Self-Portrait in Black and White: Family, Fatherhood, and Rethinking Race

A Time “Must-Read” Book of 2019

“[Williams] is so honest and fresh in his observations, so skillful at blending his own story with larger principles, that it is hard not to admire him.” ―Andrew Solomon, New York Times Book Review (front page)

The son of a “black” father and a “white” mother, Thomas Chatterton Williams found himself questioning long-held convictions about race upon the birth of his blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter―and came to realize that these categories cannot adequately capture either of them, or anyone else. In telling the story of his family’s multigenerational transformation from what is called black to what is assumed to be white, he reckons with the way we choose to see and define ourselves. Self-Portrait in Black and White is a beautifully written, urgent work for our time.

Thomas Chatterton Williams, author of Losing My Cool and a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, is a 2019 New America Fellow and the recipient of a Berlin Prize. He lives in Paris with his wife and children.