Race-baiting columnist Charles Blow ‘leaving’ his role at New York Times

“Charles will step away from his column in early February,” the email read. “He has brought readers into the lives of many different Americans, from Muslim-Americans in Michigan during last year’s election to families devastated by gun violence, from students to workers to families struggling toward the American dream. Charles has also brought readers into his own life as a father, a bisexual man and a son of the South.”

Blow’s tenure at the Times spans decades. He first joined the paper in 1994 as a graphics editor, later becoming a senior director for news. After leaving briefly, he returned in 2008 as an opinion columnist. In addition to his journalism, Blow authored the memoir Fire Shut Up in My Bones, which was adapted into an opera.

Blow's time at the Times has not been without controversy and criticism. In 2015, he accused a Yale police officer of racially profiling his son but omitted the fact that the officer was black. In a 2017 column, “Trump Isn’t Hitler. But the Lying…”, Blow criticized comparisons between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler but simultaneously drew parallels between their strategies.

Following Trump’s election in 2016, Blow penned the piece “No Trump, We Can’t Just Get Along”, where he revealed he refused to meet with the then-president-elect during a visit to the Times.

“I will say proudly and happily that I was not present at this meeting. The very idea of sitting across the table from a demagogue who preyed on racial, ethnic and religious hostilities and treating him with decorum and social grace fills me with disgust, to the point of overflowing. Let me tell you here where I stand on your ‘I hope we can all get along’ plea: Never,” Blow wrote at the time.

Blow is departing from the Times after accepting a fellowship at Harvard University for the 2025-26 academic year. In a statement released by Harvard, Blow said he was “honored and thrilled beyond words” to receive the fellowship. On Instagram, he shared plans to focus on two book projects, writing, “It’s time to start my second lifetime while I’m still young enough — with enough runway left — to make it meaningful.”