Ibram X. Kendi’s ‘anti-racist’ Boston University think tank is apparently falling on hard times. Just a little over three years after its founding, the organization is letting go of a third of its staff.
The Washington Free Beacon reports:
Ibram X. Kendi’s Ivory Tower Comes Crashing DownA university think tank led by “antiracism” guru Ibram X. Kendi is slashing a third of its workforce, the latest in a string of layoffs to hit left-wing activist groups.The Boston University Center for Antiracist Research is firing between 15 and 20 employees, Semafor reported Thursday. Kendi launched the center in June 2020 at the height of the movement to defund police in the wake of the death of George Floyd. It employed 45 people as of August, according to a since-deleted page on the center’s website reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.Kendi has built a lucrative career teaching people about “antiracism,” defined as “the practice of actively identifying and opposing racism.” He received a $625,000 MacArthur “Genius” grant in 2021 and charges $20,000 for speaking engagements. His books Antiracist Baby and How to Be Antiracist have landed on the New York Times best-seller list. Kendi has argued the United States is an inherently racist country, asserted that police “inherently are harmful,” and called for a constitutional amendment to ban “racial inequity over a certain threshold, as well as racist ideas by public officials.”
This outfit had some serious seed money. Do you know where much of it came from?
BU Today reported back in 2020:
Jack Dorsey, Twitter and Square Cofounder, Donates $10 Million to BU Center for Antiracist ResearchTwitter and Square cofounder and CEO Jack Dorsey has donated $10 million to Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, just six weeks after it was launched by leading scholar Ibram X. Kendi.Dorsey, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with a reported net worth of $5 billion, made the gift through his charitable initiative, Start Small, with no strings attached—a signal of his unqualified support of Kendi’s vision of putting academic researchers at the forefront of the movement to dismantle policies that underlie racial inequity and injustice.“What is amazing is just the generosity of Jack Dorsey and that it gives the foundation to the center,” says Robert A. Brown, president of BU. The unrestricted nature of the funds “gives the director endless discretion about how the income from the gift will be used over time to advance the center.”Brown calls the gift “a tribute to Kendi and his vision for antiracism and for the vision of building a center around scholarship and policy that actually has a positive impact going forward.”
This is an excelent point.
Of course, it’s not all bad news for Kendi. He is now moving into the world of sports.
The College Fix reported:
ESPN to feature Professor Ibram Kendi in new show about racism in sportsA major TV streaming service’s new original show featuring “antiracist” writer and Professor Ibram Kendi promises to expose racism in sports.“Skin in the Game with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi” will debut on ESPN+ on Sept. 20, according to a news release from the network. The series “delves into and challenges racism in the sports world, and will reveal how pervasive racism is in sports.”…ESPN stated in its release that Kendi will offer “analysis, athlete profiles, and robust roundtable discussions with athletes, academics and journalists, each episode dives deeply into the histories, statistics and notable moments behind the racist norms we accept today.”
The grift must go on.
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