This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Reith Lectures. This lecture in the series

The Genealogy of Race, given by Patricia Williams, was originally broadcast in 1997.

Many years ago, I was standing in a so-called juice bar in Berkeley, California.

A young man came in whom I had often seen begging in the neighborhood.

A more bruised-looking human being,

one could not imagine.

He was missing several teeth,

his clothes were in rags,

his blonde hair was matted,

his eyes red-rimmed,

his nails long and black and broken.

On this particular morning, he came into the juice bar and ordered some sort of protein drink from the well-scrubbed,

patchuli-scented, young woman behind the counter. It was obvious that his presence disturbed

her. And when he took his drink and mumbled, thanks, little lady, she exploded.

Don't you dare call me, little lady, she snarled with a ferocity that turned heads.

I'm a woman, and you'd better learn the difference.

Sorry, he whispered, with his head bowed, like a dog that had been kicked. And he quite literally limped out of the store.

Good riddance, the woman called after him.

This took place some 15 years ago.

But I have always remembered the interchange, because it taught me a lot about the not-so-subliminal messages

that can be wrapped in the expression of virtue aggrieved,

in which anti-bias of one sort is used to further the agenda of bias of another kind.

...