Cornel West — "I'm a blues philosopher, a melancholic optimist."
I'm a blues philosopher, a melancholic optimist.
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More from Cornel West
"The American empire is in decline, and we must be honest about it."
"The struggle for justice is a marathon, not a sprint."
"The function of a university is to produce not just specialists, but citizens."
"Authenticity is a daily struggle."
"Black people have been treated like property, like things, like commodities. And we've still got to love."
About Cornel West (born 1953)
American philosopher, public intellectual, and theologian (Race Matters, 1993; Democracy Matters, 2004), now teaching at Union Theological Seminary. Closely associated with Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Harvard Black-studies collaborator) and Toni Morrison (literary peer and friend). For an intellectual contrast, see Larry Summers, economist and former Harvard President — Summers's 2002 confrontation with West over rap-album recordings, summer-school grading, and political activism led to West's high-profile departure from Harvard for Princeton. The clash became the public face of competing visions of Black scholarship — celebrity public intellectual vs traditional academic gatekeeping.