Boston University is closing its Center for Antiracist Research as its founding director, scholar Ibram X. Kendi, leaves for another job. Why it matters: BU's decision, which comes amid a federal backlash to programs related to diversity,

Ibram X. Kendi, the founding director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, will leave the school for a new role at Howard University and BU's center will close.

Historian and writer Ibram X. Kendi, who wrote the bestseller “How To Be an Antiracist” and led a center on the subject at Boston University, will join Howard University’s faculty.

Author and historian Ibram X. Kendi is leaving Boston University, where he served as founding director of the Center for Antiracist Research, to join the faculty of Howard University in Washington D.C.