Ibram Kendi’s ‘Center for Antiracist Research’ Shutting Down at Boston University, He’s Moving to DC
Ibram Kendi’s ‘anti-racism’ think tank at Boston University is closing shop. The organization has been struggling with problems for years. In 2023, staffers accused the project of being exploitative and it was also investigated for alleged mismanagement of funds.
In the same year, it was reported that Boston University had loaned $600,000 to a trust run by Kendi’s brother-in-law.
Kendi is now taking his group to the historically black Howard University in Washington, DC.
WBUR reports:
Scholar and author Ibram X. Kendi leaving BU for Howard UniversityAuthor and historian Ibram X. Kendi is leaving Boston University and the Center for Antiracist Research to join the faculty of Howard University in Washington D.C. this summer.BU’s Center for Antiracist Research, which Kendi founded in 2020, will close at the end of June, according to an article in a university publication that posted Thursday afternoon. The center’s 12 staff members will be employed through June 30 and will receive support with transitions, according to the article.In an Instagram post Thursday afternoon, Kendi said his upcoming move to Howard marks “the most fulfilling choice” he has made.“I have had my eye on Howard my entire career, studying its history, witnessing what this university means to the culture,” Kendi wrote, linking to a Washington Post article that first reported the news.Kendi did not immediately respond to request for comment.At Howard, a historically Black university, Kendi will head the Howard Institute for Advanced Study, a new interdisciplinary institute tasked with addressing inequities through research on racism, climate change and technology, according to a media release from the university. It will also house a residential fellowship program and an annual international class of fellows who will explore topics related to race and racism, his Instagram post detailed.
Professor Jacobson commented on Twitter/X:
The Washington Post article on this reads like a press release:
Like Hannah-Jones and Coates, Kendi has received a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant and produced high-impact work on urgent questions about race in America. Following the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, Kendi’s “How to Be an Antiracist” catapulted to the top of bestseller lists. In the book, he argues that ideas and policies are either racist or anti-racist, meaning they are actively working to challenge racism.Kendi previously taught at another institution in D.C. He was a professor at American University and served as director of its Antiracist Research and Policy Center.In 2020, Kendi moved to Boston University and founded its Center for Antiracist Research amid the racial reckoning that Floyd’s death helped spur.
The grift must go on, right?
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