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01/30/2025 | News release | Distributed by Public on 01/30/2025 23:52

Ibram X. Kendi Departing Boston University

Ibram X. Kendi Departing Boston University

"We thank Dr. Kendi and the center's staff and affiliated faculty for their contributions to Boston University. The University wishes Dr. Kendi well in his next chapter," says BU Provost Gloria Waters.

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Ibram X. Kendi Departing Boston University

Center for Antiracist Research to close after five years

January 30, 2025
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Ibram X. Kendi, the founding director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research (CAR), says he has decided to leave BU to join Howard University in Washington, DC. CAR will close when its charter with the University expires on June 30.

BU says the center's 12 current staff members will remain employed through June 30 and are receiving resources and support to assist with their transitions.

Ibram X. Kendi. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

BU hired Kendi, a leading historian and antiracist scholar, in 2020 from American University in Washington, D.C., to open the center. 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.

CAR hired staff from around the United States, employed BU students, and appointed faculty from a number of BU colleges and schools. During its first three years, the center was focused on enhancing its COVID Racial Data Tracker, supporting multiple research and policy teams, producing research-based amicus briefs, developing an Antiracist Tech Initiative, assisting faculty to develop antiracist courses, initiating a Racial Data Lab, convening experts, producing policy reports and public comments, fostering networking among affiliated faculty, launching a national book festival, and building The Emancipator, an award-winning digital platform. (CAR's website includes some of its many accomplishments.)

"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 in a statement. "To all the faculty, staff, administrators, students, supporters, and Boston community members, I feel honored to have been able to do this work with you over the last five years. I am departing for an opportunity I could not pass up, but what connected us at CAR remains, especially during this precarious time. Our commitment to building an equitable and just society."

In September 2023, with public support having shifted and contributions waning, the center pursued a new strategy under Kendi to plan for its long-term financial sustainability, which included eliminating 19 staff positions at the end of the calendar year. Shortly after those layoffs, the University undertook an audit of the center's financial management of its grants and gifts as well as a review of its grant reporting practices. In both cases, the University found no issues with how CAR's finances or obligations to funding agencies were handled. The University also hired the consulting firm Korn Ferry to conduct a review of CAR's workplace culture, which was completed in January 2024. During spring of 2024, BU and Kendi used the report's organizational development recommendations to inform the future of the center.

While at BU, as a professor of history and the University's Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Kendi taught courses on racism and antiracism. In 2020, his book How to Be an Antiracist became an international bestseller and Time named Kendi one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2021, he was awarded a prestigious "Genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation. "I do this work to create lasting change that will allow people to live a more just and joyful life," he said of the honor at that time.

"We thank Dr. Kendi and the center's staff and affiliated faculty for their contributions to Boston University. The University wishes Dr. Kendi well in his next chapter," says Gloria Waters, University provost and chief academic officer.

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There is 1comment on Ibram X. Kendi Departing Boston University

  1. Brad Harrington (BU EdD 2000)

    Prof. Kendi came in with a whirlwind of fanfare. He staffed up an enormous center by university standards and even was named Bostonian of the Year by Boston Magazine. But from the word go, nothing seemed to be moving and now, after eliminating 2/3 of the staff in 2023, the rest will lose their jobs at the end of this academic year. It's great that the professor now has "an opportunity he can't pass up," but in the recent diversity climate, it's a terrible time to abandon ship at BU and leave the rest of the team to sort their careers out.

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