Ibram X. Kendi (left) and Michele D. Simpson (right) at 2026 Martin Luther King Jr.
Convocation in Macky Auditorium on Jan. 15. (Avery Clifton/CU Independent)
The University of Colorado Boulder hosted its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation at Macky Auditorium on Thursday. The event was hosted on King’s 97th birthday.
“To be anti-racist is truly to have radical hope.” Keynote speaker Ibram X. Kendi said.
The convocation theme was “Imagining Tomorrow: Afro-Futurist Visions of Community, Creativity and Collective Care.” Anti-racist scholar, author and historian Kendi discussed the U.S. political climate and radical imagination, and King’s legacy.
CU Professor Michele D. Simpson, who teaches in the Philosophy, Arts & Culture Residential Academic Program, moderated the discussion.
Chancellor Justin Schwartz began the convocation with opening remarks, encouraging the audience to apply the discussion to the CU community.
“I hope that tonight’s convocation will plant seeds in your imagination about values you wish to lean into and actions you can take to incite positive change,” he said.
Kendi said his work provides people with tools to impact their ways of thinking. He said he respected people who use his work to “transform” themselves.
“Ultimately, it’s that person who’s reading that book and is deciding to be open to the information, deciding to be open to challenging their own ideas,” Kendi said.
Kendi said Americans are “reeling” over the increased clash of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and protestors in Minnesota. Volume of protests and immigration enforcement officers increased after the shooting of Renee Good on Jan. 7.
“Many people are reeling because they are realizing that immigrants are actually not dangerous invaders, that ICE actually is the dangerous invader,” Kendi said.
He highlighted how the situation unfolding in the U.S. parallels conflicts across the world. Kendi said that elected officials and political operatives across the world claim that nations are being overtaken by non-majority groups. He referred to the political strategy as “great replacement theory.”
Kendi said the purpose of the rhetoric is to get majority groups to “consent to the rise of authoritarianism,” for protection. He hoped his work and other scholars would highlight how people who spread such ideas are causing harm, rather than non-majority groups.
Kendi connected this idea to his upcoming book “Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age,” releasing in March. The book details the role of great replacement theory in global history. He argued that the theory is a large drive for authoritarianism.
“This has become the most dominant human theory of our time,” Kendi said. “It is the central ideological force that’s powering the rise of authoritarianism worldwide.”
Simpson and Kendi continued by discussing spirituality as a role in anti-racist action. Simpson opened the conversation by referencing the quote, “spirituality is that which sustains hope.”
Kendi said he believed there is a spiritual component to anti-racism, saying it is to believe the impossible is possible.
He described how, to the 4 million enslaved black Americans in 1860, gaining freedom seemed impossible. He said when slavery was abolished five years later, “the impossible became possible.”
Later in their discussion on King’s life and contributions, Kendi described him as being assassinated, “not once, but twice.”
“We know how he was assassinated in 1968 but then his ideology, his message, his commitment, was assassinated in the afterlife, particularly in the last 30 years,” Kendi said.
He described King as a radical anti-racist revolutionary being portrayed as a “colorblind kumbaya” figure. He said the distortion of King’s ideas was ongoing.
“While we can’t necessarily reverse or challenge or stop the first assassination, we can reverse and challenge and confront and stop this second assassin,” Kendi said.
CU Boulder junior Kate Goray remarked on the convocation, saying she felt attentive and engaged.
“I think it was the perfect mix of being educational while also empowering,” she said.
She said the discussion made her feel empowered to both engage in conversations and learn about the events in Minnesota.
“Speaking up and doing that can be great, but I also want to learn more and have information and knowledge to back up my opinion,” she said.
Contact CU Independent News Editor Avery Clifton at avery.clifton@colorado.edu
