The Lies That Bind

Identity isn’t personal, it is shaped by all sorts of influences, some of them we are very aware of and some of them we have never thought about. To be free means to be aware of all of them.

Appiah shows that while you cannot escape identity, you can pick and choose much more than most people make us believe. There is no inevitability and that is extremely liberating.

As a white woman, it made me see much better how not to equate privilege with guilt only, but responsibility and agency. 

Identities such as nation, race, gender, and class are important to individuals.

They motivate us to do things in unity with members of the same group but at the same time, they set us up against those with different identities and cause enormous damage. The Lies That Bind examines divisions we make when it comes to identity by focusing on creed, country, colour, class, and culture.

Appiah uses histories and personal stories to argue that we look at identity-based on certain pre-conceived assumptions and hold on to these assumptions. He challenges the reader to look beyond and instead try… show more.

Kwame’s paternal grandfather was an Ashanti chief and his maternal grandfather was a British Chancellor of the Exchequer – who better to explore the issues of identity? This book is an antidote to nativism.

My novel Brushstrokes in Time was criticised on a South East Asian Facebook group for ‘cultural appropriation’ - not because it is not authentic - it is based on eyewitness accounts of the Stars artists themselves interviewed over three years. The problem for them was nothing to do with the style, content, or quality of the novel but only the identity of the author as ‘not… show more.