The End of Race Politics
Arguments for a Colorblind America
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4.4 • 26 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
An exciting new voice makes the case for a colorblind approach to politics and culture, warning that the so-called ‘anti-racist’ movement is driving us—ironically—toward a new kind of racism.
As one of the few black students in his philosophy program at Columbia University years ago, Coleman Hughes wondered why his peers seemed more pessimistic about the state of American race relations than his own grandparents–who lived through segregation. The End of Race Politics is the culmination of his years-long search for an answer.
Contemplative yet audacious, The End of Race Politics is necessary reading for anyone who questions the race orthodoxies of our time. Hughes argues for a return to the ideals that inspired the American Civil Rights movement, showing how our departure from the colorblind ideal has ushered in a new era of fear, paranoia, and resentment marked by draconian interpersonal etiquette, failed corporate diversity and inclusion efforts, and poisonous race-based policies that hurt the very people they intend to help. Hughes exposes the harmful side effects of Kendi-DiAngelo style antiracism, from programs that distribute emergency aid on the basis of race to revisionist versions of American history that hide the truth from the public.
Through careful argument, Hughes dismantles harmful beliefs about race, proving that reverse racism will not atone for past wrongs and showing why race-based policies will lead only to the illusion of racial equity. By fixating on race, we lose sight of what it really means to be anti-racist. A racially just, colorblind society is possible. Hughes gives us the intellectual tools to make it happen.
Customer Reviews
Persuasive
Hughes makes a lucid case for colorblind policies, arguing that the moral clarity of the abolitionists was watered down in the 14th amendment in a way that permitted both Jim Crow and affirmative action. Critical theory and related dogmas are probably already in decline and Hughes is happy to shove them further off stage. He argues that there are more just and effective ways for America to pay her karmic debts, in particular by focusing on skills and habits in pre-K through 12. If you like John McWhorter you’ll love Hughes. He doesn’t capitalize the “b” in “black” and going forward neither will I.
Recommended!
Coleman is brilliant and well researched. His analysis is honest and fair. This is a must read for all.
Good writer; atrocious content
I teach writing, and the writing in this book is above average in terms of composition. However, I have never read a book that contradicts itself as much as this one does even from one sentence to the next. It’s borderline absurd in some sections. Further, the introduction more than any other I’ve read disqualifies the author from having the legitimacy to make an argument about race at all. How could someone who has been actively and intentionally ignoring race even while experiencing racism be an authority on race? He cannot. And writing this book reflecting his lifelong endeavor to ignore the realities of the racialized world does not change his inadequacy as a race scholar.