Cornel West may be America’s best-known public intellectual. He’s a professor of religion at Princeton University, where he has taught since a very public exit from Harvard in 2002. He is the author and co-author of several books, including Democracy Matters, his most recent, which is a sequel to his 1993 Race Matters, which won the American Book Award. It’s… return to article
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Reader Comments (11)Page 1 of 1 pagesWest makes fairly simple ideas, through passionate enunciations, sound really, really interesting. He could be reading a McDonalds menu and still have an audience enthusiastically capitivated by every word. I mean this in no disrespect. I happen to agree with most of his beliefs, and I think that the performance of ideas is indeed important. He just seems a bit full of himself, especially considering that his ideas aren’t uniquely profound.
One would think that his oratory skill would translate easily into the musical realm. And, I’m sorry to say, one would be wrong in doing so. Those spoken word hiphop albums of his just blow. Stick with the acting, brother West.
Posted by Phil on Nov 5, 2004 at 3:00 AM West is a Zionist stooge and an integral element in its apparatus of disinformation.
Although West articulates the nefarious nature of Israeli policies of brutality against the indigenous population of Palestine, he purposefully omits to mention the root of the overarching problem of Muslims and Jews - i.e., the ethno-supremacy of Zionism and its manifestation in the genocidal and ethnic cleansing State of Israel. West is more concerned with maintaining his flamboyant image as an “intellectual” and securing his place among the phony liberals of our age, than to truly speak on behalf of the oppressed. West knows that in pursuing such a course of action, the appeasement of liberal American Jewish Zionists is of the essence.
West is not a role model for young African Americans, but rather, a disgrace to our community.
Posted by Marcus on Nov 7, 2004 at 1:15 AM I would suggest reading Norman Kelley’s book “Head Negro in Charge Syndrome” where he excoriates Cornel West as a “market intellectual”. That is essentially style over substance. I think he his correct. And unlike Salim Muwakkil, West was more politically inconsequential this year as was “In These Times” by backing Kerry and the decadent Democrats that are doing nothing to build power for the blacks and workers in general.
The problem with West as with many Liberal intellectuals is that their funding comes from the Limousine Liberals. This group are supportive of the Isreali government as reflected by the near unanimous support of the Iraq war, the express desire (by Barack Omaba) to bomb Iran, and the so-called Syria Accountibility Act. Since West has no community base he is dependent on these dollars to maintain his “marketability”.
Thus West essentially is a facile black face for a predominately white elite liberal audience.
Posted by Wilson on Nov 9, 2004 at 3:59 PM much as i hate to, i agree with most of the negative commentary of this forum. west, a highly intelligent, and “widely,” though not necessarily “well-read,” intellectual enfant terrible, is the chocolate covered darling of the east coast intellectual establishment. he is a feather in the black studies cap of princeton, and before that, it was harvard. he makes for high-blown talk on liberally sugar coated npr. he reminds me of sulak sivarhksa, the thai engaged buddhist intellectual who writes and talks about everything all through ither. though west is obviously an intelligent fellow, his rhetoric borders on the absurd and often lacks any real scholarly substance. he’s a good talker and expert at preaching and histrionics. the casual observer cannot help but be awed by west’s gifts. but like many “celebrity” professors, all too many that i’ve encountered are more shadow than substance. to be sure, west is a force to be reckoned with, but thinking people need to delineate between a prodigy and a true virtuouso. west needs to stick to those things he knows with authority, and leave speculation and other ramblings to the caverns within his mind.
Posted by mb on Nov 10, 2004 at 10:24 AM I like Cornell West even if I don’t always agree with him. I think his best book is his study of pragmatism, ‘The American Evasion of Philopsophy.’ But ‘Race Matters’ and ‘Democracy Matters’, as the titles suggest, are far more topical and thus reach wider audiences.
I also think the best way to appreciate his style, which I admit is a bit tortuous at times, is to understand that, as an ordained man of the cloth, he is a preacher of the gospel first, then a philosopher and then a public intellectual. He’s like an old testament prophet reading the riot act to the wayward in a torrent of rhetoric so diverse that if you don’t get the message one way, perhaps you’ll get it another way.
While I can enjoy this, and learn from it, I actually prefer a different style of public speech, more like Thich Nhat Hanh or Tom Hayden, who tell often tell us intriguing stories in language that anyone can understand, but then find a sudden twist where clarity and new insight takes you to a place you’ve haven’t been before, but allow you to see old things in a clearer, deeper way.
But to give West’s style a final word, I remember hearing Harold Washington deliver a fine rhetorical riff one night, full of flowery language that made you wish you had a pocket dictionary with you, and I heard a young Black kid, tugging on his mother’s coat sleeve, saying, Momma, I wanna, I GOTTA, learn to talk like Harold when I grow up!!
Posted by Carl Davidson on Nov 10, 2004 at 7:55 PM I was prompted to search for some biographical data on Cornell West after I recently saw him on a Fox News Show(Possibly Hennity and Colmes)...My immediate reaction to his ridiculous performance was amazement, since my Pastor mentioned him in a Sermon a few weeks ago...He appeared to need medical assistance the way he failed to deal with/ answer the questions put to him and the way he got in the face of Interviewer...I’m still seeking accurate information about his current and true biography, not just what he says...I agree with the comment that he seems to be a mile wide but an inch deep in useful information about and for us Black Americans.
Posted by Randolph Harris on Nov 13, 2004 at 9:09 PM When exercising democratic procedure and attempting to live up to the attainable ideals of the Framers and other advocates of democracy, it is very important to cultivate and encourage robust and uninhibited dialogue amongst the people within the democratic state—so, with that said, I appreciate and vehemently disagree with the negative appropriations and narrow criticisms of Cornel West’s thought.
To be a public intellectual with the wits to match will always foster criticism across the board and more than likely, from the one’s who came up with immediate implications and conclusions in haste. To say that he emphasizes style over substance is more revealing about the person claiming this claim than it is about Cornel West and the way he delivers information. To be sure, it reveals the inadequate and short-sighted reading of his material and the inability to ponder the complex and very dynamic state of world relations that he so eloquently and honestly speaks about as much as he can, to anybody who wants to listen.
This is a man who is deeply dedicated to the American experiment and the global village of fortunate and unfortunate souls. It is important to keep in mind that Cornel West welcomes and encourages dissent and criticism as long as it is well-grounded and reflective of careful deliberation accented by the love for truth and wisdom.
Cornel West is a philosopher first. He is a philosopher that is part of a Western philosophical movement that is concerned with trying to show that blind support for any kind of status quo or authoritative body perpetuates the social injustices that everybody is concerned with. He is student of John Rawls who through ideal theory represents the spirit of democratic tolerance that so vacant in this age of pre-emptive attack and manichean views of the world. Cornel West shares these views.
You don’t have to agree with him, but you can at least give him the chance to speak to you as long as you listen. Saying that he is not “well-read” and “more concerned with is status as ‘celebrity intellectual’ and his stage presence” is unfair and misguided. Remember, Ralph Waldo Emerson, as a public intellectual, had his critics and dissenters maybe even more so than West, but that is exactly what Emerson was advocating. West, in the spirit of Emerson, represents a Socratic examination of American policies and behaviors.
Engaging in an indictment of America is something that all of us should be doing, whether one comfortable with the direction of the world has taken or not. For this fact, we should be grateful to him for being so courageous and expressing his dissent in the spirit of love. How else can we make the future better than the present?
Posted by Zelalem Bogale on Nov 20, 2004 at 2:41 AM I want to thank philosophers like Brother West, I am a disabled veteran of the current war and a advocate of the Democracy Brother West envisions for the world as a whole.
Posted by Chris on Nov 26, 2004 at 12:08 PM Brother West unfolds the truth in such a way that those who critique him negatively are only blowing hot air. The reason I say this is because it is important to note that academic life at harvard and princeton allows him to carry a vocabulary and public concern not to familiar with those of mediocre status. However, West still condescends to the mediocre level in order that his message be heard worldwide. I see West as a man being in touch with the realities of this world. Yes race matters, yes democracy matters. And all the other things that he mentions as well.
Posted by Deadric on Nov 30, 2004 at 7:35 PM I REALLY DON’T GET ANY INFO ABOUT HIS HOME LIFE OR WHEN HE WAS BORN AND WHERE
Posted by jonny blachk on Feb 4, 2005 at 7:22 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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