Education

Ibram Kendi’s ‘Antiracist’ Center In Disarray Despite Raking In Millions In Donations

Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Robert Schmad Contributor
Font Size:

Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, which has received millions in donations since its launch, has laid off a huge portion of its staff, and has published almost no research in the more than three years since it has been active.

Kendi’s center has only produced two pieces of original research, according to a Washington Free Beacon analysis, despite having been founded in June 2020. Moreover, despite raking in funding from prominent left-wing donors, the antiracism center has recently downsized, laying off between 15 and 20 of its 45 employees earlier this month, according to Semafor.

The founding purpose of the Center for Antiracist Research was to “create novel and practical ways to understand, explain, and solve seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice” following the death of George Floyd, according to the center’s website.

However, the center’s academic output has been few and far between.

One of the papers published by one of the center’s scholars theorized that conflating “merit with idealized images of White masculinity provoke unconscious distress in White men who aspire to meet those ideals.” The other paper analyzed the differences in built structures between white and minority neighborhoods.

Before founding the center, Kendi rose to prominence for popularizing the argument that it is racist to not actively work against what he defines as racist policies. Kendi received a PhD in African-American studies from Temple University in 2010, and in high school, Kendi had a GPA of 3.0 and an SAT of around 1000, according to The Washington Post. (RELATED: REPORT: University Paid Ibram X. Kendi $20,000 For Hour-Long Event)

Phillipe Copeland, a former employee of the Center for Antiracist Research, accused Boston University on Sept. 17 of “employment violence and trauma” for downsizing the center on Facebook, the Free Beacon reported.

Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research has millions in funding from liberal groups and individuals, including $1.5 million from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Shortly after Kendi founded the center, it received a $10 million donation from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. George Soros’ Foundation to Promote Open Society gave $137,558 to the center, while the Ford Foundation, which funds many left-wing groups according to Influence Watch, gave it over $900,000.

The Center for Antiracist Research did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.