Coleman Hughes

Coleman Cruz Hughes (born February 25, 1996) is an American writer and podcast host. He was a fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and a fellow and contributing editor at their City Journal, and he is the host of the podcast Conversations with Coleman. Early life and education Hughes is of African American and Puerto Rican descent, and grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. His mother died when he was 19. Hughes is a graduate of Newark Academy and was selected as a United States Presidential Scholar in 2014. He graduated from Columbia University in 2020 with a B.A. in philosophy. Career On June 19, 2019, Hughes testified before a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee at a hearing on reparations for slavery, arguing against the campaign. He argued that "[i]f 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."