Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is one of America’s foremost historians and leading antiracist scholars. He is a National Book Award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of eight books. Dr. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. Dr. Kendi is a contributor writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News Racial Justice Contributor. He is the host of the action podcast Be Antiracist. His book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (2016) won the National Book Award for Nonfiction, making him the youngest-ever winner of that award at age 34. He authored How to Be an Antiracist (2019), which became a #1 New York Times bestseller and was described by The New York Times as “the most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.” His other bestselling works include Antiracist Baby (2020), Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You (2020, coauthored with Jason Reynolds), How to Raise an Antiracist (2022), and Be Antiracist (2020). Dr. Kendi earned his Ph.D. in African American Studies from Temple University (2010) and his undergraduate degrees in journalism and African American studies from Florida A&M University (2004). He changed his name from Ibram Henry Rogers to Ibram Xolani Kendi when he married in 2013, with “Kendi” meaning “loved one” in Meru and “Xolani” meaning “peace” in Zulu. In 2020, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was awarded a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship, popularly known as the “Genius Grant.”
Why their voice matters: Dr. Kendi has fundamentally reframed America’s conversation about racism by dismantling the false dichotomy between “racist” and “not racist,” introducing instead the concept of being actively antiracist. His scholarship demonstrates that racism is not primarily about individual prejudice but about policies that create racial inequities—shifting focus from changing people to changing systems. Through rigorous historical analysis combined with vulnerable personal narrative, he traces the evolution of racist ideas in America while providing a clear roadmap for antiracist action. His voice matters because he moves beyond awareness to action, treating racism as a curable disease rather than original sin, and challenges us to focus on transforming policies rather than hearts, offering a vision of an antiracist society built on the fundamental equality of all racial groups.