Racism
The mythic mishmash of Wagner’s Ring
Its towering themes of gods, giants, dragons and magic were not purely Germanic in origin, whatever fever-dream they later conjured in Hitler’s brain
Not for the faint-hearted: She’s Always Hungry, by Eliza Clark, reviewed
An unsettling collection of stories loosely connected by the theme of hunger contains graphic descriptions of violence and cannibalism – as the publishers see fit to warn us
Panning for music gold: The Catchers, by Xan Brooks, reviewed
They were known as song catchers: New York-based chancers with recording equipment packed in the back of the van, heading…
How claims of cultural appropriation scuppered an acclaimed new ballet
On 14 March 2020 I was at Leeds Grand Theatre for the première of Northern Ballet’s Geisha. The curtains swung…
Glamour or guilt? The perils of marketing the British country house
The most angst-ridden sub-category of the very rich – admittedly a lucky bunch to start with – must surely contain…
Falsifying history can only increase racial tension
Frank Furedi argues that historic memory is the key to the identity of any coherent community, and that attacking it undermines a population’s solidarity
Why Britain riots
Riotous summers seem to occur in Britain with about the same frequency as sunny ones: roughly every decade. Sometimes it’s…
The irrepressible musical gift of Huddie Ledbetter
Before his genius was widely recognised, the blues singer known as Lead Belly survived not only America’s most brutal prisons but cruel betrayal by his racist ‘manager’
Visitants from the past: The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley, reviewed
An experimental project transports people across centuries. Lieutenant Graham Gore, an Arctic explorer whisked from the 1840s to present-day London, is not overly impressed
Don’t write off Hofesh Shechter – his new work is uniquely haunting
In 2010, when his thrillingly edgy and angry Political Mother delivered modern dance a winding punch right where it hurt,…
Progressives vs. bigots: How I Won a Nobel Prize, by Julius Taranto, reviewed
When a quantum physicist and her partner reluctantly move to a university staffed by cancelled luminaries the scene is set for a darkly comic clash of ideologies
Prejudice in Pennsylvania: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride, reviewed
Inspired by his own family history, McBride explores the problems faced by a Jewish shopkeeper and her black neighbours in the small town of Chicken Hill in the 1930s
Why were 80,000 Asians suddenly expelled from Uganda in 1972?
Lucy Fulford never fully explains how this community was so easily scapegoated, nor why Idi Amin’s decree caused such jubilation across East Africa at the time
Our academics are attacking the whole concept of knowledge
The decolonisers in Britain’s universities are not just trying to defend their views. They are seeking to upend the free market in ideas by imposing them, says Doug Stokes
Black Britons betrayed
Racism in Britain may be less acute than in America or even France, but the false promises made to the Windrush generation have left a bitter aftermath
Kwame Kwei-Armah’s embarrassing update of Love Thy Neighbour: Beneatha’s Place, at the Young Vic, reviewed
Beneatha’s Place, set in the 1950s, follows a black couple who encounter racial prejudice when they move to a predominately…
Daniel Penny and the problem with have-a-go heroes
I have always liked the phrase ‘have-a-go hero’. It sums up a certain type of person who can emerge from…
Rupa Huq and the politics of prejudice
The Labour party’s contribution to the national debate this week has included the idea that someone can be ‘superficially’ black.…
The uncomfortable lessons of the new Fourth Plinth statues
Alexander Chula on the uncomfortable lessons of the new Fourth Plinth statues
Guston is treated with contempt: Philip Guston Now reviewed
Philip Guston is hard to dislike. The most damning critique levied against the canonical mid-century American painter is that he…
Does the Met have a racism problem?
Back in the winter of 2012, a postal worker named Zac Sharif-Ali was taking a lunchtime stroll with his dog…
I feel sorry for those stupid enough to believe that ballet is racist or transphobic
Sick though one may be of the way that the poison dart of ‘woke’ is lazily flung at what is…
A post-racial world: The Last White Man, by Mohsin Hamid, reviewed
Mohsin Hamid’s fifth novel opens with a Kafkaesque twist: Anders, a white man, wakes to find that he has turned…
Spare us the preaching: The Railway Children Return reviewed
It doesn’t help the cause of The Railway Children Return that the original 1970 Railway Children film is currently on…
Stop tearing down controversial statues, says British-Guyanan artist Hew Locke
Rather than tearing statues down, Hew Locke believes in reworking them to highlight their place in our imperial history. Stuart Jeffries speaks to him
