Seriously?

My sister phoned me today most upset. Apparently the knitting commmunity has fallen prey to a viscious campaign by some people countering racism in the knitting community. I decided to google this to see what it was all about and found out the following. 
One person, Sockmatician, a well known and successful knitter with a Youtube and Instagram presence and strong following,  who supports BIPOC ( Black /Indigeous People of Colour) and started the hashtag diversknitty as a means to achieve greater representation and visibility on social media, has according to him, fallen prey to a sustained attack seeing him loose book contracts, courses and a 75 % drop in business because he put out a poem asking for respect and kindness in what he perceived as the ever increasingly sustained  attack on individuals in the knitting community for perceived racist comments. Things escalated and he had a mental breadown one evening and his husband took him to hospital. He  was then verbally attacked by a woman at 2 following public apearances, where he apparently loss control, due he says to being in poor mental health because  of the months of attack and loss of business, he now has a diagnosis of PTSD. He shouted back and got another torrent of condemnation online. Maybe he shouldn't have retaliated but you can undertstand why he reacted in this way given all that was happening to him.
The microscopic nature of some of  the things knitters were being attacked for was as follows. A woman spoke of her excitement of going travelling and visiting India and spoke how it would inform her future knitting. She called it her Year of Colour and was attacked for that term! Surely no one can deny India is a colourful place and her use of that word referred to colour not race? I know we have to be careful in our language, and I know the word colour can be racist, but surely the use of the word colour here  is being taken out of context? Or am I being racist in presuming it's not offensive in this context? 
 There is to be a BBC documentry including an  interview  with him about this issue. Apparently to date the 30 people approached to present the other side to his story refused to take part. 
To me it horribly  echoed The Salem Witch hunt and Mc Carthyism - if people  didn't condemn the people who were being outed then you were seen as supporting them and so the attack would turn on them. Few people in the knitting communty seemed willing to defend or support him hence   the cancellation of much of his work. He was to have  a knitting pattern in a book of Harry Potter knitting patterns, it was cancelled and his pattern pulled, his inclusion they feared would lead to a boycot of the whole book.
 I know racism is everywhere and is without doubt in the knitting world, but it seems some individuals are going to the extreme and destroying peoples livelihoods and mental health in the process. My sister has followed Sockmatician for years and just didn't believe he was racist or his actions were,  particularly as he is a gay man so open to homophobia from others.  I said that didn't naturally follow! But having read all I could about the issue I agree with her!
Hate seems to be escalating everywhere you look - apparently the world of embroidery is experiencing the same issue. I hope it never reaches the chicken community! I'm against racism but I'm also against bullies and bullying tactics.