“There will come a time. Maybe, just maybe, that time is now,” reads the final paragraph of “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You,” the bestselling book coauthored by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, which introduced many readers to anti-racist theory during the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. 

Kendi, founder of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University and prominent anti-racist scholar, served as the keynote guest for Chancellor Jones’ Call to Action to Address Racism and Social Injustice Research Symposium on Thursday. 

The keynote conversation between Kendi and Sean Garrick, vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion, took place at the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures. The event was a preview for the poster session to present research projects on Friday morning. 

According to Garrick, the Call to Action initiative, which funds research projects concerned with equity and racial justice across many diverse disciplines, was established in the summer of 2020 in order to address institutional injustice.

“As we asked ourselves what we could do to address what seemed to be structural challenges facing our society, the answer was, well, let’s empower our scholars to do that work,” Garrick said. “We don’t know the answers. But we know that we have a faculty whose breadth and depth of expertise is second to none. Let’s empower them to ask and answer those questions.”

Prior to the keynote conversation, Garrick stressed that although it was an honor to have Kendi address the University community, the projects funded by the Chancellor’s research initiative were intended to be the highlight of the symposium.

“My hope is that Dr. Kendi attracts a wide audience who are there the next day, to see the work that our community has invested in having done and to hear the outcomes of some of that work,” Garrick said. 

Projects funded by the initiative fall into three categories, each meant to address a separate issue faced by people of color in the U.S. 

According to the website for the initiative, the categories for the first two years of the program were systemic racism and social justice, law enforcement and criminal justice reform and disparities in health and health care. 

According to Kendi, who influenced his own institution to fund similar projects, taking a serious and all-encompassing approach to combatting racism is a necessary step toward ending often ignored forms of injustice. 

Kendi said in his address on Thursday that part of the issue is a lack of understanding surrounding what racism actually is.

“How could a person even begin to identify their ideas as racist, policies that they support as racist or even the ways in which they’ve been racist, if they don’t have a working definition of that term?” Kendi said to Garrick, eliciting a giggle from the audience.

The Chancellor’s office is hopeful that the funding will lead to institutional change in the Champaign-Urbana and University community and that the projects will serve as catalysts for positive dialogues in their respective disciplines.

“This funding program is an incubator of sorts — our faculty can attract external funding from either corporates, (nongovernmental organizations), or federal agencies,” Garrick said. “Another benefit is that we are now leveraging our expertise and (both University and external) funding to affect change off campus.”

Garrick said he also hopes the symposium influences undergraduate students who have not previously engaged in research projects to get more involved.

Undergraduate research is one of the best things in the world, especially with the scope of the University’s resources, Garrick said.

“You can not only have an impact in terms of the (research), but an impact in terms of how it affects your own development and own growth intellectually,” Garrick said. “I would say in short, get as involved as possible.”

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