A Conversation with Lilian Thuram

This event is now fully booked. 

A Conversation with Lilian Thuram
Anti-racism campaigner and World Cup-winning footballer

This event marks the launch of White Thinking, a translation of Lilian Thuram’s bestselling 2020 volume, La Pensée blanche. The conversation will take place in French (with an interpreter) and will be followed by a Q&A with the audience.

White Thinking: Behind the Mask of Racial Identity (Hero Press, 2021)

What does it mean to be white? Beyond just a skin colour, is it also a way of thinking? If so, how did it come about, and why? 

In this book, drawing on history, personal experience and activist literature, the former footballer and World Champion Lilian Thuram looks at the origins and workings of white thinking, how it divides us and how it has become ubiquitous and accepted without challenge. He demonstrates how centuries of white bias and denial justified slavery and colonialism, and have reinforced norms and structures of oppression, limiting the roles and horizons of both non- whites and whites alike. 

Crucially, while White Thinking is a critique of ingrained structural inequities, it calls for an inclusive approach to solving the problem, and aims to raise awareness and imagine a new world in which all of humanity is given equal weight. 

‘Indifference and neutrality are no longer possible. Let’s have the courage to take off our different masks, be they Black, White, male, female, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, atheist, homeless, poor, rich, young, straight, gay — in order to defend the only identity that counts: human identity. “I” am “Us”.’

Lilian Thuram

The event will be followed by a drinks reception to which all are invited. Copies of the book will be available to purchase.

Organised in collaboration with the School of Humanities, University of Strathclyde

All are welcome to attend this free event, but spaces are limited so booking in advance is required.