'Black lives not inherently different to white lives'

The American cultural critic and author Thomas Chatterton Williams has said that society will not get to a better future by "fracturing ourselves into ever-more hyper specific identity categories".

He told Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur he did not get on board with the rhetoric that black lives were "fundamentally, essentially, inherently different to white lives".

Mr Williams said he was not denying that racism existed but if the goal was to eliminate abuse and de-escalate conflict "then my thinking is that the best way to do that is to get a broad based consensus that brings people together as opposed to makes people believe that this is somehow a racialised abuse that only affects one demographic".

Watch the full programme on Friday 18 September 2020 on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel or watch again on BBC iPlayer (UK only)