Morning Wire XX
[0] Boston University launches an investigation into Ibram X. Kendi's Center for Anti -Racist Research.
[1] What are insiders saying about the center's challenges and where did all the money go?
[2] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley.
[3] It's September 23rd, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
[4] After six private grocery stores fled crime -ridden parts of Chicago, the mayor announced a plan to open city -run stores in the name of racial justice and food equity.
[5] So I think that's a good idea that Mayor Johnson is picking up the slack where these big store chains are leaving.
[6] And the immigrant population in the United States has hit another record high due to both legal and illegal immigration, which groups are seeing the biggest increases.
[7] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[8] Stay tuned.
[9] We have the news you need to know.
[10] Author and activist Ebram X. Kendi is under fire for allegedly mismanaging finances and exploiting staff at the Center for Anti -Racist Research at Boston University.
[11] Half of the center staff has now been laid off, and the university says it's conducting an inquiry.
[12] Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham is here now with more.
[13] So, Megan, Kendi became something of a lightning rod in 2020.
[14] Listeners may know him because he wrote that bestseller, how to be an anti -racist.
[15] He's also been associated with critical race theory.
[16] And he was also given an entire department at BU to pursue this kind of work.
[17] although now that seems to be imploding, what happened?
[18] Well, you know, what's interesting is Boston University actually founded the center specifically as a bid to recruit Kendi in June of 2020, which we will all remember was shortly after George Floyd's death.
[19] Well, Jean Morrison, who was then the provost and chief academic officer at BU, said she worked for more than a year to launch the center, specifically with Kendi in mind.
[20] So this was what she told Boston TV station WFTX, 3 ,000.
[21] years ago about why the school wanted him so badly.
[22] He has the capacity to identify and develop sort of the rigorous framework for understanding these deeply rooted problems.
[23] So right after BU launched that center to great fanfare with, of course, Kendi as its leader, the center then received a flood of donations from big companies, big grant makers.
[24] Twitter, now X, for example, gave the center 10 million.
[25] million.
[26] The Rockefeller Foundation provided another 1 .5 million.
[27] But in the three plus years since it was launched, the center has produced only two original research papers.
[28] And even those were co -authored with academics from other institutions.
[29] And then as John noted, there have been massive layoffs.
[30] And Kennedy says the center is now moving to a fellowship model.
[31] So where did all that money go?
[32] Well, that is the big question, because BU has offered no accounting for it yet.
[33] And some former staffers say they did start warning the administration that this center was mismanaging finances as long as two years ago.
[34] So now you have a number of faculty who were involved with the center openly criticizing Kendi.
[35] B .U. Associate Professor of Political Science, Spencer Piston, acted as a faculty lead of the policy office.
[36] And he told the Boston Globe, which was the outlet that broke this story, that the problem developed because the university entrusted so much power and authority into the hands of one human being, by whom he met Kendi.
[37] A professor of African American studies, Sida Grundy, told the globe that the center was exploitative.
[38] Another faculty member, Philip Copeland, said that the center, and I'm quoting him, was just fundamentally mismanaged and had committed employment violence and trauma.
[39] Employment violence, what's that?
[40] You know, that's a good question.
[41] He didn't say, and I'm not sure.
[42] But I do think it's important to note that all of these sources made their comments on the record.
[43] They provided their names, and that can be a little bit unusual in cases like this.
[44] So external critics are also pointing out that Kendi has been focused on promoting his personal project during all of this, things like a graphic novel, a podcast, a TV series for ESPN Plus.
[45] He even reportedly took a months -long leave of absence from this center earlier this year.
[46] So beyond salaries, it's kind of hard to tell what this money funded.
[47] So Kendi is really under fire here.
[48] How is he responding?
[49] He did put out a statement on Twitter, or of course, as we call it now, X, saying that the center made missteps.
[50] But then he went on to say that leaders of color and women leaders are often held to different standards and routinely have their authority questioned or undermined.
[51] He said after that that he welcomes BU's inquiry.
[52] But a BU spokeswoman told me in an email that the school is expanding that inquiry to include the center's culture and also complaints about mismanagement.
[53] And she did also include a note of support for Kendi.
[54] She said this, and quoting, We recognize the importance of Dr. Kendi's work and the significant impact it has had on anti -racist thinking and policy.
[55] And she also added that Kendi and B .U, again, quoting, believe strongly in the center's mission and that he takes strong exception to the allegations made in recent complaints and media reports.
[56] Kendi also said in his statement that his center isn't alone in having to respond to new realities for nonprofits, and some context for this is that progressive grantmakers have been tightening their purse strings generally.
[57] So left -wing nonprofits are having to tighten their belts in response.
[58] We don't know yet if that was a factor here, but we do know that Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club, the climate change group, sunrise movement, all of those have had layoffs recently.
[59] So there has been a lot of discussion about why.
[60] And some pundits have suggested that everything from President Trump being less visible to maybe inflation, all of those things could have contributed.
[61] But all of that said, mismanagement claims like this are probably not helping.
[62] Yeah, probably not.
[63] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[64] Anytime.
[65] Amid a worsening crime epidemic, Chicago's Democratic mayor announced a plan for a city -owned grocery store, which he says will promote food equity and address the exit of corporate grocery stores.
[66] Here to discuss the controversial project as Daily Wire Reporter Amanda Presta Jacamo.
[67] Hey Amanda.
[68] So this would be the largest government -owned grocery store in the U .S. if it were to actually be developed.
[69] That's right.
[70] What is Mayor Brandon Johnson's arguments for funding this?
[71] Well, they center around racial justice.
[72] In a statement put out last week, Johnson said that six grocery stores have left the South and West Side of Chicago in just the past two years.
[73] This, he said, has led to inequitable acts.
[74] to food retail, and he broke that down by race.
[75] He said, 37 % of black residents and 29 % of Latino residents are food insecure compared to 19 % overall.
[76] Those arguing for government interventions say it's needed because many residents live in so -called food deserts.
[77] That was a term popularized by Michelle Obama.
[78] It's used to indicate places where people rely on fast food or convenience stores for their daily sustenance instead of healthier options.
[79] They argue this is due to distance from a grocery store or simply poverty.
[80] One thing that's undeniably true that was noted by Mayor Johnson is that corporate grocery stores like Walmart and Whole Foods, for example, they are continuing to leave Chicago.
[81] And crime appears to be a major factor in that decision, correct?
[82] It seems to be.
[83] As many will remember, Chicago was hit hard with looting in crime during those George Floyd riots a few years ago.
[84] That really hurt the city.
[85] and thefts are reportedly up 25 % from just last year.
[86] We know violent crime is still raging in Chicago, despite Johnson promising to tackle that issue.
[87] He promoted a community safety team, for example.
[88] That so far has not worked.
[89] And when Walmart announced the closure of four stores in Chicago's South and West Side neighborhoods back in April, it said this was due to a lack of profitability, going back 17 years when they first opened there.
[90] It said, quote, these stores lose tens of millions of dollars a year, and their annual losses nearly doubled in just the last five years.
[91] Wow.
[92] The statement did not specifically mention shoplifting.
[93] However, Walmart CEO Doug McMillan did warn last year that if shoplifting across the country didn't slow down, they'd have to shut down some stores.
[94] And here they are doing just that.
[95] Funding grocery stores will not be cheap.
[96] What would be the cost of something like this for the city, which is already struggling financially?
[97] We don't have an exact estimate yet for the price tag on something like this, But as you mentioned, it was just last week that we heard the mayor announce a projected deficit of $538 million for this upcoming fiscal year.
[98] Interestingly, though, the mayor's chief of policy, Umi Grisbee, she's claiming this project won't use taxpayer dollars.
[99] Here she is on CBS Chicago.
[100] We are not spending any taxpayer dollars, right?
[101] What we're also going to be able to access is the funding that exists at the national level, at the state level.
[102] To be frank, that's pretty misleading.
[103] she states that they will be accessing state and national funding, so that obviously comes from taxpayers.
[104] And then the mayor's office has already said they'll use economic grant money, which also comes from taxpayers.
[105] I suppose the office's claim is that they won't use local taxpayer money, but that still doesn't seem to hold up.
[106] Right, state and federal taxpayer money at play here.
[107] Now, not everyone's a fan of this idea.
[108] What have we heard from opponents?
[109] What are their arguments?
[110] They're what you would expect.
[111] Some have strongly criticized.
[112] this as akin to Soviet -style central planning.
[113] Detractors have highlighted the city's penchant for corruption.
[114] They've pointed to that half a billion dollar deficit and asked how anyone should expect this government to be efficient with tax dollars.
[115] Others suggest the real issue here are those soft on crime policies.
[116] When that changes in crime is under control, you'll see more businesses, more grocery stores in the city.
[117] And then there are other questions like, how are the prices set?
[118] In what ways would this be superior to private grocery?
[119] stores.
[120] How would this affect private enterprise and so on?
[121] Yeah, certainly a lot of questions still to be answered.
[122] But we'll keep an eye on the movement of this project.
[123] Amanda, thanks for reporting.
[124] Sure thing.
[125] The immigrant population in the United States hit a record high last year as the number of both legal and illegal immigrants ramped up.
[126] Daily Wire investigative reporter, Marade, Alorty is here with the details.
[127] So Marade, we hit a record high for immigration last year.
[128] What were the numbers?
[129] Hi, Georgia.
[130] Right.
[131] So the number of U .S. residents born in another country rose by almost a million last year.
[132] The immigrant population hit a record 46 .2 million people.
[133] That's according to new U .S. census estimates.
[134] So this means immigrants are now nearly 14 percent of the total U .S. population.
[135] And that number only includes documented immigrants, correct?
[136] Right.
[137] Or at least immigrants that the surveys were able to capture.
[138] So the number was driven up in 2022 by increased levels of legal immigration through visas and refugee programs.
[139] Those are now back in full swing after being put on hold during the pandemic.
[140] The Biden administration has also accepted tens of thousands of refugees from Afghanistan in 2021 and Ukraine in 2022.
[141] There have also been more than two million illegal migrants released into the interior since Biden took office.
[142] Now, we spoke to Jeffrey Pacelle.
[143] He's a senior demographer at the Pew Research Center.
[144] Passell gave us some insight into the data.
[145] It's worth pointing out that these data relate to kind of the middle of 2022, which is before a lot of the recent surges, but some of the people who came in through the southern border are included here as well.
[146] So it's a combination of all of these factors.
[147] Now, do we know where these immigrants are primarily coming from?
[148] Well, so historically, the majority have come from Mexico.
[149] But Passell told us the census data shows the U .S. is seeing more people from Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, even Honduras.
[150] But Mexico still has the largest immigrant population in the U .S. We have almost 11 million immigrants from Mexico, but the number of new Mexican immigrants is actually decreasing.
[151] The U .S. is also seeing significant growth in immigrants from Africa and Asia, including China, as well as a large increase of Afghan immigrants.
[152] So where are immigrants primarily settling once they get to the U .S.?
[153] Well, Florida took in 200 ,000 immigrants last year.
[154] That was the biggest increase by far of any state.
[155] That's according to the Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey.
[156] Other states that saw significant increases in new immigrants were Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Iowa.
[157] And, of course, several major U .S. cities are scrambling to address a migrant crisis from thousands of new illegal migrants crossing the border and showing up in need of food and shelter.
[158] In New York City, more than 113 ,000 migrants have arrived, last year.
[159] And as we've reported, Mayor Eric Adams announced citywide budget cuts to deal with a migrant issue.
[160] He warned earlier this month that the migrant crisis will destroy New York City.
[161] Adams is also now signaling that it might be time to limit the city's right to shelter laws.
[162] Chicago has a similar migrant crisis.
[163] The mayor is pushing for dozens of huge tent structures that could house 200 migrants each.
[164] So overall, the immigrant share of America's population is getting bigger.
[165] Well, a major demographic shift that's going to have a lot of downstream effects.
[166] Mairee, thanks for reporting.
[167] Thanks, Georgia.
[168] Thank you for listening this morning.
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[171] That's all the time we've got this morning.
[172] Thanks for waking up with us.
[173] We'll be back later this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.
[174] I don't know.