By Nicole Abrams, Investigative Editor
• February 7, 2025
Ibram X. Kendi, author, activist and founder of the BU Center for Antiracist Research, is leaving BU after five years, and CAR will close June 30 when its charter with the University expires, according to a Jan. 30 announcement.
On Wednesday morning, Boston University officials named Melissa Gilliam the University’s 11th president, making her the first female and first Black president in the school’s 184-year existence.
Ibram X. Kendi, director of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, responded to written questions from The Daily Free Press following mass layoffs and allegations of mismanagement of funds. The email interview has been edited according to The Daily Free Press and Associated Press Style punctuation and spelling guidelines but otherwise published in full.
Boston University hired Ibram X. Kendi to lead its new Center for Antiracist Research in 2020, a year marked by a global pandemic and nationwide racial tension. Three years later, after at least $43 million in grants and gifts and what sources say has been an underwhelming output of research, the Center for Antiracist Research laid off almost all of its staff last week.
Happy (early) Patriots’ Day! Today on East to West, we cover BU requiring all students in the upcoming fall semester to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, prospective students being able to get virtual...
Black students, staff and faculty at Boston University shared their experiences as members of a minority group on campus and their thoughts on the University’s handling of racism in recent months.
Kendi serves as the founder and director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research, which launched in July with the stated mission of understanding, explaining and solving seemingly intractable problems of racial inequity and injustice.
