Discussions about links between race and class are not new, but a recent resurfacing in the USA of the flawed question about which is more important leads me to choose this topic. While race may draw more attention here than in some other nations, the hideous genocide in the Sudan and ugly racial/ethnic divisions in many other places as well suggest that this discussion may have some wider relevance.

The issue of socioeconomic influences on health was marginalised in the USA until the Cold War ended. Since the early 1990s, there has been an opening for …