Coleman Hughes is a writer, podcaster and opinion columnist who specializes in issues related to race, public policy and applied ethics. Coleman’s writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, Quillette, The City Journal and The Spectator.

In this episode, Coleman and I chat about his music, his open letter to Ibram X. Kendi, Critical Race Theory, the Will Smith Oscar incident, and much more!

“I grew up with my grandparents showing me the names of our ancestors that were left in the wills of slave masters because they were considered property. And so I felt I intuitively understood the depth and gravity and moral horror of American slavery. Yet, I never at any point felt that the white people around me were implicated in that crime indirectly or directly. I don't think that that's actually a difficult mental feat to separate those two attitudes. I think that people are being encouraged to connect them, so that if you say white people today don't have anything to do with slavery. You're heard to be saying slavery wasn't a huge deal. And, those are two separate things.”

Top Takeaways:

White Americans, broadly liberal, feel some level of guilt about slavery and the quality of life of black people in this country, and they believe the best way to help them is to buy into the concepts of anti-racism and the teachings of people like Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo.
Critical Race Theory (CRT) is too complicated to be taught to children in school. What’s being taught that’s called CRTis a watered down version of it, that boils down to kids being made highly conscious of their racial and identities, injecting meaning into it, and labeling white kids as “guilty oppressors”.
The best way to combat racism is to nurture and protect racial innocence.
When people attack “whiteness” they do it under the guise that they are attacking a “power structure” and not “white people” per se, but if you were to attack “blackness” people in almost all cases would take that as an attack on black people.

Show Notes:

[0:00] Greg welcomes Coleman to the show
[0:40] Juilliard, Music, and dropping out
[3:00] Coleman’s gap year after leaving Julliard
[4:40] Coleman’s music writing process
[7:10] Which musicians have inspired Coleman?
[9:00] Coleman’s open letter to Ibram X. Kendi and his challenge to debate him

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMAYJUMpStY&ab_channel=ColemanHughes)

[16:10] Robin DiAngelo, her book White Fragility, and “white women's tears”
[21:10] Why does Coleman think DiAngelo’s book has been so successful?
[24:30] Intersectionality and Postmodernism
[25:50] Critical Race Theory
[33:00] “Whiteness” and collective guilt
[38:40] People’s fear of speaking out against the current “mainstream” opinion on race issues
[40:00] Will Smith Oscar incident and his marriage to Jada Pinkett Smith

(clips of the Red Table talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOTe0_Z0vlc&ab_channel=CelebCrush)