year ago, I opened a respected British journal and read that I was black. Specifically, I was a black historian. Until then, I was simply known as a historian. The editor was dismayed when I complained about not wanting to be racialised in this way. Finally, he apologised, saying he’d been badly advised. The advice had come from the US. It is just this kind of cultural cringe to the US, and the notions it exports to these shores, that sits at the heart of This
