I disagree. Lots of people think it's perfectly acceptable to say terrible things about (people they think are) Mexican. You can readily predict the political alignment of the people who do think such things are acceptable. I would not be surprised if their behavior extended to other groups, such as Muslims.

Additionally, a subset of these people also believe that it should be socially acceptable to say disparaging things about blacks, Jews, and other groups that "enjoy" social protection from such behavior.

Edit: grammar.

An individual's drug addiction is not a political issue, even though it predicts their political leanings around drug legalization. An individual's racism or xenophobia is not a political issue, even though it predicts their political leanings around immigration.

If politicians 1) talk about something a lot, and 2) take separate sides of the matter, then it's a political issue.

Drug addiction absolutely is a political issue, and a hot one at that. Same with race issues and immigration. White bread or wheat would be an example of a non-political issue.

It's possible that you live in a country where these are not political issues, but I'm from the USA and these topics are discussed by politicians on a daily basis. They have the secret to fixing the heroin issue, or the immigration crisis, or the Muslim terrorists, etc.

Institutional/societal racism is a political or public policy issue. But this thread started w.r.t. individual racism: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17200028

Comments about individuals are not political discussion, unless chepaslaaa's girlfriend holds public office.

That doesn't make it a political issue though, because there isn't really any serious debate about it. Just because more racists support Republicans doesn't make it a political issue unless racism is something a significant amount of Republicans are supportive of.

> it's accepted that it is a bad thing.

I believe the recent presidential election has proven otherwise.

How so? Were there politicians debating on whether it was OK to be racist? Being anti-immigration is not racism regardless of how you feel about the topic.

Except that it's amazing how many people will say racist things after disclaiming, "this may not be politically correct...[insert racist garbage here]"