The University of Virginia reportedly paid author and Boston University professor Ibram X. Kendi $32,500 to deliver an hourlong virtual lecture on racial equity.
The lecture occurred online in April 2021 and is not the first instance of a public university paying top dollar for the How to be an Antiracist author.
The total amount for Kendi’s honorarium at the university was obtained by the Daily Wire through a Freedom of Information Act request. The event was reportedly attended by 876 people, was open to the public, and was free to attend.
The contract between the university and the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau, which organizes Kendi’s lectures, revealed that half the honorarium had to be paid three weeks prior to the event taking place.
Kendi has been criticized for arguing that racially disparate outcomes in various aspects of life are the product of systemic racism, a key component of critical race theory, which says that U.S. institutions and culture are systemically racist and oppressive to racial minorities.
In order to combat these systems, Kendi says, one must become an “antiracist” who works to dismantle institutionalized white supremacy and achieve racial equity.
In a statement to the Daily Wire, a representative said the university “welcomes speakers from a broad array of perspectives to our Grounds every academic year” and frequently pays “speakers fees or other compensation.”
“Offering our community access to a diverse set of speakers and points of view is an important part of our academic mission,” the representative said.
The $32,500 Kendi received to speak virtually to the university was more than $10,000 less than what he received in September from the University of Wisconsin to deliver a closed-door ticketed lecture.
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The University of Wisconsin event, unlike the University of Virginia event, occurred in person, and the university was barred from keeping a recording of it, per contractual terms.
