So much of what is commonly understood to mean multiculturalism has in truth been class warfare by other means. A great deal of it has entailed affluent, white middle-class types telling the white working-class that their culture and values are of unexceptional or lesser worth. Much state-sanctioned multiculturalism has been an exercise in scolding the proletariat for being unenlightened, denouncing them as bigots and racists when their behaviour fails to fall into line with modern, cosmopolitan, metropolitan mores.

This kind of gesture can be seen as an irresponsible provocation towards the working class

This kind of gesture can be seen as an irresponsible provocation towards the working class

This tendency and tension was on full display on Saturday at Elland Road, home of Leeds United, when thirteen minutes into the game against Manchester City, play was stopped to allow Muslim players to break for their Ramadan fast after sunset. In response to the stoppage and a notice on the stadium’s big screen explaining that ‘play has been paused briefly to allow players to break for their fast’, sections of the home crowd began to boo and jeer.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is one of many to have expressed his disappointment with the crowd’s reaction. ‘It is a modern world, right?’, he said. ‘Respect religion, diversity, that is the point.’ Yet rather than be shocked or perplexed........

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