Itās tricky territory when you as a white person start saying what you think is or isnāt offensive but I largely agree that Papa Lazarou, whilst certainly mis-judged, and something I wouldnāt condone today isnāt perhaps the best target. Inevitably there will be some knee jerk reactions as we begin to reconcile with these issues.
With regards to the right wing mediaās completely out of proportion defence of statues of racists I feel the same way about it as JK Rowling. Insomuch as if youāre getting so worked up about something that that largely doesnāt effect you (are DM readerās lives really affected that much by a King Leopold statue being taken down in BELGIUM?) itās because itās symptomatic of a real deep rooted prejudice, and this is an easily marketable way of broadcasting it. Ultimately the angerās stemming from people challenging a system that theyāre actually quite happy with and believe in. All the screams of activists āgoing too farā basically translates to, āhavenāt we given you enough alreadyā. Theyāre happy to humour minorities with the idea that theyāre equals, but any real encroachment onto their power and they begin frenziedly doing whatever they can to undermine their opinions, and pushing out articles in the media that hope to recruit others to believe in their ācommon senseā approach. Common sense essentially meaning in most of instances āmy prevailing white middle-class world view which is not be challenged.ā