The Rise and Fall of the Church of Kendi: ASU’s Devotion to a Failed Prophet
Boston University has announced the closure of Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research. One can only imagine the staggering sum of donor dollars funneled into this project—millions upon millions—now vanishing into the academic ether with little more than a press release to mark its demise. Will there be lawsuits over Kendi’s creative approach to financial stewardship? Or will this, too, be chalked up as yet another noble experiment in institutional grift?
At Arizona State University, professors have treated Kendi not just as a scholar but as a modern-day prophet, embracing his ideology with the fervor of a newly minted cult. ASU even honored him with an award and handed him a hefty paycheck to explain why the cure for racism is—ironically—more racial discrimination. His gospel? That white people are inherently racist, shackled by unconscious bias, and that every institution, from its foundation to its rafters, is infused with white supremacy. One wonders: was there ever a moment of self-reflection among these academics, or did the allure of fashionable dogma prove too intoxicating?
ASU professors reacted to Kendi much like Beatles fan-girls in the 1960s—only instead of fainting at the sight of a mop-top, they swooned over his every word. His ideas didn’t just influence faculty discussions; they became the liturgy of the university. My school even has a dedicated reading group to study his works and those of his ideological kin. Meanwhile, my college still maintains an Anti-Racism Committee, a sort of institutional inquisition tasked with uncovering the ever-elusive specter of systemic racism at ASU. Their mission? To ensure white faculty and students confess their unconscious biases and, of course, make reparations through decolonization. Because nothing says justice like a modern-day struggle session.
Will any of these professors, colleges, or ASU itself ever admit they were wrong? Don’t hold your breath. Not one that I know has had a moment of clarity about the damage they’ve done. Instead, they either double down—insisting they were right all along—or quietly scrub their social media, hoping no one remembers their past devotions. But make no mistake: the faith remains. They still preach Kendi’s gospel, just with a fresh coat of academic jargon to keep the true believers engaged and the skeptics off their trail.
So what should you do? Simple: don’t trust people who operate this way. And if you don’t trust them, why would you—or worse, your child—spend a semester under their “instruction”? Even if ASU isn’t in your plans, share this information widely. The public deserves to know what ASU, as an institution, and its faculty say on official university time. After all, ASU’s faculty manual prohibit professors from misusing classrooms and resources for political activism or personal agendas. But rules, as we’ve seen, are only enforced when they serve the right (meaning radical left) ideology.
https://www.bu.edu/articles/2025/ibram-x-kendi-departing-boston-university/
https://news.asu.edu/20230208-ibram-x-kendi-deliver-annual-lecture-race-relations-asu
https://thecollege.asu.edu/wadesmithlecture
I got into a FB kerfuffle with an acquaintance over Coleman Hughes' article on why dismantling DEI is a net positive. Said acquaintance, let's call him DAN, commented that it's unfortunate, but we will always see color. A colorblind society is impossible.
OK, says I. But that doesn't mean we should penalize white people, and hire based on color.
Dan argued that -- well -- it's not clear what Dan was arguing. He said he teaches music theory, an area that blacks were not allowed to participate in. He teaches white male music because black musicians weren't taken seriously...
I had to ask him what planet he's on.
Then Dan extolled the virtues of Kendi, and when I brought up Kendi's assertion that discrimination against white people is somehow going to cure racism, and that Kendi is obligating people to 'see color' -- Dan, a nice Jewish guy no less, just couldn't imbibe this, and without refuting Kendi's (racist) quote, argued that it was taken out of context.
I am at the moment observing the spectacle, on FB, of my "educated" class of people wailing over the end of DEI. One asserted that to be against DEI is "racist." When one commenter said he prefers to hire by merit, without consideration of color or gender, the poster who claimed DEI is "racist," said: That's what DEI means.
NO, it means the opposite. How do we get to a place where so many people have no clue what DEI has actually meant? That it's the very institutionalized racism that its promoters rend their garments over?
One woman wailed that getting rid of DEI means that companies will only hire white people.
Seriously. How does this happen?
There was no getting through to Dan, btw. Kendi is his hero. Even though all of my responses were citing black people's rejection of DEI, Dan is convinced that he's morally superior to me, for what...is he saying that it's moral to hire people based on color? He never clarified that.
Too bad that this failure was marked only by the silence of a dull press release. If there was a building dedicated to the activities of this performance artist, then dynamite would be a better solution. Or several bulldozers.