On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… Racism Lite.

Racial politics is responsible for a lot of ugliness, in the United States and around the world. Humans want, and even need, to sort themselves into categories — and sometimes, that tribalism yields as much good as it can bad. So do we always need to be a melting pot? 

Writer Damon Young joins us to make the case that we’re all racist, and there’s no reason to pretend otherwise.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can now email the show: hearmeout@slate.com

Podcast production by Maura Currie

You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices