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Who is Ibram X Kendi? Scholar slams Amy Barrett, says White colonizers ‘adopted Blacks' to use them as props

'They ‘civilized’ these ‘savage’ children in the ‘superior’ ways of White people, while using them as props in their lifelong pictures of denial, while cutting the biological parents of these children out of the picture of humanity,' said Kendi

Author, historian and director of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research Ibram X Kendi had something to say on racism following Amy Coney Barrett's appearance with her children at the SCOTUS nomination event held on Saturday, September 26. Kendi wrote that White people who adopt Black children may be “racist” and thus joined Democrats and leftists who are commenting on Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s adopted Haitian son and daughter.

Kendi wrote “Some White colonizers ‘adopted’ Black children. They ‘civilized’ these ‘savage’ children in the ‘superior’ ways of White people, while using them as props in their lifelong pictures of denial, while cutting the biological parents of these children out of the picture of humanity.” He continued, “And whether this is Barrett or not is not the point. It is a belief too many White people have: if they have or adopt a child of color, then they can't be racist.” He added, “I’m challenging the idea that White parents of kids of color are inherently 'not racist' and the bots completely change what I’m saying to “White parents of kids of color are inherently racist.” These live and fake bots are good at their propaganda. Let’s not argue with them.”

Before Kendi, Democrat activist Dana Houle who was once a chief of staff on Capitol Hill to a Democrat lawmaker, tweeted that he hoped Barrett would be probed over the children she and her husband adopted from Haiti. “I would love to know which adoption agency Amy Coney Barrett & her husband used to adopt the two children they brought here from Haiti,” Houle wrote in a tweet that is now deleted but has been quoted by several media organizations like the Daily Mail. The site further reported that many others cornered Barrett on her adoption like Democratic activist John Lee Brougher and were critical of her on racist lines. 

Amy who married her Notre Dame Law School graduate partner, Jesse M Barrett has seven children. This also includes two adopted children from Haiti — Vivian and John Peter. As per site Heavy.com, Vivian, 13, is in 8th grade while John Peter,10, is in 6th grade.

As soon as the recent comments came from Kendi on Barrett's adopted children and racism, people started to opine on the Internet. Many slammed Kendi while others supported him on his views about Barett’s adoption. A user slammed Kendi and wrote, “Damn Kendi really took the critiques of his book as insufficiently radical, HR manual stuff to heart.” Another concurred, “Sad, Kendi must prefer children to starve in Haiti than be adopted by a loving family. One child Barrett adopted was 11 lbs at 13 months or something like that. Who is racist now if they prefer Black children die than go to a white family?” Some supported Kendi, “So long as the children are used to argue about whether she holds racist views or not it is germane - during the past few days I have seen several conservatives use them as props. Kendi’s definition of racism is based on support of policies that create or expand racist outcomes.” 

Who is Ibram X Kendi?

Kendi is a historian and one of the antiracist voices in America. He is described as a “hardcore antiracist and softcore vegan.” He was born in the Jamaica neighborhood of New York City in 1982. Time Magazine mentioned Kendi’s stand on racism. It said that Kendi’s central arguments revolve around how the root of racism isn’t people, but the policies that cause racial inequity and injustice. Quoting him, the site states, “Racist ideas make humans believe that there’s something wrong with other humans, that there’s something wrong with those other racial groups, there’s something wrong with those people who don’t look like us.”

Time Magazine added that Kendi is fighting for improvement in healthcare, where racist policies still exist.“It’s not enough that every American has access to free healthcare … it must be high quality,” Kendi said. The site noted that the high-quality care Kendi is calling for includes not being mistreated due to race—an issue that has been exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic, which has highlighted new levels of racial disparities in healthcare. 

Being a critic of racism, Kendi went on to become a best-selling author. His writing credits have several critically acclaimed books for which he has been rewarded with numerous honors. This includes ‘The Black Campus Movement’ which won the W.E.B. Du Bois Book Prize, and ‘Stamped from the Beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas in America’ that won him the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2016. As a writer writing extensively on race, he has also authored number 1 New York Times bestsellers, like ‘How to Be An Antiracist’ and ‘Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You’ that he co-authored with Jason Reynolds.
 
Kendi’s academic work did not stop there. He has published fourteen academic essays in books and academic journals, including ‘The Journal of African American History’, ‘Journal of Social History,’ ‘Journal of Black Studies’ as reported by his site. Currently, he is the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. He is also a contributing writer for The Atlantic and a CBS News correspondent as per his website’s bio. More recently, in 2020, Time Magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world.