Coleman Cruz Hughes (born February 25, 1996
Early life and education
Hughes is of African-American
and Puerto Rican descent, and grew up in Montclair, New Jersey.
His mother died when he was 19.
Hughes graduated from Newark Academy high school and was selected as a United States Presidential Scholar in 2014.
Career
On June 19, 2019, Hughes testified before a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee at a hearing on reparations for slavery, arguing against the campaign.
He argued that "if we were to pay reparations today, we would only divide the country further, making it harder to build the political coalitions required to solve the problems facing Black people today."
In this vein, he highlighted mass incarceration and high homicide victimization rates as problems affecting Black Americans today.
He suggested an alternative proposal of paying reparations to Black Americans who personally grew up under
Jim Crow.
Hughes went on to say that reparations to the descendants of slaves would insult many Black Americans and claimed they would make him and the "one-third of Black Americans who poll against reparations into victims without their consent."
In addition to writing for Quillette,
Hughes is the host of the podcast Conversations with Coleman.
He is a Visiting scholar at the University of Austin.
2023 TED Talk
In April 2023, Hughes delivered a talk at the annual TED conference in Vancouver, Canada. Defending the idea of racial color blindness, he explained his perspective on treating people without regard to their race as individuals and in public policy. His talk encountered criticism from TED leadership and an internal employee group named "Black@TED", with efforts being made to prevent its release.
Chris Anderson, the head of TED, informed Hughes of internal opposition, citing a social scientist's claim that Hughes's talk delivered an inaccurate message. Hughes disputed this claim, arguing that the referenced research actually supported his position. TED proposed an unusual release strategy, combining his talk with a moderated debate, to which Hughes reluctantly agreed in order to ensure his message was heard. His opponent in the discussion, Jamelle Bouie, agreed with Hughes that race neutrality (i.e., racial color blindness) was preferable for personal interactions but argued that public policy should be more race-conscious.
Views
Hughes says he formerly believed the premise of Black Lives Matter—that, in his words, "racist cops are killing unarmed Black people"—but now believes that the existence of
Shooting bias does not survive scrutiny once factors other than race are taken into account. He has cited research from Roland G. Fryer Jr. and Sendhil Mullainathan, among others, in support of his stance.
Hughes voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 United States presidential election.
Hughes says he has no religious belief and does not believe in God.
In his 2024 book, The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America, he argues that the aim of colorblindness is not to avoid "noticing" race but "to consciously disregard race as a reason to treat individuals differently and as a category on which to base public policy".
On the murder of George Floyd, Hughes believes that "there was clearly reasonable doubt on whether Chauvin caused Floyd's death".
Hughes supports Zionism and disagrees with its comparisons to colonialism, Jim Crow, and apartheid.
Reception
Writing in
The Washington Post in 2018,
Megan McArdle called Hughes "an undergraduate at Columbia University but already a thinker to be reckoned with."
wrote in
Reason in 2019 that Hughes had "emerged over the past year as one of the most prolific and insightful commentators on race and class in the United States."
In 2020, Christopher Bollen wrote in
Interview that Hughes "has become one of the most compelling and promising voices on the political landscape."
In September 2020, Stéphanie Chayet, writing in the French newspaper
Le Monde, identified Hughes as one of four "anti-conformists of
anti-racism," along with
Glenn Loury, Thomas Chatterton Williams, and
John McWhorter.
In December 2020, Hughes was listed on the
Forbes 30-under-30 list for 2021 in the Media category.
Music
Hughes began studying violin at age three.
He is a hobbyist
rapper—in 2021 and 2022, he released several rap singles on
YouTube and
Spotify, using the moniker COLDXMAN, including a music video for a track titled "Blasphemy",
which appeared in January 2022. Hughes also plays
jazz trombone with a
Charles Mingus tribute band that plays regularly at the Jazz Standard in New York City.
Bibliography
External links
