What does it mean to be a citizen of a given place? How do our origins, beliefs, and race compose our identities? Should they be part of understanding our senses of self at all? This is arguably one of the prevailing issues of our time but one that looks very different in the United States and France. It’s also one of the abiding questions explored by Thomas Chatterton Williams, a cultural critic and author based in Paris, in almost all of his work. His newest book: "Self-Portrait in Black-and-White: Unlearning Race", presents an argument for moving beyond such superficial ways of labeling and categorizing ourselves and proposes alternatives for considering who we are as people. He joins me to talk about his book and how the thorny topic of race plays out in his two homes.

Mentioned in this episode:

Thomas Chatterton Williams: https://twitter.com/thomaschattwill

"Self-Portrait in Black & White" https://amzn.to/2RxZbAX

The Good Fight podcast interview with Thomas: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/10/how-to-talk-about-identity-without-playing-into-the-hands-of-racists.html

"Losing My Cool" (first book): https://amzn.to/2RA7X1w

Book excerpt in NYT Magazine: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/magazine/black-white-family-race.html

Thomas on Bill Maher: https://www.hbo.com/real-time-with-bill-maher/2019/31-episode-511