The expression “people of color” has always seemed to me in equal measure stupid, condescending, and vicious. It divides humanity into two categories, whites and the rest, or rather whites versus the rest; it implies an essential or inherent hostility between these two portions of humanity; and it implies also no real interest in the culture or history of the people of color, whose only important characteristic is that of having been ill-treated by, and therefore presumably hating, the whites. Compared with the phrase “people of color,” the language of apartheid was sophisticated and nuanced.

It should not need saying that, as the history of Europe attests, whites have not always been happily united, and that “people of color” do not necessarily form one happy, united family, either. Nevertheless, a recent disturbance in the city of Leicester, in the East Midlands of England, starting several days ago and still not definitively over, came as something of a surprise. …

What struck me was the extreme reticence in the initial reporting of the events, almost certainly not because of ignorance. Here is how the Daily Telegraph reported the episode at first: “A police chief in Leicester has called for calm after three weeks of disorder sparked by a Pakistan v India cricket match escalated to violence from marauding balaclava-clad gangs.” The article went on to quote the Chief Constable: “‘We have had numerous reports of an outbreak of disorder.’” Another police spokesman: “‘We are aware of a video circulating showing a man pulling down a flag outside a religious building . . . We are continuing to call for dialogue and calm with support from local community leaders.’”

Nowhere in the article do the words Hindu or Muslim appear. The reader is left to guess the leaders of which communities are being called by the police to start a dialogue, and the flag of which religious building was pulled down.