All in all, one shouldn’t be surprised at the revelations, reported by the Boston Globe, about allegations relating to mismanagement of funds and a dysfunctional work environment at Ibram X. Kendi’s antiracist research centre. At Boston University, Kendi’s institute has been lavished with tens of millions of dollars from philanthropic billionaires, corporations and numerous other small donors so that it can “solve these intractable racial problem of our times” using “exhaustive racial research, research-based policy innovation, data-driven education and advocacy campaigns”.

Despite these exorbitant funds, since 2020 the centre has produced no original research or scholarship, adding nothing of substance to the argument over racial inequality and the precarious socio-economic status of black Americans. Kendi’s centre isn’t the only self-proclaimed antiracist non-profit to fall on hard times. The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation revenues plummeted by 88% in the last year, while it has also been mired in a corruption scandal.

It is worth asking how, with vast funds at these non-profits’ disposal, they have provided little clarity in explaining the precise contours of racial inequality and its roots, and laying out a programme to tackle it as they promised they would. Adolph Reed once quipped that identity politics isn’t an alternative to class politics: it is a form of class politics. Kendi’s brand of antiracism is a great example of this.