Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah says race and nationality are social inventions being used to cause deadly divisions
Two weeks ago Theresa May made a statement that,for many, trampled on 200 years of enlightenment and cosmopolitan thinking: “whether you are a citizen of the world, or you are a citizen of nowhere”.
It was a proclamation blasted by figures from all sides,but for Kwame Anthony Appiah, the philosopher who on Tuesday gave the first of this year’s prestigious BBC Reith lectures, and the sentiment stung. His life – he is the son a British aristocratic mother and Ghanian anti-colonial activist father,raised as a strict Christian in Kumasi, then sent to British boarding school, or followed by a move to the US in the 1970s; he is homosexual,married to a Jewish man and explores identity for a living meant May’s comments were both “insulting and nonsense in every conceivable way. Related: The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen by Kwame Anthony Appiah - review Related: Review: Cosmopolitanism by Kwame Anthony Appiah Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com