Book Review – The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America

A DIVISIVE NEW BOOK EXAMINING THE STATUS QUO OF RACE IN AMERICA

Defining terms and their real history are the heartbeat of Coleman Hughes’ 2024 debut book, “The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America.” As a black man and recent graduate of Columbia University, his insight into the status of race politics in America is atypical of the narrative we’re used to hearing. He wrote it as a conclusion to his search for why, as one of the few black students in his philosophy program at the university, his peers seemed more radical about race relations than his own grandparents who endured segregation.

Hughes argues that today’s version of antiracism–or neoracism as he labels it–is actually just repackaged racism in disguise. “Neoracism insists that sharp racial classifications are a necessary part of a just society.” Colorblindness on the other hand, a term that is considered old-fashioned and even dangerous rhetoric by many, is the way forward according to Hughes, and, he argues, was the original intent of the Civil Rights Movement, including Dr. King himself. Elevating one race over another perpetuates a vicious cycle, but “treating people without regard to race, both in our public policy and in our private lives” would actually make the equality we say we’re seeking as a society.

As you read his book, Hughes’ voice is calm but relentless in driving home that race shouldn’t be as big of a deal as it is. “I think race is irrelevant to the things we care most about in life, and dividing people by race is an obstacle to realizing this dream. In my ideal future, the people of this country would be so busy pursuing the things that really matter that we might go weeks or months at a time without ever thinking about the concept of race.” It’s an idea that might make you squirm and want to label as racist itself, but that’s his whole point:

“Whether we are talking about current disadvantages (what is sometimes called ‘privilege’) or historical disadvantages, racial identity is a bad proxy. If all whites were advantaged, it would make sense for practical purposes to equate whiteness with advantage. If all blacks were impoverished, then it would make sense for practical purposes to equate blackness with poverty. But racialized generalizations like these don’t work. There’s no version of ‘white people are X’ or ‘black people are Y’ that provides an accurate rule of thumb for addressing issues like poverty or historical injustice.”

Hughes brings his own story, and that of his ancestry (American slavery), into the book often to corroborate what he’s saying. He grew up not affected by his status as a “half-black, half-Hispanic” boy until he encountered ideas about race at a People of Color Conference in his youth and later on at Columbia University.  These experiences “pave(d) the way toward a social and political hellscape where skin color—a meaningless trait—is given supreme importance.” He also makes a compelling case that America’s own history points to more victory and progress on this issue than today’s neoracists care to admit. He uses statistics and facts to outline that blacks have more political and cultural power in America than whites nowadays, but conceding this point would be a blow to the ideology of neoracism that approves “discrimination in favor of non-whites” as “justified on account of the hardships they endure–and hardships their ancestors endured–at the hands of whites.”

It’s at times an uncomfortable read, but if you enter in with an open mind, perhaps you’ll come away from it with a renewed understanding of what’s at stake: you, us. Hughes is ultimately arguing that it’s the person that matters, not their skin color. How did we stray so far away from that simple concept?

Coleman Hughes is a writer, podcaster, and opinion columnist who specializes in issues pertaining to race, public policy, and applied ethics. His writing has been published in numerous publications including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. In 2021, he appeared on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.