Boston University hired Ibram X. Kendi to lead its new Center for Antiracist Research in 2020, a year marked by a global pandemic and nationwide racial tension. Three years later, after at least $43 million in grants and gifts and what sources say has been an underwhelming output of research, the Center for Antiracist Research laid off almost all of its staff last week.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence sought to enjoy a good, all-American musical last Friday, but was instead met with boos from the crowd and an eloquent curtain speech at the end of the night. While, for...