West, Cornel. He continued, however, to recognize the limits of “ book knowledge ” and to value dedication in action. Copyright 2021 InfluenceWatch. In 2001, Harvard University president and Clinton administration Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers called a meeting with West to suggest that he undertake a new work of scholarship after years of popular engagements, including West’s creation of a critically-panned rap album. [29] [30], West has written 22 books, with Race Matters (1993) and Democracy Matters (2004) becoming the most notable. Princeton University professor, influential black intellectual and, latterly, outspoken critic of President Obama, Cornel West, as photographed in 2005. Cornel West is one of the leading critical intellectuals today. [54] [55], Aside from working directly in organized political movements, West is an outspoken advocate for civil disobedience in service of left-of-center causes. [43] Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, West had allegedly taken weeks off to work on the presidential campaign of former U.S. “Million Man March.” Encyclopædia Britannica, October 9, 2019. Johnson, Hillary Louise. Stimson, Brie. Another neoliberal opportunist.” [104] As Obama prepared to exit office, West claimed that “a post-Obama America is an America in post-traumatic depression.” [105], West’s critique quickly turned personal against Obama, with West claiming that his “dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men.” [106] [107] West’s critique went on to claim that Obama is a “young brother who grows up in a white context” and that, “All he has known culturally is white […] When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening.” [108] Despite the African-American community’s widespread embrace of Obama, West portrayed him as alienated from black Americans, claiming that Obama “feels most comfortable with upper middle-class white and Jewish men who consider themselves very smart, very savvy, and very effective in getting what they want.” [109], Even after Obama left office, West continued to excoriate his presidential record for not being far-left enough, writing a 2017 piece in the Guardian entitled “Pity the Sad Legacy of Barack Obama.” [110] West laments Obama’s lost opportunity to “break from our neoliberal soulcraft,” calling America “rooted in market-driven brands that shun integrity and profit-driven policies that trump public goods.” [111] The article goes on to criticize Obama for not prosecuting Wall Street executives during the 2008 financial crisis, for supporting Israel, for decrying riots in Baltimore, for promoting educational choice and charter schools, and for instituting the Affordable Care Act instead of a fully government-run health care plan. [31] West published Race Matters as a collection of essays in 1993, and it immediately became a New York bestseller that established West in the public arena. [83] Instead of admitting the existence of flaws in democratic socialism, West blamed United States foreign policy on the failure of socialism around the world, alleging that when countries tried to adopt it by “self-determination,” the United States always contributed to the system’s failure. West was introduced by Ty Austin, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Architecture, who outlined the issue West discussed: Institutions benefit by developing stable identities, but too much conformity, or too narrow an institutional identity, can limit an university’s ability to influence an ever-changing world. [4], West is well known for his controversial political stances which stray far outside of mainstream left-of-center thinking. “Cornel West, DSA Honorary Chair.” Democratic Socialists of America. “Cornel West in Ferguson: ‘I Came Here to Go to Jail’.” Truthdig, July 3, 2017. CORNEL WEST: -very much so. Los Angeles Times, February 11, 2020. Salon.com, October 4, 2014. [69] Starr went on to criticize West for having “shamed middle-class black people who mitigate harm by dealing with the neoliberal they know instead of the Democratic Socialist who has to defer his questions about race to his black friend.” [70], Aside from direct political campaigning, West supports civil disobedience and has been arrested several times for protesting in favor of left-of-center causes. Cornel West breaks down the way forward and the strength we must harness during these turbulent times. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in his failed bids for the Democratic presidential nomination. Dr. Cornel West said, “The People’s Party is a prophetic fightback.” The Harvard professor and author said that as he helps MPP build a people’s party, he is bringing with him the musicians that have spoken for so many revolutionaries such as Curtis Mayfield, Sam Cooke and Nina Simone. [58] Even after Sanders exited the race in 2016, West refused to support Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, instead opting to support far-left Green Party candidate Jill Stein. Joseph, Cameron, and Corky Siemaszko. “Cornel West: The Building of a Black Intellectual Empire.” Black Enterprise, February 7, 2013. Updates? Another opportunist. Despite appearing on behalf of the Obama campaign over 65 times, West was reportedly offended when Obama did not invite West his family to the presidential inauguration. West, Cornel. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. He also recorded a hip-hop-like spoken-word album, Sketches of My Culture (2001), and a collection of spoken-word and music, Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations (2007). West, Cornel. [61] In February of 2020, West traveled to South Carolina to call on African Americans to support Sanders as “the most progressive candidate running for president” because “black people…are the most progressive community in this nation.” [62] During the campaign, West took many shots at frontrunner Biden, telling him to “get off his symbolic crack pipe” in order to retain black voters. “Cornel West: ‘The State of Black America in the Age of Obama Has Been One of Desperation, Confusion and Capitulation.’” Salon. [21] In 1968, when West was just 15, he met then-Governor Ronald Reagan and confronted him on his right-of-center policy beliefs. Humanity has experienced an explosion of anti-humanism in the form of authoritarian capitalism, postmodern filter bubbles, and global problems. [64] At the event, Sanders asked West whether a “status quo” politician, hinting at Biden’s lead, would be beneficial to the African-American community. [102] In a 2014 opinion piece for Salon, West claimed that “Black people have suffered more in this age than in the recent past,” calling the Obama presidency one that “conceals the escalating measures of social misery in poor and Black America.” [103] In a later 2014 interview with Salon, West increased his attacks on Obama, calling him a “brown-faced Clinton. [22] During West’s senior year of high school, following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., West organized a series of protests that shut down all schools in his school district until the administration agreed to introduce a black studies program. In 2000, West worked on former Democratic Senator Bill Bradley’s presidential campaign. [77] West has called the Republican party “neofascist” and symptomatic of a “decadent leadership class.” [78] In November 2016, following the election of President Donald Trump, West published an article in The Guardian, calling the President-elect a man “with narcissistic sensibilities and ugly, fascist proclivity” elected by “a xenophobic cry of human hearts for a way out from under the devastation of a disintegrating neoliberal order.” [79], In 2018, the Democratic Socialists of America, a pressure group promoting socialist candidates and policies under the Democratic Party banner, recognized Cornel West as the “honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America Party.” [80] [81] West is a long-time proponent of socialist ideals, defending them on Fox News with Tucker Carlson in 2018 as a “fundamental commitment…to the dignity of ordinary people and to make sure they can live lives of decency.” [82], When pressed to explain where socialism had been successfully adopted before, West could not give an example. “Goodbye, American Neoliberalism. During West’s childhood the family settled in an African American working-class neighbourhood in Sacramento, California. It’s like a Rembrandt Painting, Cornel West Says.” Los Angeles Times. George, Robert P., and Cornel West. [114]. After completing his graduate work, West briefly returned to Harvard as a W.E.B. “Cornel West Makes The Case For Bernie Sanders In South Carolina.” BET.com, February 24, 2020. American philosopher and political activist. He graduated magna cum laude three years later with a bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern languages and literature. Eventually West resigned his position at Harvard and moved to Princeton. [7] After the purported slight, West launched a decade-long series of attacks on President Obama, calling him a “black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs” and a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface.” [8] Later in Obama’s presidency, West called him a “brown-faced Clinton” with a “certain fear of free black men.” [9] [10], Over the course of his academic career, West has published over 20 books, most prominently Race Matters in 1993 and Democracy Matters in 2004. Corrections? [52] [53] Though West later turned on controversial left-progressive activist Al Sharpton, calling him the “bonafide house negro of the Obama plantation,” he nonetheless advised Sharpton’s exploratory presidential campaign in 2004. Schwartz, Ian. Photo by Max Whittaker . [59], In 2020, West was co-chair on Sanders’s presidential campaign, becoming one of Sanders’s most outspoken defenders during his primary bid and participating in several large speaking engagements on his behalf. The Panthers impressed upon him the importance of political activism at the local level and introduced him to the writings of Karl Marx. “Revolution and Religion.” Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. 10, no. [87], West has even used his Christianity to push for left-wing positions in the past, citing the biblical story of Christ banishing predatory bankers from the temple of Jerusalem. In Henderson, 2001). Cornel is a African American born in Tulsa and grew up in Sacramento which heavily influenced who he is today, the city … C. Cornel West answers the door of his mother’s South Land Park Hills home in his signature uniform: a black three-piece suit and starched white shirt, with cuff links and a pocket watch chain that makes him seem a little like a character out of Lewis Carroll—and he is, by virtue of his consistently hypomanic schedule, always on his way to a very important date. [47] Despite the fact that West’s role as University Professor required that he report to Summers, West responded to the requests by arguing, “Professors do not have supervisors, brother. He is a public fgure and influences many people. Oh, I’m so upset.” [66], West’s behavior on the Sanders campaign drew criticism from even the political left. As Cornel West says, "A vote for Biden is . [12], In recent years, West’s academic works have been subject to criticism on the grounds that they are not serious works of scholarship. In 2001 the new Harvard University president, Lawrence Summers, reportedly admonished West in private for devoting too much time to political activity and other extracurricular pursuits. West, Cornel. [1] Over the past two decades, West has become an increasingly public figure, working on behalf of self-proclaimed socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in both his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns. He attended graduate school in philosophy at Princeton University, where he was influenced by the American pragmatist philosopher Richard Rorty. [60]  Most of West’s involvement on the campaign centered around mobilizing African-American voters to support Sanders, who would lose the demographic to former Vice President Joe Biden. . FOX News Network, May 29, 2019. [89], Despite denying support for communism, West appeared in a 2014 film entitled Revolution and Religion, documenting a near four-hour dialogue with Bob Avakian, chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party. At times his activism created tensions with the administrations of the universities where he taught. Lack of self-awareness and self-discipline How one reacts when seeing a homeless person: self-discipline, discomfort 2. [76], In recent years, especially following West’s prominent role on the Sanders presidential campaign, West has become a political pundit, frequently publishing opinion pieces and appearing in the media to excoriate Republicans and moderate Democrats. Henry David Tho... Cornel West is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, author, and public intellectual who describes himself as "a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual". “Black Socialists of America Is Putting Anti-Capitalism on the Map.” The Nation, September 4, 2019. Steinberg, Jacques. Amiri Baraka. A&E Networks Television, July 8, 2020. His grandfather, Clifton L. West Sr., was pastor of the Tulsa Metropolitan Baptist Church. Cornel West, (born June 2, 1953, Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.), American philosopher, scholar of African American studies, and political activist. New York Daily News, August 10, 2015. “Cornel West: ‘He Posed as a Progressive and Turned out to Be Counterfeit. [98] Following the offense, West reportedly left Obama recorded voice messages and prayers from blocked numbers with no return number listed. “‘America’s Moment of Reckoning’: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor & Cornel West on Uprising Against Racism.” Democracy Now!, July 3, 2020. Cornel West and Pragmatism Cornel West is the most important philosopher in America today. Seelye, Katharine Q. His best-known work, Race Matters, a collection of essays, was published exactly one year after the start of riots in Los Angeles that were sparked by the acquittal of four white policemen on charges of aggravated assault in the beating of Rodney King, an African American motorist. [99], West later launched a decade-long barrage of attacks on the former president, calling him a “war criminal” whose support of Israel and drone warfare made him complicit in civilian casualties. Chain, Jonathan. In an interview with Cornel West in their collaboration of Breaking Bread, hooks has been praised as having had a “unique influence on intellectual life, American letters and Black thought” by proposing that people be “contestatory toward the dehumanizing forces of our world” (West qtd. [63], In March of 2020, West appeared on a panel in Flint, Michigan in support of Sanders. “Cornel West among Dozens of Protesters Arrested at St. Louis Courthouse as State of Emergency Declared in Missouri.” nydailynews.com. Ostrow, Teddy. “Cornel West, What You Doin’?” The Root, March 10, 2020. Currently he is a professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Cornel West is a left-wing academic, philosopher, and public intellectual noted for working as one of the honorary chairs of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). “At Odds With Harvard President, Black-Studies Stars Eye Princeton.” The New York Times, December 29, 2001.