Book review: The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America
by Coleman Hughes
This is a candid conversation that is long overdue. As a person of color himself, Coleman Hughes refutes head on the (perhaps well meaning although dogmatic) assumptions of self declared antiracists such as Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi—to offer instead what could be called true antiracism. Hughes affirms the analysis of those with similar concerns, such as John McWhorter who identifies what he calls Neoracists whose new religion is nonsense posing as wisdom.
At the heart of the author’s critique is the Neoracists’ violation of Martin Luther King’s aspiration to have everyone of any race (including white people) judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. Yes there is historic racism and its aftermath—two examples (of many) being red lining and the routing of the Interstate highway system. Yes there are cultural artifacts of racism currently active throughout society—the resistance of many communities to admit into their schools the objective (not Neoracist) study of actual events is a testimony to that. Hughes asserts however that the approach of Neoracists in reflexively judging white people and people of color by their race (that is: white bad; everyone else good) is demonstrably counterproductive in remedying the effects of actual racism and colonialism.
Hughes explains that the more effective way to eliminate racism is to directly remedy the economic troubles of all people who are facing challenges maintaining a decent living, and with that the freedom indispensable for a full life. This approach will by its nature reduce wealth disparity where it’s actually needed—not just making privileged black people richer and poor white people poorer through ham handed affirmative action goals (while poor unprivileged black people become even more poor) and then pretending some corrective justice has been accomplished. Neoracists thus promote a distorted view of the power imbalance, causing more harm than healing for those they purport to help.
As Eboo Patel has pointed out, emphasizing group oppression without the context of individual victories snuffs out the personal agency essential to overcoming the real oppression experienced. And as James Baldwin has been cited as noting, blacks can be just as racist as whites—of course they can, which is unremarkable because we’re all human. Instead of the Neoracist approach, nuance is indispensable in this discussion—as asserted by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò in his assessment of colonialism in our current economy and culture. Hughes ties all of these concepts together in a refreshing flow of candor—it’s time to breathe in our essential common humanity, and make things right for real.