Critical race theorist Ibram Kendi may have inadvertently undermined his life’s work with a since-deleted tweet, and he turned to a familiar tactic when mocked for the gaffe, essentially calling one critic a racist.
The episode began with Kendi, the Boston University professor whose anti-racism institute was funded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, reacting on Friday to a media report indicating that 34% of white US college applicants had lied about their race on applications to improve their chances at gaining admissions and financial aid. As Kendi’s tweet noted, more than three-fourths of the students who pretended to be non-white were accepted into their targeted college.
It seems to me that if @DrIbram is going to post, and then delete, something like this, he should explain why. Acknowledging error and changes of heart is important for constructive dialog. pic.twitter.com/B16B7jUErp
But that message apparently didn’t hit the intended mark. Online critics, such as authors James Lindsay and Chad Felix Greene, argued that Kendi accidentally admitted non-whites are favored in college admissions – contrary to his teachings. The professor has built a career on telling Americans that whites are systemically privileged and should be discriminated against to remedy past injustices.
— James Lindsay, premium Halloween costume (NSFW) (@ConceptualJames) October 30, 2021
The tweet was soon deleted, which only fueled the social media fire. Twitter users peppered Kendi with questions as to why he deleted his post and suggested that removing the message proved that he realized the report “didn’t advance his argument that whites are privileged in every way.”
Race activist Ibram Kendi tweeted out a report claiming high numbers of white students falsely identify as people of color to reap benefits. He deleted the tweet after realizing it didn’t advance his argument that whites are privileged in every way. https://t.co/mNz0PBvO0vpic.twitter.com/XuCJf7tamp
Kendi responded by framing the ridicule as he frames everything that doesn’t fit his narrative: racist. When conservative journalist Jack Posobiec pointed out on Saturday that the professor had undermined his own arguments and deleted the tweet, Kendi replied, “They lie about what I said to defend the lying of white college applicants.” He ratcheted up the rhetoric on Sunday, after Posobiec bragged that he “broke Kendi,” likening the journalist to a slave owner.
“His broke reference has a long history within racist structures,” the professor said. “White enslavers boasted of breaking black people… The resistance never stopped then and it won’t stop today.”
Jack couldn’t deny his lies so this is how he responded. And his “broke” reference has a long history within racist structures. White enslavers boasted of *breaking* Black people (when they did not *break* Black people). The resistance never stopped then and it won’t stop today. https://t.co/PjTEgk1djO
When another observer argued that Kendi was using “broke” out of context, he likened Posobiec’s tweet to violence. “A white man is attacking a black person with lies, which are violence,” he said. “The black person resists. The white man keeps attacking until he declares he broke the black person. That’s the context. Seek a book about slavery.”
But that argument, too, seemed to flop, with observers saying Posobiec merely repeated Kendi’s own statement – hardly a lie – and the professor’s overheated reaction prompted the journalist to declare that he broke Kendi, as in breaking a machine. “That tweet has absolutely wrecked your grift forever,” one commenter tweeted.
Ibram Kendi now claiming that @JackPosobiec's tweets making fun of him are "violence" and that his own tweets battling a ratio are the equivalent of "resistance" to slavery. pic.twitter.com/HSqs7S54jb
Kendi, who has authored several books on anti-racism and maintains a heavy schedule of speaking engagements, still wasn’t giving up on his premise. “Here is their tortured line of thinking: When White applicants think they have an advantage by lying about being a person of color, then that means they do have an advantage, which then means structural racism doesn’t exist,” he said.
That notion flopped even with another anti-racism educator, Chloe Valdary. “I’m sorry, this makes no sense,” she said. “If you can get into a college by lying and saying that you’re black, then that means that being black equals a weighted advantage in this context.”
@DrIbram Im sorry this makes literally no sense. If you can get into a college by lying and saying that you’re black, then that means that being black = a weighted advantage in this context.
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