The Antiracist Research & Policy Center

Knowledge for Change's Sake

The mission of The Antiracist Research and Policy Center is to produce knowledge for change's sake. We engage in research of racial inequity and discrimination that leads to policy innovation and implementation. We strive to build a world of equal opportunity for all, resting on a foundation of tenacious people who believe an antiracist world is possible.

Currently in Year Zero, we are carefully building our conceptual, fiscal, and strategic foundation to ensure the Center will become and remain a powerful force for equal opportunity.

Make a gift today and join our inaugural campaign for change

What Makes Our Vision DIfferent

Ideas

We know the racial problem is not people, but policy.
We know the racial solution is correcting policy, not people.
We carry a broad intersectional perspective and combat inequities between all racialized groups, no matter their gender, class, sexuality, ethnicity, or nationality.
We carry local, national, transnational, and international outlooks on inequity and discrimination.

Organizational Model

We do not support individual projects. We support team projects.
We are distinct from university research centers and think tanks that primarily support individual researchers and policy experts.
We depart from the popular model of single-area research. We organized six teams in the areas of economy, education, environment, health, justice, and politics.
Our six annual teams, supported by AU faculty and students, will be comprised of scholars, policy experts, journalists, and advocates—the four professionals typically behind evidence-based policy change.
Our Antiracist Education Project will use the latest and most engaging technology and professional workshops to mass educate away racist ideas. We aim to build the world's largest digital infrastructure of racial inequities, racist ideas, and racial histories. We plan to launch other ongoing projects that monitor and undermine racism.

Work

Our six teams will be sizeable, consisting of scholars, policy experts, journalists, and advocates, as well as AU students, student interns, and community volunteers.
Our fall courses where students function as research assistants will provide a new model for student learning through the interplay of teaching, scholarship, and policy change.
Our teams will not engage in research disconnected from policy innovation.
Our policy innovation will be grounded in pioneering research
Our advocacy campaigns will be built on groundbreaking research and policy.

Explore our vision

Our Unique Process

By breaking down the elements of an issue, we can better understand the whole. Our model features six teams that will follow a three-step process to help research and produce impactful policies. Our projects will follow an annual cycle.

Six teams, one vision: Economy, Education, Environment, Health, Justice, and Politics. Strategy, theory, action

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Message from the Founder

Ibram X. Kendi

Professor and Director

We cannot sit on the sidelines as inequality passes on to another generation.

Despite spending years dissecting the ugly face of racism, I never lost faith in the beauty of human potential. I still believe we can build a world where equity and opportunity are inalienable human rights. That is why I founded The Antiracist Research and Policy Center. We must believe change is possible in order to make it. We must have faith in change.

Upcoming Events

FD 200

To honor Frederick Douglass during 2018, the bicentennial of his birth, we are partnering with the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives to highlight 200 people who embody the spirit of the man's work as an abolitionist, writer, educator, politician, feminist, entrepreneur, and diplomat.