Coleman Hughes On His Definition Of 'Color Blindness' When It Comes to Race | The View

the first question that I should ask you to to to do is explain to folks what you mean by this Arguments for a colorblind America what do you mean when you say that so a lot of people equate colorblindness to I don't see race or to pretending not to see race I think that's a big mistake we all see race right and we're all capable of being racially biased so we should all be self-aware to that possibility my argument is not for that my argument is that we should try our very best to treat people

without regard to race both in our personal lives and our public policy and the reason I wrote this book thank you the reason I wrote this book is because in the past 10 years it has become very popular to in the name of anti-racism teach a kind of philosophy to our children and in general that says your race is everything right and I think that is the wrong way to fight racism and that's why I wrote this book at this time can I I'm sorry baby can I just point out that there is a reason

for that you know when I went to school getting any information about anyone's race was not taught no history there was no black history none of those things were taught and here in America a hundred years ago when I was a young woman that's how people saw you that's how they judged you so I think ex I don't want to say it's the your youth but I think you have a a point but I think you have to also take into consideration what people have live through in order to understand why there has been such

a a a pointing of very specific racial things like women couldn't go to get into colleges if you were a black person there a lot of colleges wouldn't accept you trying to equal the playing field I think that's what a lot of folks have been trying to do I'm sorry I'm going to cut you I think that's your experience and and that's valid you know as a Counterpoint when I was in fifth grade we all watched Roots together in in public school yeah so these are different experiences I I think it's also different Generations it's

different parts of the country right we have very different cultures all living together in one country so I'm not going to deny that but I think I view this notion of a colorblind Society similar to the idea of a peaceful society which is to say it's an ideal it's a North star and the point is not that we're ever going to get there we're not going to touch it but we have to know when we're going forward and when we're going backwards and we're going backwards when we're doing woke kindergarten in San Francisco you know

with with you didn't hear about this story no you know but wait I want to get to part of the book you actually you believe that public policies that address socioeconomic differences would be better at benefit benefiting disadvantaged groups and that race-based policies often hurt the very people they're trying to help what are some some examples of policies that would be better at reducing uh racial disparities so my overall argument is that class socioeconomics is a better proxy for disadvantage we all want to help the disadvantage and the question is how do we identify them

right the default right now in in in a lot of areas of policy is to use you know Black and Hispanic identity as a proxy for disadvantage and my argument is that you actually get a better picture of who needs help by looking at socioeconomics and and income that that picks out people in a more accurate way not my question but when you say that uh socioeconomics picks out people in a better way than race when you do look at the socioeconomics you see the huge disparity between white households and black households you see the

huge disparity between white households and Hispanic households so your argument and I've read your book twice because I wanted to give it a chance um your argument that race has no place in that equation is really fundamentally flawed in my no well there's two separate questions one is whether each racial group is socioeconomically the same that I agree with you they're not yeah they're not and question but yeah of course I agree with that fully the question is how do you how do you address that in the way that actually targets poverty the best great

and what Martin Luther King wrote in his book why we can't wait is he called it we need a Bill of Rights for the disadvantaged and he said yes we should address racial inequality yes we should address the legacy of slavery but the way to do that is on the basis of class and that will disproportionately Target blacks and Hispanics because they're disproportionately poor but it will be doing so in a way that also helps the white poor in a way that addresses poverty as the thing to be addressed that part is true but as

you are a student of Dr King I'm not only a student of Dr King I know his daughter Bernice right so I I'm I'm going to get to my question go ahead go right ahead um I think the premise is fundamentally flawed you you claim that color blindness was the goal of the Civil Rights Movement based upon Dr King's I Have a Dream speech you know content of character versus the um color of skin Bernice Dr King's Daughter points out that four years after giving that speech actually um Dr King also said this a society

that has done something special against the Negro for hundreds of years must now do something special for Negroes he also said in 1968 it was about less than a week before he was assassinated this country never stops to realize that they owe a people kept in slavery for 244 years so rather than class he did write about that earlier on right before his death he made the argument for racial equality and racial reparations and so your argument for color blindness I think is something that the right has co-opted and so many in the black community

if I'm being honest with you cuz I want to be believe that you are being used as a pawn by the right and that you're a charlatan of sorts he's not a republican how do you voted you you've said that you're a conservative no you did you actually said that uh the podcast that you did two weeks ago I said I was a conserv yes you did so but my question to you my question to you is how do you respond to those critics first thing I I think it's very important the quote that you

just pointed out about doing something special for the Negro that's from the book why we can't wait that that I just mentioned yes a couple paragraphs later he lays out exactly what that something special was and it was the Bill of Rights for the disadvantage a broad class-based he also says You must include race no he didn't he says yes he does okay well everyone can go everyone should go read the book why we can't wait let's not get sidetracked by that yeah um I'm I don't think I've been co-opted by anyone I've only voted

twice both for Democrats although I'm an independent I would vote for a republican probably a non-trump republican if they were compelling um I don't think there's any evidence I've been co-opted by anyone and I think that that's that's an ad homonym tactic people use to not address really the important conversations we're having here and I I think it's better and it would be better for everyone if we stuck to the topics rather than make it about me with I want to give you the opportunity to respond to the appr crit the criticism I appreciate it

there's no evidence that I've been co-opted by anyone I have an independent podcast I work for CNN as an analyst I write for the Free Press I'm independent in all of these Endeavors and no one is paying me to say what I'm saying I'm saying it CU I feel it Alysa you have the question uh Coleman thanks for being here so in the past decade it feels like racial tensions have gotten worse um do you see it that way and what do you attribute it to absolutely I mean if you if you look at all

the data it finds that race race relations were getting better until about 2013 that year you had majority of black Hispanic and white Americans saying race relations were good and then you just see it nose dive and 2013 you know people like to blame Republicans like to blame Obama wasn't his fault Democrats like to blame trump it it was actually just technology we all got social media and smartphones and we had videos being promoted in the algorithm that were unrepresentative and it created this impression that racism was on the rise when in fact it had

been on the decline for decades and it allowed that at all to foreign actors getting involved in technology uh yes Russia tries to medal absolutely but I think I don't think we can blame foreign actors this is a homegrown problem okay I have a question because you write that the anti-racism movement there are a couple of people I don't even who know who they are maybe DeAngelo Robin D'Angelo or ibram kendi for instance okay well that uh you say that that is just a form of another form of racism and you even say it has

a lot in common with white supremacy how can you compare those two things anti-racism you're comparing it to white supremacy because they they both view your race as a a extremely significant part of who you are so white supremacists they obviously say we all know what they say okay uh Neo racists like Rob D'Angelo they say that to be white is to be ignorant for example well this is a racial stereotype and I want to call SP a spade and say this is not the style of anti-racism we have to be teaching our kids we

should be teaching them that your race is not a significant feature of you who you are who you are is your character your value and your skin color doesn't say anything about that that's that's actually misrepresenting what what Robin D'Angelo's position is it's in her book so here we go here we goes thank you Coleman Hughes for coming because this is a show of lots of different opinions and we are multigenerational and we all got an opinion so the end of race politics Arguments for a colorblind America is out now and we're giving it to

you all so you can read it and judge for yourself how you feel about what he's said