Another comparison can be drawn with the female journalists Prof. McRae discusses, and their ability to spread racist messages widely, often in coded language. From independent right-wing channels through Fox News and the mainstream, there are currently too many of those to count.

Well before the blackface defence that got her fired, Megyn Kelly had a résumé full of sometimes bizarre racist statements – that black people have a “thug mentality,” that Santa Claus is absolutely white. NBC still offered her millions.

Certain white women have a peculiar permission to speak without censure, especially if they’re pretty, or mothers, or both. Take White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was defended as a “wife and mother” in April, after comedian Michelle Wolf joked that she used “burnt facts” as eye makeup.