This is Kendi’s latest response to the controversy at his Boston University think tank.
The Boston Globe reports:
Ibram X. Kendi, head of Anti-Racist Center at Boston University, defends layoffs and restructuringIbram X. Kendi, the embattled head of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, said Friday that he did not lay off half his staff and restructure the organization “out of financial distress” but to support the center’s long-term mission, and he asserted that leaders of color “are often held to different standards.”Kendi made the comments in a statement posted to his Facebook page.He wrote that the week prior, he “had to make the hardest decision of my career and lay off a number of talented and committed staff from the BU Center for Antiracist Research (CAR) to ensure our long-term sustainability and impact.”Kendi said the center’s working to assist the affected employees and that “we welcome Boston University’s inquiry into the center’s operations.”In response to questions from the Globe about the center’s operations, BU spokesperson Rachel Lapal Cavallario on Sept. 20 provided a statement announcing an “inquiry” into the center’s culture and “grant management practices.”…Kendi, a leading Black scholar of systemic racism in the country, also lamented the disparate treatment that he said leaders of color are often subjected to.“Leaders of color and women leaders are often held to different standards and routinely have their authority undermined or questioned,” Kendi wrote. “But I want to live in a world where all leaders of new organizations are given the time to make mistakes and learn and grow. … I want to live in a world where we are all about building and sustaining antiracist organizations. Until we build that world, the crucial work of CAR will continue.”
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