Does the conversation on race need a reset?

That is the question that Coleman Hughes and Kenan Malik will explore when they come to Intelligence Squared on January 16. Hughes is an acclaimed American writer and podcast host. 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. Are Black or Asian people who are conservative or don’t fit the script in some other way not really Black or Asian but straining to be white, as some anti-racists suggest? Do the current conversations about race hide the reality of class-based injustice? Can we ultimately free ourselves from racial categories while also ridding society of racism?

Join these two original thinkers from both sides of the Atlantic for a conversation on one of the most important issues of our times.