Charles M. Blow


Charles McRay Blow is an American journalist, commentator, and op-ed columnist for The New York Times.

Life and career

Blow was born and raised in Gibsland, Louisiana. He graduated magna cum laude from Grambling State University, with a bachelor's degree in mass communication.
As a student, he interned at the Shreveport Times, ‘’News Journal’’, and the New York Times, edited the student newspaper, the Gramblinite, and founded the now-defunct student magazine, Razz.
He headed the graphics department at The New York Times and was art director at National Geographic.
In April 2008, he began writing a column in The New York Times. His column had originally appeared biweekly on Saturdays. In May 2009, it became a weekly feature and appeared twice, weekly, in December 2012. As of May 2014, it appears every Monday and Thursday.
Blow often appears on CNN and MSNBC.
On February 22, 2012, Blow referred to presidential candidate Mitt Romney's "magic underwear", an apparent reference to the Temple Garment, in response to a comment by Romney about two parent households. The comment was criticized as insensitive to Mormons. In response, Romney joked that "I guess we’re finding out for the first time that the media is somewhat biased." Blow later apologized.
In 2014, Blow published the book-length memoir entitled Fire Shut Up In My Bones.
In August 2016, while appearing on CNN with Donald Trump presidential campaign delegate Bruce Levell, Blow called Donald Trump a "bigot" and said that anyone who supported Trump is "a part of the bigotry itself."Blow also stated in his OpEd, "white women weaponizing racial anxiety, using their white femininity to activate systems of white terror against black men. This has long been a power white women realized they had and that they exerted."

Personal life

Blow lives in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, with his three children. His eldest son, Tahj, attended Yale University and his twins, Ian and Iman, attend Middlebury College and Columbia University. In 2014, Blow came out publicly as bisexual.