TV & Radio

Part 1 of 2

Descriptions of the human race based on skin colour go back to the eighteenth century. Trevor Phillips asks why colour coding continues to shape attitudes towards race. The idea of categorizing people according to their colour - "colour taxonomy" - greatly interests Trevor Phillips.

A prominent member of the Afro-Caribbean community, Trevor wants to know how and why this system took hold. He wants to know why a system based on skin colour should have had such a profound impact on relations between races. He wants to understand what role these categories might have had in shaping modern day racial prejudice, belief and behaviour.  At the same time, Trevor recognises that a combination of political liberalism and mobility is transforming our racial concepts. He wonders whether a taxonomy based on differentiation by colour is still sustainable. 

If colour ceases to be a meaningful description, what happens to racial identity? Does it wither away? At what point does racial mixing signal the transformation of both communities into something new?