> You really have to hand it to Ibram X. Kendi. The director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University and the author of the biggest bestseller you’ve never seen a copy of in real life, Mr. Kendi (ne Rogers) has bluffed and bullied his way into a lucrative career. > He has no valuable skill set. He has no unique knowledge. He is not an especially intelligent man. Sheer confidence has launched the son of Carol and Larry Rogers to the top rank of American public intellectuals. > Yet Kendi feels out of place there, in a slot once occupied by the likes of Franklin and Emerson—even by higher mediocrities like Dewey, James, and Rawls. A lesser man might shrink from the challenge—slink off in peace and a bit of shame to teach middle school history or find a halfway decent office job. The champion of antiracism opts instead to redefine the entire structure of intellectual life around himself.