E88. Thomas Chatterton Williams Is Allergic to the Idea that Someone Could Define Him as a Victim

Thomas Chatterton Williams (Losing My Cool, Self-Portrait In Black and White) talks with Bridget from France and discusses the view of America from another country, the European response to Covid-19 vs. the US’s, and why the Unites States plays a central role in the imagination of the whole world. Thomas explains how he wound up “accidentally” writing a memoir about the difference between the black culture his dad grew up in from the one he grew up in, America’s historic attitude about race, and how his having his daughter who “looks like a Swedish child” led him to reassess what he’d previously written and his thoughts about the “construct” of race. He and Bridget cover why the hyper focus on racial difference is not the way to get past our divisions, the narcissism in the idea that whiteness in itself is responsible for all that’s wrong, why emigrating to another country was the hardest thing he’s ever done, and what he misses most about America. Full transcript available here: WiW88-ThomasChattertonWilliams-Transcript

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