Articles

Campus Reform reports:

The University of Michigan paid Ibram X. Kendi $20,000 to speak at a one-hour virtual event in November 2020. [...] The Regents of the University of Michigan agreed to pay Kendi’s speaking agency, Penguin Random House, $20,000 for the one-hour virtual event of which Kendi spoke for 45 minutes and answered questions for 15 minutes.

The contract between the University of Michigan and Penguin Random House also noted that Kendi would be unavailable to do "sound checks, microphone checks, AV checks."

Additionally, the contract stipulated that if the event went over 1,000 attendees, Penguin Random House would charge a higher amount.

Campus Reform asked the director of Public Affairs and Internal Communications at the University of Michigan Rick Fitzgerald where the funds came from to cover the cost of the event.

“Costs for this event were covered by the university's General Fund. General Fund money comes from a variety of sources, including student tuition and fees, state appropriations and costs recovered from sponsored research activities,” Fitzgerald replied.

Ibram X. Kendi is a prominent racist academic who insists hat one either fully embrace what he regards as the program of "anti-racism” [counter-racism] or be guilty by definition of supporting racism. He has remarked "what I'm trying to do with my work is to really get Americans to eliminate the concept of 'not racist’ from their vocabulary, and realize we're either being racist or anti-racist."

The Republican-led state legislature recently approved transferring a record $326 million from Michigan taxpayers to the University of Michigan in its annual state budget (HB 4400 of 2021).