HBO Writer Calls Black Author a 'Coon' For Saying Reparations Are an 'Insult' to Black Americans

Brittany M. Hughes | June 20, 2019
DONATE
Font Size

“Comedian” and HBO writer Rae Sanni openly called fellow black American and writer Coleman Hughes a “coon” for pushing back against the notion of reparations, saying he should be shamed as “Cooneman Hughes” for the rest of the day for not sharing her opinion.

Sanni tweeted out the racial slur at Hughes after the Quillette columnist testified Wednesday before a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on whether American taxpayers should pay reparations to the descendants of slaves for damages done pre-Civil War and during the era of Jim Crow.

During the hearing, Hughes slammed the idea of reparations paid out 160 years after the end of slavery as an “insult” to blacks, saying that it “put[s] a price on the suffering of their ancestors” and “would turn the relationship between black Americans and white Americans from a coalition into a transaction.”

To Sanni, who writes for HBO's “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” this opinion makes Hughes a traitor against his own race worthy of being shamed for thinking for himself.

Sanni

The television writer went on to use racial slurs throughout more than a dozen replies to her critics on Twitter, at one point telling a user she would “prefer to hate coons without Ben Shapiro around.”

Unfortunately, the audience at the hearing wasn't any more friendly. But despite the constant "boos" aimed his way, Hughes continued speaking out against reparations in a powerful monologue aimed at destroying black victimization.

“Black people don’t need another apology,” Hughes told Congress. “We need safer neighborhoods and better schools. We need a less punitive criminal justice system. We need affordable health care. And none of these things can be achieved through reparations for slavery.”

“Nearly everyone close to me told me not to testify today,” Hughes noted. “They told me that even though I have only ever voted for Democrats, I would be perceived as Republican and therefore hated by half the country. Others told me that by distancing myself from Republicans, I would end up angering the other half of the country. And the sad truth is that they were both right. That’s how suspicious we have become of one another. That’s how divided we are as a nation.”

“Reparations by definition are only given to victims, so the moment you give me reparations, you’ve made me into a victim without my consent,” he went on. “Not just that, you’ve made one-third of black Americans who poll against reparations into victims without their consent, and black Americans have fought too long for the right to define themselves to be spoken for in such a condescending manner.”

“The question is not what America owes me by virtue of my ancestry, the question is what all Americans owe each other by virtue of being citizens of the same nation. And the obligation of citizenship is not transactional. It’s not contingent on ancestry. It never expires, and it can’t be paid off. For all these reasons, bill HR 40 is a moral and political mistake.”

donate