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.

BuzzFeed News spurred an impassioned Twitter storm Friday when it reported that Twitter would change its algorithm as early as this week. The report prompted a flood of tweets containing #RIPTwitter,...