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Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is inarguably one of the most influential public intellectuals in the world—and one of its foremost authorities on antiracism. He literally wrote the book, How to Be an Antiracist—a bestseller many times over, now a near-ubiquitous presence in college (and many high schools’) curricula, and the lodestar to corporate and government DEI training.
He was the youngest-ever National Book Award winner for nonfiction in 2016 for his book, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. He was bestowed a MacArthur “Genius” Grant in 2021. And the success of How to Be an Antiracist spawned an entire cottage industry of spinoff books, including children’s tomes like Antiracist Baby and Goodnight, Racism. One of his books has even been adapted into a soon-to-be-released film for Netflix, and he just launched a series on ESPN+.
In the wake of the 2020 social justice uprisings following the police murder of George Floyd, Kendi established the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, buttressed by a $10 million grant from Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. The center would reportedly raise more than $43 million in donations, and for a time, it had a partnership with the venerable Boston Globe to produce The Emancipator, described as “a new media platform that will reframe the national conversation on race.”