Join us for a talk by Kehinde Andrews about his new book, The Psychosis of Whiteness.
An all-encompassing, insightful and wry look at living in a racist world, by a leading black British voice in the academy and in the media. Take a step through the looking-glass to a strange land, one where Piers Morgan is a voice worth listening to about race, where white people buy self-help books to cope with their whiteness, where Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are seen by the majority of the population as ‘the right (white) man for the job’. Perhaps you know it. All the inhabitants seem to be afflicted by serious delusions, like that racism doesn’t exist and if it does it can be cured with a one-hour inclusion seminar, and bizarre collective hallucinations, like the widely held idea that Britain’s only role in slavery was to abolish it. But there is a serious side too. Black and brown people suffer from a greater number of mental health difficulties, caused in no small part by living in a racist society. Society cannot face up to the racism at its heart and in its history, so the delusions and hallucinations it conjures up to avoid doing so can only best be described as a psychosis, and the costs are being borne by the sons and daughters of that racist history.
Meet our speakers and chair
Kehinde Andrews (@kehinde_andrews) is the UK’s first Professor of Black Studies, at Birmingham City University where he led the establishment of the first Black Studies programme in Europe, the Chair of the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity and editor in chief of Make It Plain. He is the author of Back to Black: retelling black radicalism for the 21st century and The New Age of Empire: how racism and colonialism still rule the world.
Sara Camacho-Felix (@SFelix18) is an assistant professor (Education) and Programme Lead for the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme.
Maël Lavenaire is a Caribbean and Latin America historian and Research Fellow in Racial Inequality at the LSE International Inequalities Institute.
More about this event
This event will be available to watch on LSE Live. LSE Live is the new home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can’t attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE’s YouTube channel.
The LSE International Inequalities Institute (@LSEInequalities) brings together experts from many of the School’s departments and centres to lead cutting-edge research focused on understanding why inequalities are escalating in numerous arenas across the world, and to develop critical tools to address these challenges.
The Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme (@AFSEE_LSE) is a Global South-focused, funded fellowship for mid-career activists, policy-makers, researchers and movement-builders from around the world. Based at the International Inequalities Institute, it is a 20-year programme that commenced in 2017 and was funded with a £64m gift from Atlantic Philanthropies, LSE’s largest ever philanthropic donation.
This event is part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2023, taking place from 21 October to 17 November with events across the UK.
Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEIII
Podcast & Video
A podcast of this event is available to download from The psychosis of whiteness.
A video of this event is available to watch at The psychosis of whiteness.
Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.
