Investigation: The University of Virginia paid Ibram X. Kendi $541 per minute for 'antiracist' lecture

The University of Virginia (UVA) recently paid tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege of hosting popular critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi for a one-hour lecture on “racial equity,” reveals a new investigation from the Daily Wire.

An investigative reporter at the Daily Wire, Gabe Kaminsky, wrote that UVA paid Ibram X. Kendi “$32,500, or about $541 per minute.”

UVA hired Kendi through the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau. The lecture was a free event held in late April of 2021. According to UVA, 876 people attended.

Kendi, author of the 2019 New York Times bestseller “How to Be an Antiracist,” has published several well-selling books through One World, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

In an interview conducted to promote “How to Be an Antiracist,” Kendi claimed that it was not possible for capitalism and antiracism to coexist.

He said, “I classify racism and capitalism as these conjoined twins … the origins of racism cannot be separated from the origins of capitalism; the origins of capitalism cannot be separated from the origins of racism. The life of racism cannot be separated from the life of capitalism, and vice versa.”

Despite Kendi’s disdain for the American economic system, capitalism has enabled him to sell hundreds of thousands of book copies.

Kendi’s books, along with his public and sponsored appearances, have propelled him into stardom. Because of public intellectuals like Kendi, critical race theory (CRT) has infiltrated virtually every aspect of American life.

CRT finds some of its most avid supporters in academia. Public schools teaching curricula predicated on the worldview emphasized by CRT caused an uproar from parents across the nation. In Virginia, parents resisting tax-subsidized CRT indoctrination helped to turn the tide of Virginia’s recent gubernatorial race in favor of Glenn Youngkin.

When asked why the university paid someone with such strongly contested views to speak on campus, UVA spokesperson Brian Coy said, “The University of Virginia welcomes speakers from a broad array of perspectives to our Grounds every academic year and we often do pay speakers fees or other compensation. Offering our community access to a diverse set of speakers and points of views is an important part of our academic mission.”

However, according to the Daily Wire, UVA does not have a record of paying tens of thousands of dollars to host culturally or politically conservative speakers. The university even refused to officially recognize the UVA chapter of Young America’s Foundation (YAF). YAF is known for helping students bring prominent conservative speakers to their campuses.

UVA paid Kendi to participate in the school’s Racial Equity Speaker Series that featured other critical race theorists like Eduardo Bonilla-Silva of Duke University. Silva, who has claimed that America has normalized “the standards of white supremacy,” was paid $10,000 to appear on a Zoom event for the university.