Ibram Kendi says it's racist to scrutinize his failed Center for Antiracist Research
'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.
Kendi made excuses for the high turnover rate at the center, blaming it on the pandemic and the nature of high-growth startups.
Ibram X. Kendi got defensive when asked about the collapse of his anti-racist research center at Boston University.
Kendi was interviewed by The Daily Free Press, the student newspaper of Boston University, after news outlets reported that the center had laid off dozens of staffers amid allegations that it had misused its funding. When the paper asked him whether recent news reports about the center were fair, Kendi attacked the news outlets who reported the story, and blamed the scrutiny on racism.
“Do you think the scrutiny the Center has been subjected to is fair?,” The Daily Free Press asked.
Kendi’s response put the blame on journalists and society in general. “Not everyone wants to build an antiracist society; that is clear,” he said. “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 made excuses for the high turnover rate at the center, blaming it on the pandemic and the nature of high-growth startups; Kendi said he did his best to remove toxic employees from the workplace.
But Kendi also deflected blame from himself, alleging a racist double standard. “When explaining turnover rates of white-led organizations, people inside and outside the organization usually point to larger structural factors,” he said. “When explaining turnover rates of Black-led organizations, people inside and outside the organization usually point to bad leadership.”
Kendi also made an excuse for the center’s finances, noting that its $30 million endowment “can’t be spent.” Still, due to a poor economy and reduced donations, Kendi would only have had enough funding to keep operating for 1.5 years, and was forced to shift the center toward a nine-month fellowship model to keep it afloat. “My decision to refocus CAR’s work, including the shift to the fellowship model, was to support the mission of CAR for the long term,” he said.
Campus Reform previously reported that Boston University had launched an inquiry after the center laid off nearly one-third of its employees.
The Boston Globe reported that employees complained about dysfunction within the organization that hindered decision making such as difficulty scheduling meetings with Kendi, despite his being, as some described him, the primary decision maker.
Reports have circulated that, since the center’s founding in 2020, it hasn’t achieved much. It founded The Emancipator, a publication partnership with The Boston Globe to further racial justice. The Boston Globe reports the center’s other accomplishments: funding research projects, collaborating with journalists at The Atlantic, tracking racial inequity during the pandemic as a part of the “Racial Data Lab,” and organizing two “policy convenings.”
[RELATED: Ibram Kendi launches ANOTHER anti-racism center at BU]
For an organization focused on research, however, The Washington Free Beacon reports that the center has published only two research papers since its inauguration. In March 2021, the Racial Data Lab stopped gathering data altogether.
Campus Reform reached out to Kendi for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
This article contains additional reporting from Spencer Dalke.
