U. Illinois Paid Ibram Kendi $35,000, Including $10,000 for Travel Expenses, for a One-Hour Q&A Session
“It appears Kendi’s fee has risen alongside inflation.”
This has become an industry within higher education, and it’s making some people very wealthy.
The College Fix reports:
University of Illinois paid Ibram Kendi $35,000 for 60-minute Q&A
Prominent antiracist theorist and Boston University Professor Ibram X. Kendi was paid $35,000 by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for a 60-minute question and answer session on October 6.
That equates to roughly $583 per minute for the “Keynote Conversation with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi” hosted at the public university.
A copy of the contract, provided to The College Fix upon request by the school’s media affairs division, shows the deal also funded up to $10,000 in travel expenses, including a first-class airline ticket, hotel accommodations, and travel to and from the event.
Kendi’s fee was paid using unrestricted university funds, a campus spokesperson told The Fix.
It appears Kendi’s fee has risen alongside inflation. The University of Virginia in 2021 paid the scholar $32,500, or approximately $541.67 per minute, for his one-hour online appearance that year.
Kendi’s UICI appearance was the keynote aspect of “The Chancellor’s Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Symposium.” The event was part of a larger program at the university addressing those topics.
The program “is a commitment by our university to put the need to address systemic racism and generationally embedded racial disparity into concrete action,” its website states.
It was created in July 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s death, when UIUC Chancellor Robert Jones announced a $2 million annual commitment to fund the program, according to officials.
Last week’s symposium showcased 22 projects funded since the program’s launch.
Currently the public university is applying an additional $2 million during the 2022-23 school year on another round of critical race theory research, with topics such as “systemic racism and social justice, “law enforcement and criminal justice reform” and disparities in health and health care,” its website states.
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Comments
That princely sum would have paid full tuition for one student at UI, with a couple of thousand left over for books.
“There is another class of coloured people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.”
Booker T Washington (1911)
And the grift goes on.
Anti-racist theorist? What kind of Orwellian double-speak are you foisting on us? Kendi is an out and out racist, and should be described as such.
Equity IS racism. It can’t function without it.
Someone decided that this was the cheapest way to fix a non-existent problem. I am old enough to remember when this was called a shake-down, but that would appear unseemly today.
Kendi no longer accepts burnt offerings of grain and/or calves?
Hmm, have they tried candy?
The university’s description of the purpose of the event is an outright lie. The purpose of all such events is to funnel money to leftist grifters like Kendi.
Remember this: Everything the left does is about money. Their moralist preening is just a cover story.
Under the current chancellor, the University has turned hard left. This is why they will never see a penny from me–I’d rather burn my money than donate it to them.
/raises hand
Is that fee up for anybody who can answer as he would? I’ll do it for half.
This guy. Ugh. What a schmuck.
I thought that Illinois was centrally located, and that $10,000 would have to involve a chartered flight to reach it from Boston. Hotel room in Urbana are not that expensive.
If the fee included injecting him with truth serum prior to Q&A, it would be worth it.
The Mau-mauing of the Flak Catchers is getting really sophisticated these days
Bravo Suburban Farm Guy
For those unfamiliar with this reference, please consider this classic from Tom Wolfe (1970) before he transitioned away from nonfiction mostly magazine features:
https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Chic-Mau-Mauing-Flak-Catchers
Brilliant writing.
Imho it’s even better in audible format.
It’s a great read for anyone, but particularly for any SJWs in your life.
Race Hustlers Gonna Race Hustle
We do not have to attend these colleges
We do not have to send our children to these colleges
Imagine how many blue collar folk could have jobs if the money wasted on racist things like this were directed their way instead!
The problem is that the University of Illinois is the land grant college for that state. If you are a farmer seeking the help of cooperative extension. If you are a promising engineer seeking affordable tuition, or even if you are a football player seeking a home-state audience, in terms of Illinois, there is no alternative