Ibram X. Kendi defends antiracism center, says layoffs "devastated" him

Driving the news: Boston University told The Boston Globe Wednesday it is looking into allegations by former staff about the center's work culture, which emerged after Kendi's decision to lay off around two dozen staffers last week.

Catch up fast: Current and former employees told the Globe the center was dysfunctional and argued the work environment made it difficult to complete the center's goals.

• One of those yet-unfulfilled goals has been a nationwide tracker of racial disparities, though a BU spokesperson told the Globe the center "has been developing" it.
• Phillipe Copeland, a BU social work professor and the center's former assistant director of narrative, told the paper the organization "was being mismanaged" and that he had trouble getting meetings with Kendi. Copeland resigned in June.
• Kendi, who was on leave for several months, returned last week to deliver the news of layoffs.

What they're saying: "It was one of the most difficult decisions of my career to execute these layoffs," Kendi tells Axios in an interview.

• "But they were done to ensure impact and sustainability, to ensure that the center of antiracist research will be around 50 years from now."
• "I'm really devastated, both because of having to lay people off, but then also because there's certainly disgruntled people who are sort of using the moment to express problems. And allegations that are baseless, unfounded."

Flashback: Kendi, a historian and author of the bestselling "How To Be An Antiracist" founded the center in 2020.

• Discussions about the center began in 2019, but its launch came amid nationwide protests against racism.