The fact that black people are easily distinguishable from whites plays an important part in this. It's only in the early 20th century that whiteness and blackness, as we understand it, became consolidated. The major division was purely between black and white. And there were two reasons for that: expansion of democracy within Western nations; expansion of imperialism.
Does the conversation on race need a reset? That is the question that Coleman Hughes and Kenan Malik explored when they came to Intelligence Squared in January 2022. Hughes is an acclaimed American writer and host of the award-winning podcast Conversations with Coleman. In 2019 at the age of 23 he testified before Congress against reparations for slavery and has roundly criticised the work of other Black writers on race such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo. In his view, their brand of anti-racism encourages a sense of victimhood among Black Americans and sows division between different racial groups. Malik is a British author and broadcaster, whose new book Not So Black and White explores the history of the idea of race and invites us to challenge many of the assumptions behind today’s culture wars.
If you would like to support Coleman Hughes and his work, you can do so at colemanhughes.org.
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