Douglas Murray has narrated this article for you to listen to.

I think it was Zadie Smith who I first heard point out that race is in America what class is in Britain: the conversation underneath every conversation.

When I first heard that remark I slightly baulked. Not least because one had rather hoped that class would be less of a thing in Britain in the 21st century. I suppose it is, although you do still meet people who treat the English language as though it is a minefield in which one incorrect vowel will suddenly take them out.

But if the class stuff still lingers in Britain, the good news is that we now have the American race obsession too.

For anyone who hasn’t lived in America, it is hard to describe just how permeated race is into every conversation in the culture. For example it is perfectly normal for US politicians to state that they need a black candidate to run, or a Hispanic. When Joe Biden said he wanted a vacant seat on the Supreme Court to be taken by a black woman it caused minimal disturbance. And it was also accepted that Kamala Harris did not choose Governor Josh Shapiro as her presidential running mate because he is Jewish.

If this sort of thing were said openly in the UK, there would still be some turmoil. And yet the same racial and other sectarian equations that dictate American life seem to be more quietly dictating things here too. Since at least the time of Tony Blair’s first administration there has been a generalised feeling........

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