We’re all Freddie Gray now: is racial tension America’s civic religion?
‘You’re trending on Twitter,’ said the Spectator books editor Sam Leith, who knows his social media. Am I? How exciting! What have I done? Sam explained: a young black man called Freddie Gray (ie not y) had been killed by cops in Baltimore, and a campaign for justice had begun online. It’s funny when your namesake becomes a cause célèbre, even if the name is spelt differently and the story is as sad as poor Freddie’s. Lots of messages from friends start coming in: ‘Apparently people are rioting about your death’, ‘You’re causing real problems in Baltimore’, ‘Never knew you had so many American fans’, ‘You’re famous at last!’. And so