret it as being racist, and it is thus a "racist incident" under the terms of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. You're not likely to be charged, but it doesn't make it any more legal - just like speeding and not being caught doesn't justify the act.
"Only when it comes into conflict with British law, you are free to discriminate on grounds of race, gender, height, social status, beauty, wealth, health, age, colour, religion, ideology, politics, sexuality (absolutely anything) . . . . as long as you are not in breach of British law."
Except there is British law that makes it illegal to discriminate on the grounds of most of the above, so you'd automatically be in breach if you did...
"Whichever way we cut it, racism is simply not illegal any more than sexism or isolationism, xenophobia or misthanthropy is illegal."
But sexism is illegal too - in the workplace it's covered by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, it's classed as a hatecrime, and will shortly be covered in the provision of goods and services by the Equality Act. Hopefully it'll put a stop to all those insurance companies charging women less on the premise that your biology makes you statistically less likely to crash your car...
Hopefully you can see where I'm coming from, but it's hard for me to understand how racism and being racist isn't illegal, when there's a legal framework in place that specifically makes it so.