Ibram X. Kendi's "Poisonous" Racial Ideology
with John McWhorter
Earlier this week, I posted a clip from my (friendly) argument with John over Ibram X. Kendi’s personal culpability for the collapse of his Center for Antiracist Research. In this clip, we continue the argument and discuss the far-reaching effects of the ideology that Kendi has come to represent.
This is a clip from the episode that went out to paying subscribers on Monday. To get access to the full episode, as well as an ad-free podcast feed, Q&As, and other exclusive content and benefits, click below.
I emailed this to the comment address for the NYT piece, but I'll put it here too:
John,
I also listened to you and Glenn Loury talking about this. Yes, I would take the money, too. As you said to Glenn, the Center would be a hot smoking mess after six months of my direction. The difference is that you and I know that, and we would hire someone with some experience in running such a center, and we would listen to them.
I don’t remember if you or Glenn said something earlier about denying people agency, but it seems you’re denying Kendi agency. Even if he’s a complete idiot, which he may well be, he made many bad decisions that affected people who funded and worked for him. That is certainly worthy of criticism, even if his funders are suckers.
I predict that Ibram Kendi's failures at his Center for Antiracist Research will have no impact at all on his standing within his vast network of believers. They didn't require any proof of his claims or any test of his theories from the beginning of his movement. Why would they care about whether he failed to deliver any at his Center. His followers view scientific methodology as white man's efforts to erase the "truth of lived experience" of victim groups. Furthermore, they haven't learned what scientific methodology is or how to interpret research results, so again, why would they care whether Kendi delivered any?
Kendi's ideas are accepted as sacred writ by most of the people I interact with, especially those under 35 or so. They no longer are focused on the authorship of these ideas, anymore than most Bible readers are focused on who really wrote certain chapters during which time periods. The text is now viewed as revealed Truth, while the names of many of the authors have been forgotten.
Anyone who doesn't believe what I am saying can take a look at what has happened to the BLM since the news came out about the unethical and possibly criminal behavior of its original leaders. In my city BLM flags and banners are still featured on the art museum, my neighborhood post office, every church I pass, and the front windows of many privately owned businesses, to name just a few locations. It is still taboo in local social and employment settings to state that one does not support the BLM platform(s) or the violence perpetrated by this organization. Most BLM supporters I know are uninformed about the exposures of its leaders as grifters, would probably not believe the news if they read it, and even if they did, would not see the leaders' improprieties as detracting from the value of the organization, its beliefs or its tactics.
I agree with Dr. Loury that a man who takes a job while knowing he isn't qualified has behaved irresponsibly and stupidly, if not unethically. The organizations that hire such individuals are, however, responsible for vetting their new hires. I partially agree with Dr. McWhorter that cults leaders are kept in those positions by their followers, but I do not use this fact to excuse the leaders for their unethical and destructive behavior. I do not, for example, spend any of my time weeping over how "poor Hitler" was set up to fail by the German people.
The disagreement between Dr. Loury and Dr. McWhorter obviously has a lot of importance to both of them, but I don't think that Kendi's failure at the Center for Antiracist Research will be as important to many other Americans, if it even registers with them at all. Meanwhile, Kendi's destructive impact on our country will continue to unfold unabated.