Current and former staff at Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, gave a scathing assessment of its leadership, fiscal management and inability to meet goals, in Thursday’s student newspaper.
“The Center has very, very much failed to deliver on its promise. It’s been a colossal waste of millions of dollars,” Spencer Piston told the student newspaper, The Daily Free Press. Piston is an associate professor of political science, who works as the faculty lead in the Policy office at the Center for Antiracist Research “CAR.”
Staff and faculty spoke out after CAR recently laid off at least 15-20 employees. Boston University explained that center was restructuring to a “fellowship model.” But former staff claimed its founder, Ibram X. Kendi, had told them the past model was not “financially sustainable.”
Piston claimed the center operated within a “culture of secrecy” and had never been transparent about how it managed the millions of dollars in grants and gifts it received since its inception in 2020.
“It’s pretty hard for me to imagine they blew through $30 million in two years,” he told the student newspaper. “There’s been a lack of transparency about how much money comes in and how it’s spent from the beginning, which comports with a larger culture of secrecy.”
Phillipe Copeland, a clinical associate professor in the BU School of Social Work and former assistant director of the Narrative office at CAR, accused both institutions of spinning the layoffs as a “redesign rather than an institutional failure, for which people need to be accountable.”
He claimed the organization had lost at least one funder due to the research center’s inability to meet goals. He wasn’t the only one who shared this sentiment in the report.
“There’s a mismatch between the amount of money that CAR has received from these grants and what they’ve actually produced,” an anonymous source told the campus newspaper. “You can juxtapose that with other research centers either at BU or other universities that have received a tiny fraction of what CAR has received and has produced a lot more.”
The Daily Free Press described how the center had failed to produce promised research, despite Kendi touting data science as a “pillar” of his center in 2020.
“The Racial Data Lab and the Antiracist Tech Initiative make up the extent of the Center’s data-based output under their Research category, according to CAR’s website,” the newspaper said. However, the Racial Data Lab’s only project was a “Covid Racial Data Tracker” which is now-defunct.
Staff also complained that Kendi wasn’t fit to serve as a leader and claimed his standing as a public figure took prominence over their center’s research.
“It was mostly about him, rather than the work, and it was just very difficult to highlight the work over the founder,” an anonymous former manager in the policy office said in the report.
“Just because you’re a good scholar in your field doesn’t mean that you know how to run an organization, and that’s why lots of people don’t do that,” Copeland described Kendi. “I don’t know if it’s a disciplinary issue as much as just a leadership ability issue.”
Saida Grundy, an associate professor of sociology at BU and former assistant director of narrative at the center, described one year-long policy project as “deeply anti-intellectual endeavor” that focused exclusively on Kendi’s work, instead of producing a “scholarly dialogue.”
Kendi was hired by Boston University as a history professor in June 2020, during the height of protests and riots after George Floyd’s death. Shortly afterward, Kendi announced the movement of his antiracist research center from American University, where he previously taught, to Boston University, where he currently sits as the center’s director.
He rose to prominence over the last few years for his defense of critical race theory as well as teaching racial concepts to children. He has published several books on the subject of racism including “How to Be an Anti-Racist” and the children’s book “Antiracist Baby.”
Author and critical race theory critic Christopher Rufo shared the report on X and suggested the center’s problems were a result of its focus on DEI—Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — rather than “merit.”
“Boston University is investigating Ibram Kendi’s ‘antiracism’ center, following allegations that he mismanaged grant funding, failed to deliver key projects, and unleashed ‘employment violence’ on staff,” Rufo wrote on X. “This is what happens when DEI replaces merit as the guiding principle.”
The mass layoffs at the center and complaints from former staff prompted Boston University to announce it was expanding its probe into the center on Thursday.
“We received complaints after the Center for Antiracist Research recently laid off a number of employees. Those complaints focused on the center’s culture and its grant management practices. We previously initiated an examination of those grant management practices and that will continue,” Boston University PR Associate Vice President Rachel Lapal Cavallario told Fox News Digital.
“Based on additional information provided to us, we are expanding our inquiry to include the Center’s management culture and the faculty and staff’s experience with it. We recognize the importance of Dr. Kendi’s work and the significant impact it has had on antiracist thinking and policy. Boston University and Dr. Kendi believe strongly in the Center’s mission, and while he takes strong exception to the allegations made in recent complaints and media reports, we look forward to working with him as we conduct our assessment,” the statement concluded.
Ibram X. Kendi, and staff at The Center for Antiracist Research did not respond to requests for comment.
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Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick contributed to this article.
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