The End of Kendi-Ism at Boston University

Prominent “anti-racism” activist and “scholar” Ibram X. Kendi is leaving Boston University for a position at Howard University while the Center for Antiracist Research, which Kendi founded, will shut its doors later this year, the university announced.

The center’s closure is welcome news for healthcare professionals, students, and patients everywhere. Kendi preached a discriminatory philosophy that sought to eradicate racial disparities in society through racial preferences.

Kendi himself made his embrace of racial discrimination explicit: “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”

His center’s failings have been well-documented; The Washington Free Beacon reported in 2023 that the center, in its three years of existence at the time, had only produced two original research papers and was laying off a large portion of its staff. This came after raking in major donations from prominent figures.

Nevertheless, Kendi’s ideas have pervaded modern medical orthodoxy to a disturbing degree. The logic of anti-racism undergirds many DEI policies and practices.

Do No Harm has reported on how Kendi-ism has led to overtly discriminatory policies at medical schools that disadvantage students based on their race. In addition, anti-racist philosophy undergirds the justification for prioritizing certain racial groups when administering COVID-19 vaccines.

Once-respected medical associations and professional societies began promoting Kendi’s work and echoing his rhetoric in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests and riots of 2020.

As our Director of Research Ian Kingsbury wrote in 2023, “anti-racism has subverted the intellectual underpinnings of the medical enterprise, replacing scientific rigor with racial obsession.”

It’s a positive sign for merit and excellence that the Center for Antiracist Research will be no more. Hopefully, we will soon close the chapter on this shameful period and medicine will ditch its embrace of racial discrimination once and for all.