About

Towards the Common Good: Rethinking Race in the 21st Century is a conference taking place at Emmanuel College and King’s College, University of Cambridge on January 12th and 13th 2023, hosted by The Equiano Project.

Following the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013, anti-racism has steadily risen up the political agenda on both sides of the Atlantic.  In particular, the death of George Floyd in America in 2020 sparked an unprecedented interest in the subjects of race and anti-racism across all areas of public life, especially government, the third sector, the corporate world and academia.

This renewed focus on race is welcome as more and more liberal democracies transition towards becoming highly ethnically diverse societies. After decades of marginalisation, ethnic minority people are assuming positions of influence and are rightly seeking full inclusion into the society in which they live.

Yet whilst this new wave of anti-racism has raised important questions for debate, it has also brought to light areas of contention. The increased emphasis on racial difference seems to contrast with the universalist character of the 1960s civil rights era. Some of today’s anti-racist movements, particularly ‘critical race theory’, question wideley shared values like equality in law, seeing them as fictions that mask continued inequality. 

This new form of anti-racism places a focus on the problem of “whiteness” and is accompanied by a desire to shift away from material or legal questions, towards psychological harm. The nature of equality itself – how it is defined, how it is measured, and whether it is attainable – is being debated fiercely.

Thus, in the spirit of open exchange, this conference seeks to explore these important issues. We will bring together those who believe in promoting equality and improving ethnic minority people’s lives, to explore the extent to which anti-racism today aligns with or departs from previous eras, and examine whether liberal values can continue to inform solutions to these questions. We will explore the nature of racial inequality and the extent to which different approaches can successfully address it.

There is growing awareness of the need to rethink racial politics and develop a realistic and constructive narrative. The question is of central importance to liberal democracy – how we balance the hard-earned universal freedoms embodied in liberal democracy, with the need to acknowledge and integrate the rich cultural identities that ethnic minority and immigrant groups have brought to the UK.