The End of Race Politics

Arguments for a Colorblind America

By: Coleman Hughes

Narrated by: Coleman Hughes

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.


* This audiobook edition contains a downloadable PDF of key graphs, charts, and other visual aids from the book.

Critic reviews

“Humans have dignity and rights because of their ability to flourish and suffer, not their pigmentation. The affirmation of that moral principle here is humane, judicious, eloquent, and timely.”–STEVEN PINKER, professor at Harvard University and author of Enlightenment Now

“No one gives me greater hope that we will one day come to our senses about race than Coleman Hughes. He is the living example of our future sanity.” –SAM HARRIS, New York Times bestselling author of Waking Up

“When I started writing on race twenty-five years ago, I hoped young people would read me and be assured that being melodramatic, tribal, and pessimistic on race issues is not higher wisdom. Coleman Hughes is exactly what I hoped would happen, and this book is spun gold from start to finish.” –JOHN McWHORTER, associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University and New York Times bestselling author of Woke Racism

“[Hughes’s] thesis ought to become required reading for students of all races on every college campus in America.” –GLENN LOURY, professor of economics at Brown University

“With unusual clarity, [Hughes] offers not merely a damning critique of all the ways the all-American skin game has failed us—he provides a compelling, positive vision of the heights we could reach together were we to finally stop playing.” –THOMAS CHATTERTON WILLIAMS, author of Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race

His best work

I was skeptical that Coleman could bring anything more in a book than he regularly brings in his podcast and written articles. I was wrong. This book is clear, easy to follow, thorough, honest, and fair. An unbelievably sane and well spoken argument for the ideals of MLK Jr. It’s a scathing rebuke of the grifters and neoracists who have captured and capitalized on our tribal impulses and sought to tear us apart. Well done.

Thorough, honest examination of today's hottest ideology and the attendant societal damage

So good! Coleman Hughes has here exposed the small men (& women) behind the curtain of CRT/DEI/Wokeism they've woven so tightly from obfuscatory buzz phrases, fear of social ostracization, myriad logical fallacies, and outright lies with such precise, dispassionate logical argument that I find myself wishing he'd written any of my college textbooks. None of which is to suggest that the book is at all boring—quite the opposite. His subject matter is so relevant to this moment, so thoughtfully explored, and so well organized that anyone paying a lick of attention to the dominant cultural narratives of the last several years can't help but be interested.

I hope some of those duped by the current prevailing wind will have the courage to read this book and be enlightened by it. To be sure, those of us who, like Mr. Hughes, see this ruinous belief system for the danger that it is would do well to examine his arguments, carry forward his solidly evidenced reasoning, and adopt his especially truthful, precise labels ("neoracists," for example) until they become the default vocabulary of the topic.

Great

Thoughtful! Generous!! And, wiser than most of us are on our best days!
I’ve listened to him periodically for years, but this book added meaningful dimensions to my understanding of these topics!

Excellent

This book should be required reading in schools. It’s a very fair and moderate look at a problem that most people are afraid to talk about.

excellent!

Mr. Hughes is a fantastic writer. succinct, clear, well thought out and argued - basically the opposite of the book white fragility.