Diversity initiatives in America are foundering

Lofty goals are admirable in any organisation; just don’t forget the deliverables. Ibram X. Kendi managed the first part in pledging to “solve seemingly intractable racial problems of our time” when Boston University (BU) hired him in 2020. The scholar-activist—who says that racial disparities result from racist policies, and that a policy is racist if it yields racial disparities—was given the mandate and money to build an academic centre. He promised degree programmes, racial-justice training modules and more. But with a piddling output, despite having raised nearly $55m, his Centre for Antiracist Research has sacked about half its 40-odd staff and said it will scale back.