Speaking to the Guardian, former France, Juventus and Barcelona defender Lilian Thuram said: "What I'm trying to say is: 'Right, there is racism: why? And why do we say there are white people and non-white people? Why do we say there are people of colour?' If you don't know the reasons, you won’t be able to understand why prejudices exist.
"People need to know the history of the racialisation of the world. No one is born black or white. It is important that people who are said to be white understand what it is to be white. We all need to be aware that history has led to us wearing skin-colour masks and I invite people to remove those masks.
"To remove them, you have to know the history of these identities linked to skin colour, the social hierarchies that were devised. When we understand history, we understand that racism has always been a scam. It has always been a political construction designed to smash the ties of solidarity between human beings.
"To be able to change we have to lift ourselves out of categories: men, women, black and white, and so on. We have to promote the idea that we are human beings before anything else. Generally speaking, the majority don't want change because they have settled into their habits. So a minority has to be able to instigate change."
1998 World Cup winner Thuram has written a number of books on race and discrimination.
His latest project, White Thinking: Behind the Mask of Racial Identity by Lilian Thuram, is out on October 29.
