People cast aspersions on me as a director in order to cast aspersions on my scholarship,” says Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, “because they do not see a direct way to undermine my scholarship.” Huddled in a storage room inside Founders Library at Howard University, the 43-year-old historian, speaking softly and deliberately, is reflecting on the roller-coaster arc of his fame. Nearly seven years ago, his 2019 book, How to Be an Antiracist, was seized upon by liberals as a sacred text, rocketing up the best-seller lists and earning Kendi, already a National Book Award winner for Stamped From the Beginning:...