Two Roads: Colourblindness versus Neoracism

Coleman Hughes, the author of The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America, braved an appearance on the hyper-partisan American show The View to promote his new book. The opinionated hosts of the program, Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin, might be clueless on most topics but their capacity for malice is never in question. Hostin did not hold back and attacked Hughes for being “a charlatan of sorts”. A half-black, half-Hispanic analyst for the not-so-conservative CNN, Hughes remained admirably composed during his brief exposure on prime-time television. Manfully he persisted in arguing the advantages of “colourblindness” over identity politics as a preferred mechanism for social engagement. Goldberg, Behar and Hostin, all left-wing identitarians, were not having any of it. Hughes was no more than “a pawn of the Right”, scolded Hostin. The ad hominem attack on Hughes meant that the hosts of The View, conveniently enough, never had to address the…