Lillian Thuram

In his former life as an international football player, Lilian Thuram won a World Cup in 1998 and the European Championship in 2000 with the French national team. Today, he is one of the most prominent anti-racist activists, who established the Lilian Thuram Foundation in order to educate people about racism in 2008. Thuram’s latest book White Thinking: Behind the mask of racial identity grapples with the seemingly simple question “What does it mean to be white?” to demonstrate that whiteness transcends skin color; it is a way of thinking that constructs racial hierarchies, shapes people’s habits and beliefs, and justifies white supremacy across the world, reinforcing behavioral norms and limiting the roles of whites and non-whites alike. Thuram’s conscious effort to appeal to a wider audience is evident not only in his writing, but also in the numerous activities he is involved in, including the exhibition he curated for the Quai Branly museum in Paris, pointedly named “Human Zoos: The invention of the savage”. His untranslated books are also essential reading, such as his militant educational work Manifeste pour l’égalité [The equality manifesto], published in France by Autrement in 2012.