DOCSLIB.ORG

The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual 7KH'LOHPPDRIWKH%ODFN,QWHOOHFWXDO $XWKRU V &RUQHO:HVW 6RXUFH&XOWXUDO&ULWLTXH1R $XWXPQ SS 3XEOLVKHGE\8QLYHUVLW\RI0LQQHVRWD3UHVV 6WDEOH85/http://www.jstor.org/stable/1354283 $FFHVVHG Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=umnpress. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of Minnesota Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Cultural Critique. http://www.jstor.org The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual CornelWest The peculiaritiesof the American social structure, and the position of the intellectualclass within it, make the functional role of the negro intellectuala special one. The negro intellectualmust deal intimatelywith the white power structureand culturalapparatus, and the inner realitiesof the black world at one and the same time. But in orderto functionsuccessfully in this role, he has to be acutely aware of the nature of the American social dynamic and how it monitors the ingredients of class stratificationsin American soci- ety.... Therefore the functional role of the negro intellectualdemands that he cannotbe absolutelysep- aratedfrom either the black or white world. Harold Cruse TheCrisis of the NegroIntellectual (1967) The contemporaryblack intellectual faces a grim predicament. Caughtbetween an insolentAmerican society and insouciantblack community, the Afro-Americanwho takes seriously the life of the mind inhabitsan isolatedand insulatedworld. This conditionhas little to do with the motivesand intentionsof blackintellectuals; rather it is an objectivesituation created by circumstancesnot of theirown choos- ing. In this meditativeessay, I will explore this dilemma of the black 109 110 CornelWest intellectualand suggestvarious ways of understandingand transform- ing it. On BecomingA BlackIntellectual The choice of becoming a blackintellectual is an act of self-imposed marginality;it assuresa peripheralstatus in and to the blackcommuni- ty. The quest for literacy indeed is a fundamental theme in Afro- Americanhistory and a basic impulse in the black community. But for blacks,as with most Americans,the uses for literacyare usuallyper- ceived to be for more substantivepecuniary benefits than those of the writer,artist, teacher, or professor.The reasons some black people choose to become serious intellectualsare diverse. But in most cases these reasonscan be tracedback to a common root:a conversion-like experiencewith a highlyinfluential teacher or peer thatconvinced one to dedicateone's life to the activitiesof reading,writing, and convers- ing for the purposesof individualpleasure, personal worth, and politi- cal enhancementof black (and often other oppressed)people. The way in which one becomes a black intellectualis highly prob- lematic. This is so because the traditionalroads others travelto be- come intellectualsin Americansociety have only recentlybeen opened - and remainquite difficult.The main avenuesare the academyor the literatesubcultures of art,culture, and politics.Prior to the acceptance of blackundergraduate students to elitewhite universities and colleges in the late sixties,select black educational institutions served as the ini- tial stimulusfor potentialblack intellectuals. And in all honesty, there wererelatively more and betterblack intellectuals then thannow. After a decent grounding in a black college, where self-worthand self- confidencewere affirmed,bright black studentsthen matriculatedto leadingwhite institutionsto be trainedby liberalsympathetic scholars often of renowned stature.Stellar figures such as W.E.B. DuBois, E. FranklinFrazier, and John Hope Franklinwere products of this sys- tem. For those black intellectuals-to-bewho missed college oppor- tunitiesfor financialor personalreasons, there were literate subcultures - especially in the large urban centers - of writers,painters, musicians, and politicos for unconventional educational enhancement. Major personagessuch as RichardWright, Ralph Ellison, andJames Baldwin were products of this process. Ironically,the presentday academyand contemporaryliterate sub- culturespresent more obstaclesfor young blacksthan those in decades The BlackIntellectual 111 past. This is so for three basic reasons. First, the attitudes of white scholarsin the academyare quite differentthan those in the past. It is much more difficultfor black students, especiallygraduate students, to be taken seriously as potentialscholars and intellectualsowing to the managerialethos of our universitiesand colleges (in which less time is spent with students)and to the vulgar (racist!)perceptions fueled by affirmativeaction programswhich pollute many black student-white professorrelations. Second, literatesubcultures are less open to blacks now than they werethree or four decadesago, not becausewhite avant-gardejournals or leftistgroups are more racisttoday but ratherbecause heated politi- cal and culturalissues, such as the legacy of the BlackPower Move- ment, the Israeli/Palestinianconflict, the invisibilityof Africain Amer- ican political discourse, have created rigid lines of demarcationand distancebetween blackand white intellectuals.Needless to say, black presencein leadingliberal journals like TheNew York Review ofBooks and TheNew YorkTimes Book Review is negligible - nearly non-existent. And more leftist periodicals such as Dissent,Socialist Review, The Nation, and Telos,or avant-garde scholarly ones like Diacritics,Salmagundi, Partisan Review,and Raritando not do much better. Only MonthlyReview, The MassachusettsReview, Boundary 2, and SocialText make persistent efforts to coverblack subject-matter and haveregular black contributors. The point here is not mere finger-pointingat negligentjournals (though it would not hurt matters!),but rather an attempt to highlight the raciallyseparatist publishing patterns and practicesof Americanintel- lectual life which are characteristicof the chasm between black and white intellectuals. Third, the generalpoliticization of Americanintellectual life (in the academyand outside),along with the rightwardideological drift, con- stitutesa hostile climatefor the makingof blackintellectuals. To some extent, this'has alwaysbeen so, but the ideological capitulationof a significantsegment of former left-liberals to the new style conser- vatismand old-styleimperialism has left blackstudents and blackpro- fessors with few allies in the academy and in influentialperiodicals. This hostile climate requires that black intellectualsfall back upon their own resources - institutions, journals, and periodicals - which, in turn, reinforcethe de facto raciallyseparatist practices of American intellectuallife. The tragedyof blackintellectual activity is thatthe blackinstitutional 112 CornelWest support for such activity is in shambles. The quantity and quality of black intellectual exchange is at its worst since the civil war. There is no major black academic journal; no major black intellectual magazine; no major black periodical of highbrow journalism; not even a major black newspaper of national scope. In short, the black infrastructure for intellectual discourse and dialogue is nearly non-existent. This tragedy is, in part, the price for integration - which has yielded mere marginal black groups within the professional disciplines of a frag- mented academic community. But this tragedy also has to do with the refusal of black intellectuals to establish and sustain their own institu- tional mechanisms of criticism and self-criticism, organized in such a way that people of whatever color would be able to contribute to it. This refusal over the past decade is significant in that it has lessened the appetite for, and the capacity to withstand, razor-sharpcriticism among many black intellectuals whose formative years were passed in a kind of intellectual vacuum. So besides the external hostile climate, the tradi- tion of serious black intellectual activity is also threatened from within. The creation of an intelligentsia is a monumental task. Yet black churches and colleges, along with some moral support, served as resources for the first black intellectuals with formal training. The for- mation of high-quality habits of criticism and international networks of serious intellectual exchange among a relatively isolated and in- sulated intelligentsia is a gargantuan endeavor. Yet black intellectuals have litte choice: either continued intellectual lethargy on the edges of the academy and literate subcultures unnoticed by the black com- munity, or insurgent creative activityon the margins of the mainstream
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Post-Truth Politics and Richard Rorty's Postmodernist Bourgeois Liberalism
    Ash Center Occasional Papers Tony Saich, Series Editor Something Has Cracked: Post-Truth Politics and Richard Rorty’s Postmodernist Bourgeois Liberalism Joshua Forstenzer University of Sheffield (UK) July 2018 Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center Occasional Papers Series Series Editor Tony Saich Deputy Editor Jessica Engelman The Roy and Lila Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation advances excellence and innovation in governance and public policy through research, education, and public discussion. By training the very best leaders, developing powerful new ideas, and disseminating innovative solutions and institutional reforms, the Center’s goal is to meet the profound challenges facing the world’s citizens. The Ford Foundation is a founding donor of the Center. Additional information about the Ash Center is available at ash.harvard.edu. This research paper is one in a series funded by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. The views expressed in the Ash Center Occasional Papers Series are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the John F. Kennedy School of Government or of Harvard University. The papers in this series are intended to elicit feedback and to encourage debate on important public policy challenges. This paper is copyrighted by the author(s). It cannot be reproduced or reused without permission. Ash Center Occasional Papers Tony Saich, Series Editor Something Has Cracked: Post-Truth Politics and Richard Rorty’s Postmodernist Bourgeois Liberalism Joshua Forstenzer University of Sheffield (UK) July 2018 Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation Harvard Kennedy School Letter from the Editor The Roy and Lila Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation advances excellence and innovation in governance and public policy through research, education, and public discussion.
    [Show full text]
  • CRISIS of PURPOSE in the IVY LEAGUE the Harvard Presidency of Lawrence Summers and the Context of American Higher Education
    Institutions in Crisis CRISIS OF PURPOSE IN THE IVY LEAGUE The Harvard Presidency of Lawrence Summers and the Context of American Higher Education Rebecca Dunning and Anne Sarah Meyers In 2001, Lawrence Summers became the 27th president of Harvard Univer- sity. Five tumultuous years later, he would resign. The popular narrative of Summers’ troubled tenure suggests that a series of verbal indiscretions created a loss of confidence in his leadership, first among faculty, then students, alumni, and finally Harvard’s trustee bodies. From his contentious meeting with the faculty of the African and African American Studies Department shortly af- ter he took office in the summer of 2001, to his widely publicized remarks on the possibility of innate gender differences in mathematical and scientific aptitude, Summers’ reign was marked by a serious of verbal gaffes regularly reported in The Harvard Crimson, The Boston Globe, and The New York Times. The resignation of Lawrence Summers and the sense of crisis at Harvard may have been less about individual personality traits, however, and more about the context in which Summers served. Contestation in the areas of university governance, accountability, and institutional purpose conditioned the context within which Summers’ presidency occurred, influencing his appointment as Harvard’s 27th president, his tumultuous tenure, and his eventual departure. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution - Noncommercial - No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecom- mons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. You may reproduce this work for non-commercial use if you use the entire document and attribute the source: The Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.
    [Show full text]
  • El Activista Regional
    El Activista Regional Revista de Información y Educación Política del Comité Regional Primer Centenario Año 21, Número 231 Junio de 2020 Que quede claro: “La soberanía nacional reside esencial y originariamente en el pueblo. Todo poder público dimana del pueblo y se instituye para beneficio de éste. El pueblo tiene en todo tiempo el inalienable derecho de alterar o modificar la forma de su gobierno”. (Artículo 39 de la Constitución Política de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos). Página 5 A pesar de los deseos gubernamentales, la riesgosa combinación de crisis sanitaria, económica y de seguridad no se detiene El Activista Regional 231 2 Junio de 2020 Índice -Editorial..…………………………..………………………..3 -10 de junio de 1971 siempre en nuestra memoria.-José -Dirigentes socialistas en la historia de México…….….….4 Antonio Rueda Márquez…………………………………..37 -La investigación clínica en COVID-19.-Dr. Gerardo -Pronunciamiento de sobrevivientes de la guerra sucia,10 Gamba...………..…………………………………………...12 de junio no se olvida...……………………………………...38 -En el escenario más sombrío de la ONU para México, -Recordando a Rafael Aguilar Talamantes en el 49 habría 600 mil muertes por COVID-19.-Alejandro….…..13 aniversario de su liberación...…………………...………...39 -Evolución y “fin” del Covid-19.- Dr. Octavio Obregón -El legasdo revolucionario de Carlos Ferra.-Manuel Díaz y Dr. David Delepine…………………………….…...14 Aguilar Mora……...………………………………………..40 -Covid-19 en México.-MOMPADE……………….……....15 -Falleció Nemí Hakel.- Edgard Sánchez Ramírez……….43 -Los datos de Covid-19 no cuadran, la cifra
    [Show full text]
  • Window on Western, 1998, Volume 05, Issue 01 Kathy Sheehan Western Washington University
    Western Washington University Western CEDAR Window on Western Western Publications Fall 1998 Window on Western, 1998, Volume 05, Issue 01 Kathy Sheehan Western Washington University Alumni, Foundation, and Public Information Offices,es W tern Washington University Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/window_on_western Part of the Higher Education Commons Recommended Citation Sheehan, Kathy and Alumni, Foundation, and Public Information Offices, Western Washington University, "Window on Western, 1998, Volume 05, Issue 01" (1998). Window on Western. 10. https://cedar.wwu.edu/window_on_western/10 This Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the Western Publications at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in Window on Western by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Fall 1998 WINDOWNews for Alumni and Friends of Western WashingtonON University WESTERNVOL 5, NO. 1 ' r.% am 9HI <•* iii m t 4 ; Professor Richard Emmerson, Olscamp award winner Kathy Sheehan photo A youthful curiosity leads to excellence rofessor Richard Emmerson's parents Emmerson, who came to Western in 1990 provided him with a good grounding as chair of the English department, has been in religious matters, helping him to conducting research on the Middle Ages for understand the Bible and biblical his­ nearly 30 years, including a year he spent tory, up to the early Christian church. Later, abroad during his undergraduate days. his high school history teachers taught him During his sophomore year in England, he American history, beginning, of course, with enrolled in his first English literature course 1492.
    [Show full text]
  • Twelve African American Members of the Society for Classical Studies: the First Five Decades (1875-1925)
    Twelve African American Members of the Society for Classical Studies: The First Five Decades (1875-1925) by Michele Valerie Ronnick Copyright © 2018 by the Society for Classical Studies All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published October 2018 For Ward W. Briggs, Jr., Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Meyer Reinhold and Cornel West, my friends and teachers. Introduction Many of us remain unaware that among the members of the American Philological Association (Society for Classical Studies since 2014) during the latter half of the nine- teenth century were people of African and African American descent, for little or noth- ing had been written about them before the American Philological Association published my pamphlet, The First Three African American Members of the American Philological Association in 2001. We have, however, understood for some time that Americans from the late eighteenth century through the nineteenth century were engaged in heated argu- ments about the appropriate type of education needed by Americans in general, and particularly over the needs of the newly-freed slaves after the Civil War. What we had not yet realized was that these were also concerns among members of the black diasporic community itself, which understood that the study of ancient Greek and Latin had long been the intellectual standard
    [Show full text]
  • APA Newsletters
    APA Newsletters Volume 04, Number 2 Spring 2005 NEWSLETTER ON PHILOSOPHY AND THE BLACK EXPERIENCE FROM THE EDITORS, JOHN MCCLENDON AND GEORGE YANCY ARTICLES STEPHEN C. FERGUSON II “As Essay-Review of John H. McClendon’s C. L. R. James’s Notes on Dialectics: Left-Hegelianism or Marxism-Leninism?” CLARENCE SHOLÉ JOHNSON “Author Meets Critics Sessions on Cornel West & Philosophy at the APA Eastern Division Meeting, December 27-30, 2003: Response to My Critics” BOOK REVIEWS Darryl Scriven: A Dealer of Old Clothes: Philosophical Conversations with David Walker REVIEWED BY LEONARD HARRIS Kwasi Wiredu: A Companion to African Philosophy REVIEWED BY CLARENCE SHOLÉ JOHNSON BOOK REVIEWS © 2005 by The American Philosophical Association ISSN: 1067-9464 APA NEWSLETTER ON Philosophy and the Black Experience John McClendon & George Yancy, Co-Editors Spring 2005 Volume 04, Number 2 FROM THE EDITORS ARTICLES In this issue of our Newsletter, Dr. Stephen C. Ferguson, Jr., An Essay-Review of John H. McClendon’s provides us with a comprehensive essay/review of John H. C. L. R. James’s Notes on Dialectics: Left- McClendon III’s C. L. R. James’s Notes on Dialectics: Left Hegelianism or Marxism-Leninism? Ferguson points out that Hegelianism or Marxism-Leninism? McClendon’s book, the first complete text devoted to James’s magnum opus, is a seminal contribution to Marxist-Leninist Stephen C. Ferguson II philosophy as well as to the scholarship on the Trinidadian Auburn University revolutionary activist/intellectual C. L. R. James. Ferguson astutely surveys other secondary literature on James and offers While there has been a relative resurgence of James conclusions based on a fine analysis of McClendon’s method scholarship, many address James in an anachronistic of internal critique of James in contrast to those who seek to manner.
    [Show full text]
  • American Political Thought
    AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT 00-Whittington-FM.indd 1 28/10/15 5:50 AM DESIGN SERVICES OF # 159102 Cust: OUP Au: Whittington Pg. No. i K S4CARLISLE Title: American Political Thought 1e Short / Normal Publishing Services 00-Whittington-FM.indd 2 28/10/15 5:50 AM DESIGN SERVICES OF # 159102 Cust: OUP Au: Whittington Pg. No. ii K S4CARLISLE Title: American Political Thought 1e Short / Normal Publishing Services AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT READINGS AND MATERIALS Keith E. Whittington PRINCETON UNIVERSITY NEW YORK OXFORD OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 00-Whittington-FM.indd 3 28/10/15 5:50 AM DESIGN SERVICES OF # 159102 Cust: OUP Au: Whittington Pg. No. iii K S4CARLISLE Title: American Political Thought 1e Short / Normal Publishing Services Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2017 by Oxford University Press For titles covered by Section 112 of the US Higher Education Opportunity Act, please visit www.oup.com/us/he for the latest information about pricing and alternate formats. Published by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 http://www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
    [Show full text]
  • EPISTEMOLOGÍAS DEL SUR EPISTEMOLOGIAS DO SUL Epistemologías Del Sur - Epistemologias Do Sul / Boaventura De Sousa Santos
    EPISTEMOLOGÍAS DEL SUR EPISTEMOLOGIAS DO SUL Epistemologías del Sur - Epistemologias do Sul / Boaventura De Sousa Santos ... [et al.]; coordinación general de Maria Paula Meneses; Karina Andrea Bidaseca - 1a ed . - Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: CLACSO; Coímbra: Centro de Estudos Sociais - CES, 2018. Libro digital, PDF Archivo Digital: descarga y online ISBN 978-987-722-394-1 1. Epistemología. 2. Ciudadanía. 3. Negros. I. De Sousa Santos, Boaventura II. Meneses, Maria Paula, coord. III. Bidaseca, Karina Andrea, coord. CDD 121 Otros descriptores asignados por CLACSO: Pensamiento Crítico / Pensamiento Descolonial / Descolonización / Independencia / Democracia / Estado / Movimientos Sociales / Emancipación / Eurocentrismo / América Latina EPISTEMOLOGÍAS DEL SUR EPISTEMOLOGIAS DO SUL Maria Paula Meneses y Karina Bidaseca (Coordinadoras) Boaventura de Sousa Santos Maria Paula Meneses Mario Rufer Maria Antonieta Antonacci Ivani Ferreira de Faria Karina Bidaseca João Arriscado Nunes Juan Carlos Gimeno Martín Ángeles Castaño Madroñal Nilma Lino Gomes Jorge Ramos Tolosa Jason Keith Fernandes Rosalva Aída Hernández Castillo Sara Araújo Orlando Aragón Andrade Gladys Tzul Tzul Teresa Cruz e Silva Leonardo Avritzer Alfredo Ramos CLACSO - Secretaría Ejecutiva Pablo Gentili - Secretario Ejecutivo Pablo Vommaro - Director de Grupos de Trabajo, Investigación y Comunicación Nicolás Arata - Director de Formación y Producción Editorial Núcleo de producción editorial y biblioteca virtual Lucas Sablich - Coordinador Editorial Núcleo de diseño y producción web Marcelo Giardino - Coordinador de Arte Sebastián Higa - Coordinador de Programación Informática Jimena Zazas - Asistente de Arte Creemos que el conocimiento es un bien público y común. Por eso, los libros de CLACSO están disponibles en acceso abierto y gratuito. Si usted quiere comprar ejemplares de nuestras publicaciones en versión impresa, puede hacerlo en nuestra Librería Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales.
    [Show full text]
  • Open Source Press
    OPEN SOURCE PRESS Cornel & WESTRoberto UNGERMarch 23rd, 2017 “Down in the dumps, still doping out the contradictions of Billionaire Populism, in a country feeling out of sorts, maybe ‘out of itself.’ Who’s to explain? Roberto Unger is a Brazilian philosopher and lawyer; Cornel West is a lay preacher in the African-American tradition. Every 20 years or so, Professors Unger and West teach a course together at Harvard. This Spring it’s called “American Democracy.” They bring a reading list but no notes to the stage, and they are not teaching political science. They’re teaching a compound of American wisdom literature, theology, history and their own lifetimes’ experience. They’re giving us a taste of it in conversation this week at Harvard Divinity School.” -Christopher Lydon LYDON You gentlemen are teaching–to my mind– the college course of the hour in American Democracy—and it’s not political science. To me, it’s a kind of existentialism of the collective. It’s history. It’s theory. It’s a theory of everything, but–first off– is it one theory of everything or two theories of everything? The Brazilian, the American, the legal, the theological...where are we? WEST I’m just blessed to be in the class with Roberto Unger. I think he’s one of the towering social theorists and leading philosophers of our time. We taught this course over 20 years ago. We read deTocqueville; we read a number of texts having to do with not just American democracy but the American empire and whether in fact we’re wrestling with a culture of decay and a political lethargy and escalating wealth inequality that’s sucking much of the Democratic energies out of the empire.
    [Show full text]
  • 34. Cornel R. West
    LOIS MCFADYEN CHRISTENSEN & TAKISHA DURM 34. CORNEL R. WEST An Intellectual Soul of Justice and Compassion To be human you must bear witness to justice. Justice is what love looks like in public—to be human is to love and be loved. West, 2008, p. 181 Educator, philosopher, and Christian activist Cornel R. West (2008) describes himself as man “cut against the grain” (p. 70). Holding the rare status of both a Harvard and Princeton alumnus, West embodies the work of a passionate scholar, voracious reader, and critical pedagogue. He is inspired by the magic and tradition of myriad melodies of music. Paulo Freire (1998) reminds us that a central ingredient of critical pedagogy is radical love, which implies movement toward freedom. It is in the vain of being influenced by the work of Freire, that a radical love permeates West’s work (Kirylo, 2011). EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION Born in Oklahoma but reared in California, Cornel West—“Corn” for short—grew up close to and in the shadow of his older brother Cliff. In his younger years, his family called him Ronnie, as Ronald is his middle name. Even at a young age, West demonstrated resistant tendencies; as a third grader, he refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Because of this protest, he was: slapped by the teacher; paddled by the principal; and forced to face his parents once he arrived home. Although West claimed what he did what was right, his mother— who served as a former teacher and principal—cried about the episode. His father gave him a whipping.
    [Show full text]
  • Cornel West and Marxist Humanism © the Author(S) 2021
    CRS0010.1177/0896920520988314Critical SociologyFuchs 988314research-article2021 Article Critical Sociology 1 –25 Cornel West and Marxist Humanism © The Author(s) 2021 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920520988314DOI: 10.1177/0896920520988314 Christian Fuchs journals.sagepub.com/home/crs University of Westminster, UK Abstract Humanity has experienced an explosion of anti-humanism in the form of authoritarian capitalism, postmodern filter bubbles, and global problems. Marxist/Socialist Humanism is the proper answer to the deep crisis of humanity. In this context, this article asks ‘How can Cornel West’s works inform a contemporary Marxist humanist theory of society?’ Taking West’s works as a starting point, what are the key elements of a Marxist humanist theory of society? Cornel West is one of the leading critical intellectuals today. His work has fused anti-racist theory, Black Liberation Theology, Marxist theory, pragmatism, and existentialism. This article especially focuses on West’s understanding of humanism and culture. It shows how his works and praxis can inform the reinvigoration of Marxist Humanism in the age of authoritarian capitalism as a socialist response. West’s thought can and should also inform the analysis of alienation, exploitation, domination, culture, the public sphere, the critique of ideology, and popular culture. Keywords Cornel West, Marxist Humanism, Black Liberation Theology, racism, culture, communication, Christianity, racial capitalism Introduction: Foundations of Marxist Humanism This article asks and tries to answer the following questions: How can Cornel West’s works inform a contemporary Marxist humanist theory of society? Taking West’s works as a starting point, what are the key elements of a Marxist humanist theory of society? The approach this article takes is theoretical in nature.
    [Show full text]
  • Cornel West, “The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual,” Critical Quarterly 29 (4) (1987), 39-52
    Cornel West, “The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual,” Critical Quarterly 29 (4) (1987), 39-52. The peculiarities of the American social structure, and the position of the intellectual class within it, make the functional role of the Negro intellectual a special one. The Negro intellectual must deal intimately with the white power structure and cultural apparatus, and the inner realities of the black world at one and the same time. But in order to function successfully in this role, he has to be acutely aware of the nature of the American social dynamic and how it monitors the ingredients of class stratifications in American society. Therefore the functional role of the Negro intellectual demands that he cannot be absolutely separated from either the black or white world. Harold Cruse, The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual (1967) The contemporary black intellectual faces a grim predicament. Caught between an insolent American society and an insouciant black community, the African American who takes seriously the life of the mind inhabits an isolated and insulated world. This condition has little to do with the motives and intentions of black intellectuals; rather it is an objective situation created by circumstances not of their own choosing. In this meditative essay, I will explore this dilemma of the black intellectual and suggest various ways of understanding and transforming it. On Becoming a Black Intellectual The choice of becoming a black intellectual is an act of self-imposed marginality; it assures a peripheral status in and to the black community. The quest for literacy indeed is a fundamental theme in African-American history and a basic impulse in the black community.
    [Show full text]