Kendi Says “Quiet Part Out Loud” About Power At ASU Event

April 17, 2023 ADI Staff Reporter
kendi
Activist Ibram X. Kendi, previously known as Henry Rogers, was the featured speaker at the A. Wade Smith and Elsie Moore Memorial Lecture on Race Relations held at ASU's Tempe campus on April 13. [Photo by Meghan Finnerty/ASU]

Last week, Arizona State University hosted controversial author Ibram X. Kendi for an evening of race-based political punditry.

Kendi, previously known as Henry Rogers, and author of five bestselling books including “How to Be Antiracist,” was the keynote speaker at the annual A. Wade Smith and Elsie Moore Memorial Lecture on Race Relations.

Kendi’s brief talk was preceded by the now obligatory land acknowledgement as well as the presentation of this year’s A. Wade Smith and Elsie Moore Community Award to Richard Richardson, professor emeritus of educational leadership and policy studies at ASU.

Land acknowledgments are politically correct statements claiming that activities are taking place, or institutions, businesses and even homes are built, on land previously owned by Indigenous peoples.

Dr. Owen Anderson, a popular Philosophy and Religious Studies professor at Arizona State University took note of the event on Twitter.

“Ibram X. Kendi spoke at ASU and said the quiet part out loud. According to him, we don’t need to convince Americans, we just need to get people into positions of power who will force these policies on everyone…”

Anderson was referring to Kendi’s statement regarding what he believes is needed for an anti-racist society.

“In order to create a society whereby we have policies and practices that are equitable and just and fair — and provide equal opportunity for all, and institutions that are built on those policies — we don’t necessarily need to create a critical mass of Americans who are anti-racist,” said Kendi. “We just need enough people who can get into positions of power, who will then institute those policies and practices.”

Kendi shared the stage with two ASU faculty moderators: David Hinds, associate professor in the School of Social Transformation, and Lisa Anderson, associate professor in the same school and associate dean in the Graduate College.

Anderson began by asking Kendi to clarify his distinction between racist and racism. He explained that racism is an institution and is systemic while a racist is an individual policy, idea, or person.

“A more specific definition of racism,” he said, “is a powerful collection of policies leading to injustice and are substantiated by ideas of racial hierarchy.”

The question was likely asked in response to frequent criticism of Kendi’s previous use of circular logic to define “racism.”

Dr. John McWhorter, a professor of linguistics at Columbia University, described Kendi’s logic in a 2021 tweet:

“In which academic discipline is this circular, naive, deer-caught-in-the-headlights response to a basic and urgent question considered insightful or excellent? A national culture exempting this (which, sadly, is typical of him) from judgment is unintentionally racist itself.”

Kendi was the 25th speaker in the lecture series, following such other notable liberals as actor Danny Glover and philosopher Dr. Cornel West.

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