A rare thing happened in our house this week because of Art Green. My husband was doing that thing he does when he fills me in on the latest story he has read in the newspaper. I ignore him. I've either already read the article on my phone or am about to. 

(Arrogant.)

When he said, "Oh, the Bachelor went to a fancy dress party" I ignored him. When he said, "And he painted his face brown" I sort of squealed.

It wasn't because I immediately removed Green from the bit-of-a-babe file and recategorised him as Shameless Racist.

It was because the word blackface flashed through my brain and that association alone meant he had just invited a hate-storm to rain down on him. And it did.

But again, we're off the mark. As with Labour and its so-called racist focus on offshore Chinese property investment, Green wasn't being racist.

I’m not sure why du Plessis-Allan gets a column in the newspaper. She’s not a very good writer, and it looks like she knocked this column out in 15 minutes, probably while ignoring her poor husband who’s only trying to connect to his increasingly distant wife. “Honey, they’ve discovered a second earth!” he cries, newspaper in hand. “I know,” Heather says, flicking through her bit-of-a-babe binder. “I know everything.”

And as if years of Bob Jones and Mike Hosking columns hadn’t proved, the Herald editors obviously just blindly accept every submission, since I can’t fathom why anyone thought we needed a white woman’s opinion on what is and isn’t racist.

Green didn't dress up in blackface. He dressed up in an Indian outfit. At best you could accuse him of brownface, but that's not actually a thing with more than a century of baggage, is it?

No, no baggage at all. Brown people have always been treated with the upmost respect in European society.

Throwing the racist tag around this freely reduces the punch of the accusation when an actual racist deserves a serve.

The people in Canterbury who called Fijian rugby player Sake Aca a "black c***" deserve a serve. ­Former Australian rugby league great Billy Moore, who described the Warriors' play as "coconut style" deserves a serve.

This is just another version of the US press getting their panties in a twist because Obama said the n-word. Some white people have decided that racism is only when you say blatantly obvious racial slurs. Anything with a bit of subtlety is lost on them. Casual, everyday racism is just something the lefties invented to make them feel bad.

Look, social media getting upset over something is just another name for Monday, and I’d wager 99% of it is forgotten about by Tuesday (as the Art Green thing was). And it’s not my place, any more than is was du Plessis-Allan’s, to judge whether what Green did is racist. But columns like this are depressing, mostly because they allow people to come out of hiding and air their equally-valid opinions in the comments:

Rock Ape - New Zealand 02:42 pm Tuesday 04 August 2015 As long as it's Ok for me to be called a 'Pom' or a Brit' , the Scots - 'Jocks', the Irish - 'Paddy's, Americans - 'Yanks, the French -'Frogs', the Germans 'Krauts' and the Australians 'Aussies' (all 'casual racism' apparently) then as far as I'm concerned daubing brown crap on my face to attend a fancy dress party or calling someone from Pakistan a 'Paki' is fine by me.

You see the trouble with this argument is that it is founded on one-way traffic. What all these clowns on Twitless and Farcebook are bleating about is that it's fine for white people to get slagged off (ever listen to Will Smith's brand of humour?) and denigrated just so long as no one north of Gibraltar makes the slightest comment about anyone south or east of that location. It's all or nothing - you don't get to cherry-pick what offends and what doesn't.

Ted Filter - Auckland Central 11:37 am Wednesday 05 August 2015 Tell me Klara, if an Indian woman went to a fancy dress party as a Louis Quatorze-era French noblewoman, and in order to look "more the part" she whitened her face, would that be racist?

Jeanette - New Zealand 09:55 am Tuesday 04 August 2015 Just a thought - why is it not racist when black people wear blonde wigs or colour their hair blonde or get hair extensions of white persons hair and when they bleach their skin. I think the word racism is totally misused in most cases. In this PC world we live in it seems as if black people are immune from being called racists. Really strange.

Gadogado - 09:53 am Tuesday 04 August 2015 These days people use the word "racist" on everything because they know it will attract a lot of attentions! They know they will get support and they get away if they commited a crime too.

As an example, he/she is about to be deported then cries out racist or overstayer is sick and needs a very expensive medical treatment here then he/she can use this "racist" word, and goverment will back down.

If people don't give them attentions then they won't use use it so often, I think we should start ignoring this word! But Lefties and do gooders like it so much for publicity!

CityLimits - New Zealand 09:52 am Tuesday 04 August 2015 If you wear darker foundation or tinted tanning lotion you are colouring your skin too. I suppose this is racist.

For many years, people of European ancestry have smeared themselves with anything in order to have a rich brown skin. Of course, 'skin whitening' creams are available and are popular with people with darker skins. Maybe perms are racists too because tight curls could be viewed as mockery of people with naturally tightly curled hair who by and large have darker skins.

Where does the culture of 'offence' get off? The arguments used by this group imply that we are all racist, sexist bigots and should flagellate ourselves (in a respectful and non-slavery mocking way) in public.

Here's an idea, WE ARE ALL HUMAN.