Coleman Cruz Hughes is an American writer and opinion columnist on issues related to race and racism at the online magazineQuillette, a fellow and contributing editor at City Journal, and host of the podcast Conversations with Coleman.
On 19 June 2019, Hughes, who is of African American and Puerto Rican descent, testified before a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee at a hearing on reparations for slavery, arguing against the campaign. He argued that "If we were to pay reparations today, we would only divide the country further, making it harder to build the political coalitions required to solve the problems facing black people today." In this vein, he highlighted mass incarceration and high homicide victimization rates as problems affecting black Americans today. He suggested an alternate proposal of paying reparations to black Americans who personally grew up under Jim Crow. Hughes went on to say that reparations to the descendants of slaves would insult many black Americans and claimed they would make him and the "one-third of black Americans who poll against reparations into victims without their consent." In addition to being a columnist for Quillette, Hughes has contributed to publications including The Spectator, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, the Washington Examiner, and the Heterodox Academyblog. In May 2020, he became a fellow of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and contributing editor of their City Journal. Hughes is listed as a scholar for the 1776 Project. For the Munk Debates, Hughes debated Julianne Malveaux on the topic of reparations for slavery. Hughes is the host of the podcast Conversations with Coleman.
Reception
Writing in The Washington Post in 2018, Megan McArdle called Hughes "an undergraduate at Columbia University but already a thinker to be reckoned with." Nick Gillespie wrote in Reason in 2019 that Hughes had "emerged over the past year as one of the most prolific and insightful commentators on race and class in the United States." In 2020, Christopher Bollen wrote in Interview that Hughes "has become one of the most compelling and promising voices on the political landscape."
