You can get tickets here. Equiano project supporters get discounted tickets, get in touch at hello@theequianoproject.com for information about this.

The accusation ‘that’s racist!’ has become one of the most powerful silencing tools in recent years, yet we have never been so confused about what racism is. The accusation ‘racist’ has even been thrown at those avowedly opposed to racism and at people of colour, insulted as ‘coconuts’, ‘Uncle Toms’ or worse. Often, the targets of the ‘racist’ slur are individuals who take issue with the new and bewildering orthodoxies of the new ‘anti-racist activism’ shaped by identity politics and ‘critical race theory’. 

It can sometimes seem as though contemporary ‘anti-racism’ has morphed into its opposite: from a movement for equal treatment and the transcendence of ‘race’ as a distorting prism through which to view the world, to the formation of new hierarchies along the lines of racialised identities, life experiences or even opinion. 

The launch of a new book, Black Success: The Surprising Truth, by Lord Tony Sewell, a long-standing independent thinker on the subject of race, provides us with an opportunity to discuss these developments. Lord Sewell’s book weaves together memoir and polemic to challenge the shibboleths of contemporary racialised thinking. He argues in favour of rejecting victimhood and low expectations and embracing high ambitions, pushing towards a collective humanity. The book is the perfect riposte to the storm of criticism that met the Sewell Report on racial disparities. 

The book will be on sale on the night and Lord Sewell will be signing copies. 

Lord Sewell will be joined in discussion by journalist, commentator and Equiano Project founder, Inaya Folarin Iman and musician and champion of free speech and genuine equality, Sean Corby. 

This is a joint event between The Equiano Project and the Free Speech Union.