Richard Hanania

Hanania grew up in Oak Lawn, Illinois. He is of Palestinian Christian{{Cite news |last=Heer |first=Jeet |date=2023-08-11 |title=Why Does This Racist Keep Getting Silicon Valley Money? |language=en-US |work=The Nation |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/richard-hanania-racism-silicon-valley/ |access-date=2023-10-03 |issn=0027-8378}} and Jordanian descent.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf3jZ8ToTr0&t=13s |title=Destiny Fights Richard Hanania On Trump vs Zelenskyy Meltdown |date=2025-03-04 |last=Destiny |access-date=2025-04-22 |via=YouTube}} He attended Moraine Valley Community College and the University of Colorado. He received a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago and a Doctor of Philosophy in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles.

When he was 15 years old, he was sent to the residential treatment program Casa by the Sea, which operated as a center for troubled kids.{{Cite web |last=Hanania |first=Richard |date=April 26, 2025 |title=X |url=https://x.com/RichardHanania/status/1916151854368784826 |website=X (Formerly Twitter)}} He said the experience "completely changed the course of my life for the better".{{Cite web |last=Hanania |first=Richard |title=X |url=https://x.com/RichardHanania/status/1916147421731848412}}

Hanania was a research fellow at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies of Columbia University{{Cite web |last=Ethier |first=Marc |date=2023-08-17 |title=A Scholar's Racist Past Cost Him A Position At Texas McCombs. Stanford GSB Has Invited Him To Speak |url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/scholar-racist-past-cost-him-141722188.html |access-date=2023-09-14 |website=Yahoo Finance |language=en-US}} and a fellow at Defense Priorities as of 2020.{{Cite news |last=Hanania |first=Richard |date=2020-11-02 |title=Perspective {{!}} Americans hate each other. But we aren't headed for civil war. |language=en-US |newspaper=Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/civil-war-united-states-unlikely-violence/2020/10/29/3a143936-0f0f-11eb-8074-0e943a91bf08_story.html |access-date=2023-10-29 |issn=0190-8286 |quote=Richard Hanania is a research fellow at Defense Priorities}} In 2022 he became a fellow at the University of Texas at Austin's Salem Center for Public Policy, which had been launched in 2020 with funding from right-wing donors.{{Cite web |last= |title=About |url=https://www.cspicenter.com/about |access-date=2023-08-12 |website=Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Price |first=Asher |date=May 17, 2023 |title=Amid legislative pressure, conservative centers gain traction at UT |work=Axios |url=https://www.axios.com/local/austin/2023/05/17/conservative-centers-university-of-texas}}

Hanania has written opinion pieces for The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Economist and Quillette. In 2020 he founded the think tank the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI). As of summer 2023, he was the organization's president. Hanania writes a blog, which was received positively by figures such as the Mercatus economists Tyler Cowen and Bryan Caplan{{Cite web |last=Caplan |first=Bryan |date=2023-01-23 |title=Mainstream Media is Worse Than Silence |url=https://betonit.substack.com/p/mainstream-media-is-worse-than-silence |access-date=2023-10-29 |website=Bet On It}}{{Third-party inline|date=October 2023|reason=third-party source needed for WP:DUEWEIGHT and interpretation}} and JD Vance, noted by Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie, and publicized by Tucker Carlson, who invited Hanania on his show twice. Hanania also operates a podcast where he has interviewed various people, including the billionaire Marc Andreessen. In 2021, JD Vance described Hanania as a "friend" and a "really interesting thinker".{{Cite web |last=Carless |first=Will |title=Project 2025 decried as racist. Some contributors have trail of racist writings, activity |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2024/07/29/project-2025-racist-writing/74567007007/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US}}

Hanania has been linked to the New Right.Zack Beauchamp. [https://www.vox.com/23460428/midterm-elections-new-right-2022-results How the right's radical thinkers are coping with the midterms]. Vox. November 22, 2022. He is often labeled as a libertarian, but he supports limiting civil liberties through increased police power aimed at Black Americans and has praised mass arrests in El Salvador. In a 2023 essay, Hanania wrote that the only way to reduce crime is "a revolution in our culture or form of government. We need more policing, incarceration, and surveillance of black people. Blacks won't appreciate it, whites don't have the stomach for it."{{cite news |last=French |first=David |date=August 13, 2023 |title=The Lost Boys of the American Right |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/13/opinion/masculinity-right-young-men.html |accessdate=October 28, 2023 |quote=This month HuffPost reported that Richard Hanania, an influential anti-woke writer, published a series of pseudonymous posts at racist publications in the late 2000s and early 2010s. In an online post he rejected his old comments, but close observers of his contemporary work were hardly surprised by the revelations. Just this past May, for example, he posted in a thread on crime that America needs “more policing, incarceration, and surveillance of Black people.”}}{{Cite web |last=Richard |first=Hanania |author-link=Richard Hanania |date=2023-05-14 |title=Interracial Crime and "Perspective" |url=https://www.richardhanania.com/p/interracial-crime-and-perspective |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230514141437/https://www.richardhanania.com/p/interracial-crime-and-perspective |archive-date=2023-05-14 |via=Substack}} The essay caught the attention of Elon Musk, who called it "interesting".

In his 2023 book The Origins of Woke, Hanania argues that central causes of "wokeness" are the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and multiple inventive court decisions and executive orders.{{cite web |title = Richard Hanania: 'Wokeness' is law in US, 'not simply a cultural phenomenon' |work = The Hill |date = June 15, 2021 |url = https://thehill.com/hilltv/rising/558560-richard-hanania-wokeness-is-law-in-us-not-simply-a-cultural-phenomenon/ |accessdate = August 13, 2023}} The book has promotional blurbs by Vivek Ramaswamy, David O. Sacks, and Peter Thiel, who wrote, "Hanania shows we need the sticks and stones of government violence to exorcise the diversity demon." In The Atlantic, Tyler Austin Harper called the book a "Trojan horse for white supremacy", arguing that it is grounded in the assumption that "Black people and women are less competent, capable, and intelligent than white men."{{Cite web |last=Harper |first=Tyler Austin |date=2023-09-18 |title=An Intellectual and a Moral Failure |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/richard-hanania-origins-of-woke-book/675348/ |access-date=2023-10-29 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}} Robert VerBruggen, writing in the Washington Examiner, called it "an interesting and mostly sober take on long-debated civil rights topics from one of the Right's most frustrating figures."{{cite news |last1=VerBruggen |first1=Robert |title=Reviewed: The Origins of Woke by Richard Hanania |url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/magazine/opinion/reviewed-the-origins-of-woke |work=Washington Examiner |date=September 21, 2023 |language=en}}

In October 2023, Hanania was noted for praising a book by Costin Vlad Alamariu, known for his fascist persona Bronze Age Pervert.{{Cite web |last=Breland |first=Ali |title=Is the Bronze Age Pervert going mainstream? |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/10/bronze-age-pervert-costin-alamariu/ |access-date=2024-07-31 |website=Mother Jones |language=en-US}}

In 2024, it was reported that Hanania was one of several hundred contributors to the writing of Project 2025. He has since criticized President Trump and the MAGA movement. In particular, he argued that some of Trump's nominees for government positions, like Kash Patel and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., were not merit-based. Shortly after the president's "liberation day" speech, Hanania published an essay explaining why he believed he was mistaken in voting for Trump. Hanania told The New York Times that "the resistance libs were mostly right about" Trump.

In 2023, the HuffPost analyzed digital records believed to establish that Hanania was the true identity of a poster, "Richard Hoste", who had written articles for multiple far-right publications between 2008 and the early 2010s, including AltRight.com, The Occidental Observer, Taki's Magazine, and VDare. "Hoste" wrote his own blog called HBD Books (a reference to "human biodiversity", a form of scientific racism) and operated a Disqus account. After Disqus was the target of a data leak, passwords and email addresses associated with many accounts became public. Several Disqus accounts (including "Richard Hoste" as well as multiple apparent alts) used Hanania's personal and student email addresses. Under the pseudonym, Hanania argued for eugenics, including the forcible sterilization of everyone with an IQ below 90. He also denounced "race-mixing" and said that white nationalism "is the only hope".{{Cite news |last=Serwer |first=Adam |date=15 September 2023 |title=The Young Conservatives Trying to Make Eugenics Respectable Again |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/richard-hanania-racist-pseudoscience-woke-silicon-valley/675335/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230915151446/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/richard-hanania-racist-pseudoscience-woke-silicon-valley/675335/#selection-567.0-567.34 |archive-date=15 September 2023 |work=The Atlantic}} He opposed immigration to the United States, saying that "the IQ and genetic differences between them and native Europeans are real, and assimilation is impossible". He cited a speech by neo-Nazi William Luther Pierce, who had used Haiti as an example to argue that black people are incapable of governing themselves. The HuffPost described the persona as "a formative voice during the rise of the racist 'alt-right'".

Hanania did not deny that he was "Richard Hoste", and wrote: "Recently, it's been revealed that over a decade ago I held many beliefs that, as my current writing makes clear, I now find repulsive."{{cite web |last=Marcotte |first=Amanda |date=2023-08-08 |title="Anti-woke" darling Richard Hanania is exposed: What this says about the "intellectual" right |url=https://www.salon.com/2023/08/08/anti-woke-darling-richard-hanania-is-exposed-what-this-says-about-the-intellectual-right/ |access-date=2023-08-12 |website=Salon.com |publisher= |archive-date=2023-08-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230811213557/https://www.salon.com/2023/08/08/anti-woke-darling-richard-hanania-is-exposed-what-this-says-about-the-intellectual-right/ |url-status=live }} He also wrote that he was "the target of a cancellation effort" because "left-wing journalists dislike anyone acknowledging statistical differences between races". He wrote in Quillette, "I truly sucked back then." In September 2023, Stanford University defended its position to platform him.{{cite web |last=Ethier |first=Marc |date=September 27, 2023 |title=Stanford Defends Decision To Host Richard Hanania, Proficient Author Of Racist Screeds |url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/stanford-defends-decision-host-richard-131551870.html |access-date=May 6, 2024 |website=Poets&Quants}} In a 2025 Vox interview, he acknowledged that his former views were sincere, stating, "I was looking for people who were angry like me. And I think it was probably a lot of personal things going on in my life. By about 2012, 2013, I had sort of grown out of it, which I think often happens".

An editor's note by Quilette editor-in-chief Claire Lehmann offered a rationale for publishing Hanania, which includes the "scarcity of narratives portraying young men's journey away from extremist ideologies through the processes of maturity and moderation."{{Cite web |last=Hanania |first=Richard |date=2023-08-07 |title=My Journey Out of Extremism |url=https://quillette.com/2023/08/07/my-journey-out-of-extremism/ |access-date=2023-09-10 |website=Quillette |language=en}} On August 9, 2023, after his writings as "Richard Hoste" were revealed, the San Antonio Express-News called for University of Texas at Austin to cut ties with Hanania.{{cite news |last=Express-News Editorial Board |date=August 9, 2023 |title=The University of Texas must cut ties with white supremacist Richard Hanania |newspaper=San Antonio Express-News |url=https://www.expressnews.com/opinion/editorial/article/texas-white-supremacist-richard-hanania-18286953.php |access-date=August 13, 2023}} By August 10, 2023, the Salem Center had removed the "visiting scholar" link to Hanania's bio.{{cite news |last=Quinn |first=Ryan |date=August 10, 2023 |title=After Racist Writings Revealed, Scholar's Link to Texas Center Erased |work=Inside Higher Ed |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2023/08/10/hananias-name-gone-ut-austin-center-after-expose |access-date=August 13, 2023}}{{Cite web |last=Ethier |first=Marc |date=August 17, 2023 |title=A Scholar's Racist Past Cost Him A Position At Texas McCombs. Stanford GSB Has Invited Him To Speak |url=https://poetsandquants.com/2023/08/17/a-scholars-racist-past-cost-him-a-position-at-texas-mccombs-stanford-gsb-invited-him-to-speak/?pq-category=business-school-news |website=Poets&Quants}}

Some journalists and writers have cast doubt on whether Hanania has disavowed racism. Jeet Heer wrote that the revelations might have the effect of making Hanania more prominent, because, "As a former overt racist who now calls himself a supporter of 'enlightened centrism,' he offers a message that can reunite the fractured right." Adam Serwer wrote in The Atlantic, "People can and do change, even those with extreme views like these, but there's not much evidence that happened here", and noted a 2023 tweet from Hanania, "These people are animals, whether they're harassing people in subways or walking around in suits", about Alvin Bragg's indictment of Daniel Penny for the killing of Jordan Neely. Journalist Noel King highlighted another of Hanania's 2023 tweets, "People complain about Jews running America. Do they actually believe it should be run by the voters of Baltimore or Appalachia? Doesn't seem that anti-Semites have thought this through." Hanania responded that he was defending Jewish people in this statement.

New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote that "though he may claim otherwise, it doesn't appear that his views have changed much ... he still makes explicitly racist statements and arguments, now under his own name." For New York Magazine, Zak Cheney-Rice wrote, "Hanania is seen as more moderate today because he has shrouded many of his old arguments about race in the mainstream terminology of crime prevention, a subtle shift in emphasis that makes him appealing to both the transgressive right and the broad middle." Tyler Austin Harper wrote in The Atlantic that despite his renunciation of his previous work, "Hanania remains a white supremacist. A real one."

• {{Citation |last=Hanania |first=Richard |title=Ineffective, Immoral, Politically Convenient: America's Overreliance on Economic Sanctions and What to Do about It. |publisher=Cato Institute |year=2020 |author-mask=0 |url=https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/ineffective-immoral-politically-convenient-americas-overreliance-economic-sanctions}}.
• {{Cite book |last=Hanania |first=Richard |title=Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy: How Generals, Weapons Manufacturers, and Foreign Governments Shape American Foreign Policy |publisher=Routledge |year=2021 |isbn=9781000514001 |author-mask=0}}
• {{Cite book |last=Hanania |first=Richard |title=The Origins of Woke: Civil Rights Law, Corporate America, and the Triumph of Identity Politics |publisher=Broadside Books |year=2023 |isbn=9780063237216 |author-mask=0}}

• The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties – a book that has been compared to Hanania's Origins of Woke{{Cite web |date=2023-09-24 |title=The wellspring of woke {{!}} Laurie Wastell |url=https://thecritic.co.uk/the-wellspring-of-woke/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=The Critic Magazine |language=en-GB}}

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