Race
An amazing technical achievement: Life of Pi at Wyndham's Theatre reviewed
Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi is a complicated organism. The action starts in southern India where we meet a…
The joy of being cancelled
New York I’ve never met anyone called Othello, certainly not in Venice nor in Cyprus, but perhaps there are men…
What's the truth about Kyle Rittenhouse?
On the night of 25 August 2020, Richie McGinniss, a somewhat gonzo video journalist interviewed Kyle Rittenhouse, for the right-wing Daily Caller website. Rittenhouse wore his…
I’ve been back one week and the good old US of A has never seemed more depressing
New York Don’t let anyone tell you the Bagel is worse off than Kabul, where three people were recently shot…
Exquisite to look at, strangely tense and wholly riveting: Netflix's Passing reviewed
Passing is Rebecca Hall’s adaptation of the Nella Larsen novella (1929) about two biracial women, one of whom chooses to…
How the culture wars are killing Western classical music
Ian Pace on musicology’s culture wars
A well-meaning but dull Official History: Olivier's Normal Heart reviewed
The Normal Heart is not about Aids. Larry Kramer’s play is set in New York in 1981 at a time…
Hugely pleasurable – a vision of summer: Jennifer Packer at the Serpentine Gallery reviewed
We need to talk about Eric. In Jennifer Packer’s portrait of her friend and fellow artist, Eric N. Mack sits…
Britain is a tolerant country and a few football racists don't change that
The racist messages sent to England football players in recent days are shameful, but to suggest that the UK is a festering hotbed…
Why do those who abuse Priti Patel get a free pass?
Remember when Labour MP Clive Lewis got into trouble for saying, ‘On your knees, bitch’? It was at a fringe…
Oli London and the trickiness of being ‘trans-racial’
Not everyone will have heard of Oli London, a British social media influencer who made news for two reasons last…
This interactive Doctor Who show is as bombastic, fey and tedious as the TV series
Death of a Black Man is a little-known script from the 1970s written by Alfred Fagon who suffered a fatal…
Don't blame 'white privilege' for the plight of working-class kids
Tory MP Robert Halfon is right to say that the underachievement of white working-class students is a ‘major social injustice’. He is also…
Forget race or class, marriage is the big social divide
The latest spark to ignite the culture wars is a report from the parliamentary education committee on the underachievement of…
Taking the knee isn't the best way of showing black lives matter
As a black football fan who grew up going to matches in the seventies and eighties, I know more than…
Cambridge deserves better than Stephen Toope
Regular readers may be aware that in recent months I have been having a running-spat with a Canadian lawyer called…
France is divided on 'taking the knee'
Until this month ‘taking a knee’ has not been a French phenomenon. When the Black Lives Matter movement spilled out of…
Two hours of kitsch tomfoolery: Amélie at the Criterion reviewed
The latest movie to turn into a musical is Amélie, from 2001, about a Parisian do-gooder or ‘godmother of the…
The problem with Equity’s anti-racism guidelines
‘Rouse tempers, goad and lacerate, raise whirlwinds.’ Those were the words that Kenneth Tynan, the most celebrated drama critic of…
The case against reparations for slavery
Last week, a bill cleared the US House Judiciary Committee that would establish a 13-person commission to consider federal reparations…
What's the problem with Apu?
Remember Apu, the kindly Indian shopkeeper from The Simpsons? Well, in the time since most people have stopped watching that…
America isn’t speaking our language
I haven’t yet read the report published by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. But, looking at the recommendations,…
The facts about race and education
Judging from the reaction to last week’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report, you’d think it had been written…
When 'white privilege' doesn't count
First off the blocks criticising Dr Tony Sewell’s report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities was Professor Kalwant…
The false narrative of white vs BAME
Almost 20 years ago, Michael Howard spoke about the ‘British dream’: that immigrant families like his could come to this…
