Cornel West facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Cornel West
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West in 2018
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| Born |
Cornel Ronald West
June 2, 1953 |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) Princeton University (MA, PhD) |
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Notable work
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| Spouse(s) |
Hilda Holloman
(m. 1977, divorced)Ramona Santiago
(m. 1981; div. 1986)Elleni Gebre Amlak
(m. 1992, divorced)Leslie Kotkin
(m. 2015; div. 2018)Annahita Mahdavi
(m. 2021) |
| Era | Contemporary philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School |
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| Institutions | Union Theological Seminary Yale University Harvard University Princeton University Dartmouth College University of Paris in Saint-Denis |
| Thesis | Ethics, Historicism and the Marxist Tradition (1980) |
| Doctoral advisor | Raymond Geuss, Sheldon Wolin |
| Doctoral students | Leah Hunt-Hendrix |
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Main interests
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Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, theologian, political activist, politician, social critic, public intellectual, and occasional actor. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West's primary philosophy focuses on the roles of race, gender, and class struggle in American society. A socialist, West draws intellectual contributions from multiple traditions, including Christianity, the black church, democratic socialism, left-wing populism, neopragmatism, and transcendentalism. Among his most influential books are Race Matters (1993) and Democracy Matters (2004).
West is an outspoken voice in left-wing politics in the United States. During his career, he has held professorships and fellowships at Harvard University, Yale University, Union Theological Seminary, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Pepperdine University, and the University of Paris. He is a frequent commentator on politics and social questions in many media outlets.
From 2010 through 2013, West co-hosted the radio program Smiley and West with Tavis Smiley. He has been featured in several documentaries, and made appearances in Hollywood films such as The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, as well as providing commentary for both films. West has also made several spoken word and hip hop albums, and due to this work, has been named MTV's Artist of the Week. West co-hosted a podcast entitled The Tight Rope, with Tricia Rose. He is a frequent conversation partner with his friend Robert P. George, a prominent conservative intellectual, with the two often speaking together at colleges and universities on the meaning of liberal arts education, free speech, and civil dialogue. In 2020, he was listed by Prospect magazine as the fourth-greatest thinker for the COVID-19 era.
West was an independent candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election.
Contents
Early life and education
West was born on June 2, 1953, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up in Sacramento, California, where he graduated from John F. Kennedy High School. His mother, Irene Rayshell (Bias), was a teacher and principal. His father, Clifton Louis West Jr., was a general contractor for the U.S. Department of Defense. His grandfather, Clifton L. West Sr., was pastor of the Tulsa Metropolitan Baptist Church. Irene B. West Elementary School in Elk Grove, California, is named after his mother.
As a teen, West marched in civil rights demonstrations and organized protests demanding black studies courses at his high school, where he was the student body president. He 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".
In 1970, after graduation from high school, he enrolled at Harvard College and took classes taught by the philosophers Robert Nozick and Stanley Cavell. In 1973, West was graduated from Harvard magna cum laude in Near Eastern languages and civilization. He credits Harvard with exposing him to a broader range of ideas and that he was influenced by his professors as well as the Black Panther Party (BPP). West says his Christianity prevented him from joining the BPP, instead choosing to work in local breakfast, prison, and church programs. After completing his undergraduate work at Harvard, West enrolled at Princeton University, where he received a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1980, completing a dissertation under the supervision of Raymond Geuss and Sheldon Wolin. He became the first African American to graduate from Princeton with a PhD degree in philosophy.
At Princeton, West was heavily influenced by the neopragmatism of Richard Rorty. Rorty remained a close friend and colleague of West's for many years following West's graduation. The title of West's dissertation was Ethics, Historicism, and the Marxist Tradition, which was later revised and published under the title The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought.
Career
Academic appointments
In his late 20s, he returned to Harvard as a W. E. B. Du Bois Fellow before becoming an assistant professor at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. In 1984, 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 labor union and divestment from apartheid South Africa. One of the protests resulted in his being arrested and jailed. As punishment, the university administration canceled his leave for the spring term in 1987, leading him to commute from Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, where he was teaching two classes, across the Atlantic Ocean to the University of Paris.
He then returned to Union Theological Seminary for one year before going to Princeton to become a professor of religion and director of the program in African American Studies from 1988 to 1994. After Princeton, he accepted an appointment as professor of African American studies at Harvard University, with a joint appointment at the Harvard 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. West used this new position to teach in not only African American studies, but also courses in divinity, religion, and philosophy. West was also inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa in 1998 at SUNY Plattsburgh.
West left Harvard after a widely publicized 2002 dispute with the university's president, Lawrence Summers. That year, West returned to Princeton, where he helped found the Center for African American studies in 2006. In 2012, West left Princeton and returned to the institution where he began his teaching career, Union Theological Seminary. His departure from Princeton was quite amicable. He continued to teach occasional courses at Princeton in an emeritus capacity as the Class of 1943 University Professor in the Center for African American Studies.
West returned to Harvard in November 2016, leaving Union Theological Seminary for a nontenured position as Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy. He was appointed jointly at the Harvard Divinity School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of African and African American Studies.
In February 2021, reports circulated that West was denied consideration for tenure at Harvard and that he had threatened to leave the university again. On March 8, 2021, West announced that he would leave Harvard and move to the Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan. He submitted a resignation letter to Harvard on June 30, 2021. West implied that the decision to deny him tenure was retaliation for his critical stance on Israel and the Palestinian cause.
On July 1, 2021, West rejoined the faculty of Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan, holding the prestigious Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair. Affiliated with Columbia University, since 1928, Union Theological Seminary in the city of New York has served as the Columbia University constituent faculty of theology.
The recipient of more than 20 honorary degrees and an American Book Award, West has written or contributed to more than twenty published books. West is a long-time member of the Democratic Socialists of America, for which he has served as honorary chair. He is also a co-founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives. West is on the advisory board of the International Bridges to Justice. In 2008, he received special recognition from the World Cultural Council. West is also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and its World Policy Council, a think tank whose purpose is to expand involvement of Alpha Phi Alpha in politics and social policy to encompass international concerns.
West has been compared to W. E. B. Du Bois as a prolific African-American thinker and has been cited as "[p]erhaps the most influential contemporary recover of Du Bois". By establishing West within Du Bois's tradition of racial thought, scholars emphasize the similarities in their intellectual positions and their aesthetic presences. They crafted their physical attire to match that of disciplined men of the black race and both Du Bois and West often wore multiple-piece suits and ties. Their modest clothing choices similarly reflected Du Bois's belief in "the mind and the body as disciplined and contained".
West has been widely cited in the popular press. His scholarship has been criticized as well as praised; The New Republic literary editor Leon Wieseltier called West's writing "sectarian, humorless, pedantic, and self-endeared".
In 1997, West was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society, and in 1999, to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Broadcast, film, and recording
West appears as Councillor West in both The Matrix Reloaded (2001) and The Matrix Revolutions (2003) and also provides the voice for this character in the video game Enter the Matrix. In addition, West provides philosophical commentary on all three Matrix films in The Ultimate Matrix Collection, along with the integral theorist Ken Wilber.
West has made several appearances in documentary films, such as 2008's Examined Life, a documentary featuring several academics discussing philosophy in real-world contexts. West, "driving through Manhattan, ... compares philosophy to jazz and blues, reminding us how intense and invigorating a life of the mind can be". He also appears in conversation with Bill Withers in the 2009 documentary Still Bill.
West has made frequent appearances on the political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher.
A character based on West and events in his career appeared in the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "Anti-Thesis", significant for introducing the recurring villain character Nicole Wallace.
In May 2012, West guest-starred in the sixth season of the American television comedy series 30 Rock, "What Will Happen to the Gang Next Year?".
West recorded a recitation of John Mellencamp's song "Jim Crow" for inclusion on the singer's box set On the Rural Route 7609 in 2009.
In 2010, he completed recording with the Cornel West Theory, a hip hop band endorsed by West.
He also has released several hip-hop-soul-spoken word albums. In 2001, West released his first album, Sketches of My Culture. Street Knowledge followed in 2004. In 2007, West released his third album, entitled Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations, which included collaborations with the likes of Prince, Talib Kweli, Jill Scott, Andre 3000, KRS-One, Killer Mike, and the late Gerald Levert. West appeared on Immortal Technique's song "Sign of the Times", which appeared on the 2011 album The Martyr. In 2012, he was featured on Brother Ali's song "Letter to My Countrymen", which appeared on the album Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color.
In April 2019, Robert P. George and West participated in an "assembly series" discussion at Washington University in St. Louis entitled "Liberal Arts Education: What's The Point?"
West is also the co-host, along with Tricia Rose, of the podcast The Tight Rope.
Activism
Politics
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West has been involved with such projects as the Million Man March and Russell Simmons's Hip-Hop Summit, and he has worked with such public figures as Al Sharpton, whose 2004 presidential campaign West advised.
In 2000, West worked as a senior advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley. When Bradley lost in the primaries, West became a prominent and active supporter of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader, speaking at several Nader rallies. Some Greens sought to draft West to run as a presidential candidate in 2004. West declined, citing his active participation in the Al Sharpton campaign. West, along with other prominent Nader 2000 supporters, signed the "Vote to Stop Bush" statement urging progressive voters in swing states to vote for John Kerry, despite strong disagreements with many of Kerry's policies.
In April 2002, West and Rabbi Michael Lerner engaged in an act of civil disobedience by sitting in the street in front of the U.S. State Department "in solidarity with suffering Palestinian and Israeli brothers and sisters". West said, "[w]e must keep in touch with the humanity of both sides". 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". In 2011, West called on the University of Arizona to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
West also serves as co-chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (formerly the Tikkun Community). He co-chaired the National Parenting Organization's Task Force on Parent Empowerment and participated in President Bill Clinton's National Conversation on Race. He has publicly endorsed In These Times magazine by calling it: "The most creative and challenging news magazine of the American left." He is also a contributing editor for Sojourners magazine.
West supports People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in its Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign, aimed at eliminating what PETA describes as the inhumane treatment of chickens by KFC. 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."
West is a member of the Campaign for Peace and Democracy.
In 2011, West expressed his frustration with some critics of Occupy Wall Street, who said the movement lacked a clear and unified message.
On October 16, 2011, West was in Washington, D.C., participating in the Occupy D.C. protests on the steps of the Supreme Court over the court's decision in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case the previous year. Five days later, he was arrested during an Occupy Wall Street protest in Harlem against the New York Police Department's stop and frisk policy.
2024 presidential campaign
On June 5, 2023, West announced he would run in the 2024 presidential election under the People's Party. West's decision to run with the People's Party sparked criticism. On June 14, West announced that he would instead seek the Green Party nomination, running a campaign centered around support for Medicare for All, public housing, action on climate change, and drastically cutting the U.S. military budget.
On October 5, 2023, West announced that he was abandoning his candidacy for the Green nomination, and would instead continue his presidential bid as an independent candidate.
As of August 2024, West was polling below 1% nationally, his campaign was $17,000 in debt, and he was no longer actively campaigning.
Published works
- "Black Theology and Marxist Thought" (1979) – essay
- Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity (1982)
- Post-Analytic Philosophy, edited with John Rajchman (1985)
- Prophetic Fragments (1988)
- The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism (1989)
- Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life (with bell hooks, 1991)
- The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought (1991)
- Prophetic Thought in Postmodern Times: Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism (1993)
- Race Matters (1993)
- Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America (1994)
- Jews and Blacks: A Dialogue on Race, Religion, and Culture in America (with rabbi Michael Lerner, 1995)
- The Future of the Race (with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 1996)
- Restoring Hope: Conversations on the Future of Black America (1997)
- The War Against Parents: What We Can Do for America's Beleaguered Moms and Dads (with Sylvia Ann Hewlett, 1998)
- The Future of American Progressivism (with Roberto Unger, 1998)
- The African-American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Century (with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 2000)
- Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism (2004)
- Commentary on The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions; see The Ultimate Matrix Collection (with Ken Wilber, 2004)
- Hope on a Tightrope: Words & Wisdom (2008)
- Brother West: Living & Loving Out Loud (2009)
- The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto (with Tavis Smiley, 2012)
- Pro+Agonist: The Art of Opposition (2012)
- Black Prophetic Fire (2014)
Filmography
- Film
- Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal as himself
- The Matrix Reloaded (2003) as Councilor West
- The Matrix Revolutions (2003) as Councilor West
- Street Fight (2005)
- Examined Life (2008)
- The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (2009) as Don Sexton
- #Bars4Justice (2015) as himself
- Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary (2016) as himself
- No Safe Spaces (2019) as himself.
- Television
- "What Will Happen to the Gang Next Year?" on 30 Rock (2012) as himself
Discography
- Albums
- Sketches of My Culture (2001)
- Street Knowledge (2004)
- Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations (2007) (with BMWMB)
- Guest appearances
- E-40 – "Born in the Struggle" from Revenue Retrievin': Overtime Shift (2011)
- Bootsy Collins – "Freedumb" from Tha Funk Capital of the World (2011)
- Immortal Technique – "Sign of the Times" from The Martyr (2011)
- Brother Ali – "Letter to My Countrymen" from Mourning in America and Dreaming in Color (2012)
- Terence Blanchard – Choices (2009)
- Terence Blanchard – Breathless (2015)
- Terence Blanchard – Live (2018)
See also
In Spanish: Cornel West para niños
- American philosophy
- Black existentialism
- Christian left
- List of American philosophers
