12 - Thomas Chatterton Williams - Unlearning Race

1:52 Why Thomas doesn’t use the term mixed race 10:21 Perception that being brown/black is synonymous with oppression 15:08 Whiteness 16:12 Skin colour inheritance 20:35 The importance of representation; links between race and class 27:44 Hip hop as performative blackness 33:40 “Acting white” 34:48 Mixed race identity as an opportunity 37:15 The yearning for belonging 40:05 Adrian Piper 42:15 Ancestral guilt and ‘worshipping the wound’ 50:47 The rejection of optimism 53:07 What prompted Thomas to write Self-Portrait in Black and White 56:18 Thomas reads an extract from the book 1:03:57 Richard Spencer, the European far right, & the identity politics arms race 1:09:44 Culture & multiculturalism 1:11:55 White guilt 1:15:21 Transcending the mental habits of race Thomas Chatterton Williams' memoir "Losing My Cool" is available here: https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Chatterton-Williams/e/B0035FEJHC%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share Thomas Chatterton Williams, Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race (2019): https://www.amazon.com/Self-Portrait-Black-White-Unlearning-Race/dp/0393608867 You can read an extract from his upcoming book, "Self Portrait in Black and White" here: https://www.vqronline.org/essays-articles/2015/01/black-and-blue-and-blond For more of Thomas's writings, see: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/magazine/adrian-pipers-self-imposed-exile-from-america-and-from-race-itself.html https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/04/the-french-origins-of-you-will-not-replace-us and https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/06/opinion/ta-nehisi-coates-whiteness-power.html?_r=0 …. Follow Thomas on Twitter at @thomaschattwill. Additional References For more on Adrian Piper: http://www.adrianpiper.com/ Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (2018) John H. McWhorter, “Antiracism: Our Flawed New Religion” (2015) https://www.thedailybeast.com/antiracism-our-flawed-new-religion The preface to Iona’s piece on mixed race themes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdUunlGWqrw&t=17s