by Chris White
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced Thursday his decision to gave a no-strings-attached $10 million donation to an anti-racist group headed by an activist who once promoted the idea of amending the U.S. Constitution to prohibit racism.
The tech billionaire gave the money to Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, a project launched by scholar Ibram X. Kendi, who expressed support in 2019 for a constitutional amendment that he claims would “fix the original sin of racism.” Dorsey said in a tweet Thursday that he is grateful for Kendi’s work.
“$10M to Dr. Ibram Kendi and the Center for Antiracist Research at BU,” Dorsey wrote. “This research will inform and fuel much needed and overdue policy change. I appreciate you Dr. Kendi, and I’m grateful for your work!”
$10M to Dr. Ibram Kendi and the Center for Antiracist Research at BU. This research will inform and fuel much needed and overdue policy change. I appreciate you Dr. Kendi, and I’m grateful for your work! https://t.co/M2zvIQYeEO
— jack (@jack) August 20, 2020
Kendi explained in a Politico Magazine article in 2019 why an amendment to the Constitution is necessary to target racism.
“Americans should pass an anti-racist amendment to the U.S. Constitution that enshrines two guiding anti-racist principals: Racial inequity is evidence of racist policy and the different racial groups are equals,” he wrote at the time.
Kendi explained that the amendment “would establish and permanently fund the Department of Anti-racism (DOA) composed of formally trained experts on racism.” The hypothetical department’s experts “would be responsible for preclearing all local, state and federal public policies to ensure they won’t yield racial inequity.”
Dorsey is providing cover for “Woke Stalinism,” Inez Stepman, a senior policy analyst at the conservative Independent Women’s Forum, said in a tweet Thursday. She quoted-retweeted Dorsey’s praise of the group and included a screenshot of Kendi’s POLITICO Magazine piece.
“Twitter CEO donates $10M to a guy who openly argues for an unelected, unaccountable commission that reviews ALL LAWS and ALL PUBLIC OFFICE SEEKERS for compliance with his ideology,” she told her Twitter followers Thursday. “Woke Stalinism sounds good to Jack I guess.”
Dorsey has donated to social justice causes in the past. He donated $3 million in June to former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s activist group, Know Your Rights Camp.
“$3mm to Colin @Kaepernick7’s @yourrightscamp to advance the liberation and well-being of Black and Brown communities through education, self-empowerment, mass-mobilization to elevate the next generation of change leaders,” Dorsey wrote in a June 3 tweet.
– – –
Chris White is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Ibram X. Kendi” by Ibram X. Kendi.
