Few political commentators have caught the national spotlight quite like 27-year-old Coleman Hughes, a Columbia University graduate and New Jersey native whose observations on race, class, and politics reveal wisdom and insight far beyond his years. Critical of both the nation’s obsession with race and the reliance on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs to redress race-based inequalities, Hughes is the rare young writer of color who rejects progressive “woke” orthodoxies in exchange for hard data – and old-fashioned common sense.
In 2019, Hughes testified before Congress, where he opposed a federal effort to develop a formalized plan for slavery reparations — publicly opposing the far better-known (and far older) author Ta-Nehisi Coates, who has long supported reparations for African Americans. Now Hughes has released “The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America” (Thesis) , in which he argues that structural policies to redress America’s racist past — particularly DEI — are only hurting its present. In the excerpt that follows, Hughes explains how America reached this contentious racial reckoning — and suggests that the nation might actually be far more united than our dividers might like us to believe.