Everything about Cornell West totally explained
Cornel Ronald West (born
June 2,
1953) is an
American scholar,
public intellectual,
sociologist,
critic,
pastor, and
civil rights activist. Formerly a professor at
Harvard University, currently West is a professor of Religion and director of
African American Studies at
Princeton.
West is known for his combination of political and moral insight and criticism, and his contribution to the post-1960s
civil rights movement. The bulk of his work focuses upon the role of
race,
gender, and
class in American society and the means by which people act and react to their “radical conditionedness”. West draws intellectual contributions from such diverse traditions as the
African American Baptist Church,
Marxism,
pragmatism,
transcendentalism, and
Anton Chekhov.[1]
Biography
West was born in
Tulsa, Oklahoma. The grandson of a preacher, West marched as a young man in
civil rights demonstrations and organized protests demanding black studies courses at his high school. West later wrote that, in his youth, he admired "the sincere black militancy of
Malcolm X, the defiant rage of the
Black Panther Party [...] and the livid black
theology of
James Cone."
After graduating from
John F. Kennedy High School in
Sacramento,
California, where he served as president of his high school class, he enrolled at
Harvard University at age 17. He took classes from philosophers
Robert Nozick and
Stanley Cavell and graduated in three years,
magna cum laude in
Near Eastern Languages and Civilization in 1973. He was determined to press the university and its intellectual traditions into the service of his political agendas and not the other way around: to have its educational agendas imposed on him. "Owing to my family, church, and the black social movements of the 1960s," he says, "I arrived at Harvard unashamed of my African, Christian, and militant de-colonized outlooks. More pointedly, I acknowledged and accented the empowerment of my black styles, mannerisms, and viewpoints, my Christian values of service, love, humility, and struggle, and my anti-colonial sense of self-determination for oppressed people and nations around the world."
He earned a Ph.D. in 1980 from
Princeton, where he was influenced by
Richard Rorty's
pragmatism. He later published his
dissertation (completed in 1980) as
The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought.
In his mid-twenties, he returned to Harvard as a
Du Bois fellow before becoming an assistant professor at
Union Theological Seminary in
New York City. In 1985 he went to
Yale Divinity School in what eventually became a joint appointment in
American studies. While at Yale, he participated in campus protests for a clerical
union and
divestment from
apartheid South Africa, one of which resulted in his being arrested and jailed. As punishment, the university administration cancelled his leave for
Spring 1987, leading him to commute between Yale (where he was teaching two classes) and the
University of Paris.
He then returned to Union and taught at
Haverford College for one year before going to Princeton to become a professor of religion and director of the Program in
African American Studies, which he revitalized in cooperation with such scholars as
novelist Toni Morrison. He served as director of the program from 1988 to 1994.
He then accepted an appointment as professor of African-American studies at
Harvard University, with a joint appointment at the Divinity School. West taught one of the university's most popular courses, an introductory class on African-American studies. In 1998 he was appointed the first
Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, a position that placed him among a select two dozen professors at the university and freed him from departmental boundaries. West used this freedom to teach not only in African-American studies but in divinity, religion, and in philosophy (where he co-taught a course on American pragmatism with
Hilary Putnam).
In 2001, after a public row with Harvard president
Lawrence Summers, West returned to Princeton, where he's taught since.
The recipient of more than 20 honorary degrees and an American Book Award, Summers allegedly suggested that West produce an academic book befitting his professorial position. West had written several books, some of them widely cited, but his recent output consisted primarily of co-written and edited volumes. According to some reports, Summers also objected to West's production of a CD, the critically panned
Sketches of My Culture, and to his political campaigning. According to West's book
Democracy Matters, Summers wrongly accused him of canceling classes for three straight weeks during 2000 to promote
Bill Bradley's
presidential campaign. West contends that he'd missed one class during his tenure at Harvard "in order to give a keynote address at a Harvard-sponsored conference on
AIDS." Lawrence Summers also allegedly suggested that since West held the rank of
University Professor and thus reported directly to the President, he should meet with Summers regularly to discuss the progress of his academic production.
Summers refused to comment on the details of his conversation with West, except to express hope that West would remain at Harvard. Soon after, West was hospitalized for
prostate cancer. West complained that Summers failed to send him get-well wishes until weeks after his surgery, whereas newly installed Princeton president
Shirley Tilghman had contacted him frequently before and after his treatment.
In West's view, the
September 11, 2001 attacks gave white Americans a glimpse of what it means to be a black person in the United States—feeling "unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hated" for who they are. "The ugly terrorist attacks on innocent civilians on 9/11," he said, "plunged the whole country into the blues." In May 2007 West joined a demonstration against "injustices faced by the Palestinian people resulting from the Israeli occupation" and "to bring attention to this 40 year travesty of justice".
Cornel West publicly supports
2008 Democratic Presidential candidate Senator
Barack Obama. He spoke to over 1,000 of his supporters at the
Apollo Theater in
Harlem, NYC on
November 29,
2007.
West also serves as co-chair of the
Tikkun Community. He co-chaired the
National Parenting Organization's Task Force on Parent Empowerment and participated in
President Clinton's
National Conversation on Race. He has publicly endorsed
In These Times magazine by calling it: "The most creative and challenging newsmagazine of the American left". He is also a contributing editor for
Sojourners Magazine.
West is noted for his support of
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in its Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign, aimed at eliminating
KFC's allegedly inhumane treatment of chickens. West is quoted on
PETA flyers: "Although most people don't know chickens as well as they know cats and dogs, chickens are interesting individuals with personalities and interests every bit as developed as the dogs and cats with whom many of us share our lives."
Popular culture
West appears in both
The Matrix Reloaded and
The Matrix Revolutions. He plays one of the elders,
Councilor West, who serves on the council of Zion. West's character advises that "comprehension isn't a requisite of cooperation." In addition, West provides philosophical commentary on all three Matrix films in
The Ultimate Matrix Collection along with
integral theorist Ken Wilber. West also made multiple appearances on the popular political show
Real Time with Bill Maher.
West was also featured on Starbucks Coffee Cups with The Way I See It #284 quoted- "You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people, if you don't serve the people."
Published works
- Black Theology and Marxist Thought (1979)
- Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity (1982)
- Prophetic Fragments (1988)
- (1989)
- (with bell hooks, 1991)
- The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought (1991)
- Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism (1993)
- Race Matters (1993)
- (1994)
- (with rabbi Michael Lerner, 1995)
- The Future of the Race (with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 1996)
- (Edited by Kelvin Shawn Sealey, 1997)
- (with Sylvia Ann Hewlett, 1998)
- The Future of American Progressivism (with Roberto Unger, 1998)
- (with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2000)
- (George Yancy, editor) (2001)
- (2004)
- Commentary on The Matrix, Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions; see The Ultimate Matrix Collection (with Ken Wilber, 2004).
- Post-Analytic Philosophy, edited with John Rajchman.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Cornell West'.
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