Boston University closes Ibram X. Kendi's Center for Antiracist Research
Boston University (BU) has announced that Ibram X. Kendi's Center for Antiracist Research will officially close on June 30.
The center's 12 remaining employees will stay employed until then and are 'receiving resources and support to assist with their transitions,' according to BU Today.
Boston University (BU) has announced that Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research (CAR) will officially close on June 30.
With Kendi leaving BU to join Howard University, the school published an update about the center’s future in BU Today.
”BU hired Kendi, a leading historian and antiracist scholar, in 2020 from American University in Washington, D.C., to open the center,” BU Today says. “His arrival at BU followed a string of killings of Black men and women in the United States, most notably the May 2020 murder of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis. The explosion of activism and interest on the subject led to several strong years of fundraising and research.”
The center’s 12 remaining employees will stay through June 30 and are “receiving resources and support to assist with their transitions,” according to BU Today.
Campus Reform has covered Kendi’s anti-racist activism for years, including his 2023 remark that scrutinizing the CAR was racist. CAR was reportedly in financial trouble for the last year as it laid of half of its staff in September 2024.
Kendi released a statement in which he acknowledged the challenges of operating the center, but noted that he is “proud” of what it was able to accomplish.
“Despite all the headwinds we faced as a new organization founded during the pandemic and the intense backlash over critical race theory, I am very proud of all we envisioned, all we created, all we learned, all we achieved—the community we built, the people we helped and inspired,” Kendi said.
”I am departing for an opportunity I could not pass up, but what connected us at CAR remains, especially during this precarious time,” he continued. “Our commitment to building an equitable and just society.”
Reporting about the center’s struggles and financial mismanagement have been well-documented in recent years.
In September 2023, The New York Times reported that CAR had been downsizing despite raking in $55 million in donations.
In response to media coverage of the center’s challenges, Kendi responded later that year by suggesting that, “Not everyone wants to build an antiracist society.”
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”I have been disappointed in journalists who report criticisms of a Black leader without asking for evidence to substantiate those allegations. Racist ideas about a corrupt Black leader running a dysfunctional or toxic organization are so ingrained that reporters don’t feel the need for evidence,” Kendi said in an interview with The Daily Free Press in October 2023.
Kendi will serve as the director of the Howard University Institute for Advanced Study, which will focus on research concerning the “global African Diaspora,” including areas like “race, technology, racism, climate change, and disparities.”
