The University of Virginia reportedly spent $32,500, or about $541 per minute, to host Ibram X. Kendi for an hour to discuss “racial equity.”
According to an exclusive report by The Daily Wire, the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, spent a whopping $32,500, or about $541 per minute, to host Boston University professor and critical race theorist Ibram X. Kendi for an hour-long lecture on the topic of "racial equity."
The lecture was given on April 21, 2021, and 876 attendees were present at the free public event, according to the university's records reviewed by The Daily Wire.
UVA contracted with Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau, according to an agreement obtained by The Daily Wire through the Freedom of Information Act.
"The University of Virginia welcomes speakers from a broad array of perspectives to our Grounds every academic year and we often do pay speakers fees or other compensation," UVA spokesperson Brian Coy told The Daily Wire.
"Offering our community access to a diverse set of speakers and points of view is an important part of our academic mission," the UVA representative said.
Conservative student group Young America's Foundation (YAF), a national organization which brings speakers to college campuses through its own funding, told The Daily Wire that it is "not familiar" with UVA "bringing conservative speakers" and paying for the appearances or promoting the events.
The university had refused to recognize YAF's campus chapter in 2017, before reversing course after a letter from the legal group Alliance Defending Freedom demanded official recognition for the club and revisions to school policy. "It's shameful that a public university would spend tens of thousands of dollars for such a racist figure to speak to their students," said YAF spokesperson Kara Zupkus.
The event was not recorded, UVA said. Kendi, who appeared as part of the university's Racial Equity Speaker Series, authored "How to Be an Antiracist," and in June, the Center for Antiracism Research at Boston University founder is expected to publish a children's book, titled "Goodnight Racism."
Penguin declined to comment when reached, referring The Daily Wire to Kendi, whose media representative also did not respond to multiple emails.
The far-left Marxist foundations of critical race theory has been sweeping through American universities and institutions in K-12 schools and at the collegiate level.
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