Freethinkers Festival: Thomas Chatterton Williams: can we unlearn race?

Questioning long-held convictions about race and identity

Growing up in the United States, son of a black father from the segregated South en and a white mother from California, Thomas Chatterton Williams never questioned his identity: he was black. This was so fundamental to his self-conception that he never rigorously reflected on its foundations. But his experience of living in France and becoming the father of two white-looking, blonde-haired children led him to question long-held convictions about race and identity. During Vrijdenkersfestival we invite Williams to discuss his quest to unlearn race. Did we bring in the Trojan horse with racial terminology, or is thinking in ‘black’ and ‘white’ the only way to address and fight racism?