“The thing is… this is kind of how the ideas industry functions in general, these days. Many, many arguments that find their way into the public consciousness have this general two-faced nature, a more incendiary side to generate publicity and a more equivocal side to evade criticism. I don’t exonerate Kendi for the deficiencies of his thinking, at all, but I do think that advancing a more provocative version of academic ideas as a way to garner attention and then retreating to a more limited and qualified version of those ideas when challenged is just how it works. (I will leave it to you to determine if things have always been this way or if this is a new development.) And yeah, I mean… alas. This stuff isn’t good. But it’s how things work”
https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/i-think-ibram-kendi-is-just-an-academic