There's many draws to calling a certain policy racist:

I, like, Prashant, was also rubbed the wrong way by your initial post. I can’t speak to what the speaker you referred to was saying because I wasn’t there. You might well be right that his speech was oversimplifying. I also agree that race and class are too often conflated in this country. But for people who are poor AND people of color, these issues might as well be two sides of the same coin because the ways in which these identities intersect is going to position them, socio-economically, in a way that is separate and unique from not being a beneficiary of one or the other (race or class privilege). I also think it’s reductive to expect people who experience an intersection of multiple forms of discrimination to only refer to one or the other when discussing discriminatory policies, because it is precisely how these forms interrelate that’s going to inform the overall impact of certain policies on them. Thus, to say you are uncomfortable or feel “alienated” by the way some people have chosen to frame that reality does sound a little off-putting, and very much like the expectation of someone who unconsciously expects to be accommodated by, if not the center, of all dialogue, especially as there are plenty of spaces that exist to discuss class or gender, or any other system of oppression, absent the consideration of race.