Ibram X. Kendi

Ibram Xolani Kendi (born Ibram Henry Rogers, August 13, 1982) is an American author, professor, anti-racist activist, and historian of race and discriminatory policy in America. In July 2020, he founded the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University where he as director. Kendi was included in Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020. Kendi has attracted criticism for his comments on Amy Coney Barrett as well as for alleged mismanagement of the Center for Antiracist Research. Political scientist and activist Norman Finkelstein has described Kendi's work as "fatuous, almost juvenile." Early life and education Kendi was born in the Jamaica neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens, as Ibram Henry Rogers, to middle-class parents, Carol Rogers, a former business analyst for a health-care organization, and Larry Rogers, a tax accountant and then hospital chaplain. Both of his parents are now retired and work as Methodist ministers. He has an older brother, Akil. From third to eighth grade, Kendi attended private Christian schools in Queens. In 1997, then age 15, Kendi moved with his family to Manassas, Virginia, after having attended John Bowne High School as a freshman. He attended Stonewall Jackson High School for his final three years of high school and graduated in 2000. The Washington Post described Kendi as a "bright but underachieving" high school student, with a GPA below 3.00 and an SAT around 1000. In 2005, Kendi received dual B.S. degrees in African American Studies and magazine production from Florida A&M University. Kendi continued his studies at Temple University where he was advised by Ama Mazama, earning an M.A. in 2007 and a Ph.D. in 2010, both in African American Studies. Kendi's dissertation was titled "The Black Campus Movement: An Afrocentric Narrative History of the Struggle to Diversify Higher Education, 1965-1972."