I Love Me Some Brotha West

Philosopher . Erudite. Polymath. Encyclopedic Mind. Shrewd. Loving. Urbane. Bold

Relentless Advocate for the Oppressed

These are just a few of my descriptives for preeminent Harvard intellectual and social justice advocate Cornel West. One of the most prolific thinkers of our time, his spirited lectures have held me captive for hours on end. 

His at times nauseatingly liberal views aside, West oratorical style is mesmerizing and views thought-provoking. I’ve always struck by his ability to take random themes and connect them into a whole with effortless ease. One moment he’ll be pontificating about Hegelian philosophy; the next an exegesis on the towering influence of jazz musician John Coltrain and his body of musical work known as “Love Supreme.” 

While appearing to some as radical in both his appearance and political views, West is self-effacing, humorous, and disarming with topics that most would consider controversial. Most notably, I always find myself humored when he affectionately refers to our current U.S. POTUS as “Brotha Trump, someone he admits to sharing“gangster proclivities” with. 

Why Race Matters

I just completed reading the 25th Anniversary Edition of West’s book Race Matters, a presciently relevant piece for the times that we find ourselves in at present. 

First published in 1993, on the eve of the one year anniversary of the Los Angeles riots, the book has been a perennial bestseller, one that is undoubtedly receiving a great deal of present attention amidst the racial justice protest taking place across the world. 

In it, he adroitly navigates through a wide spectrum of themes and topics including Black conservatism, Black-Jewish relations, myths about Black sexuality, and the legacy of Malcolm X. 

His insights are raw, emotive, and deeply provocative as he calls for a moral and spiritual awakening for America.

Below, I’ve pulled out five of his most significant points by Dr. West from his book for your reflection. This is then followed by a full-length video of one of his “Race Matters” presentations. 

At the end, I invite you to share your thoughts and comments for the “Great Books, Great Minds” community

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On America’s Race Problem

“To engage in a serious discussion of race in America, we must begin not with the problems of black people but with the flaws of American society—flaws rooted in historic inequalities and longstanding cultural stereotypes.”

On The Crisis of Black Leadership in America

“How do we account for the absence of the Frederick Douglasses, Sojourner Truths, Martin Luther King, Jrs., Malcolm Xs, and Fannie Lou Hamers in our time? Why hasn’t black America produced intellectuals of the caliber of W. E. B. Du Bois, Anna Cooper, E. Franklin Frazier, Oliver Cox, and Ralph Ellison in the past few decades?”

On The Rise of Black Conservatism

“The publication of Thomas Sowell’s Race and Economics in 1975 marked the rise of a novel phenomenon in the United States: a visible and aggressive black intellectual conservative assault on traditional black liberal ideas. The promotion of conservative perspectives is not new in African American history.” 

“The preeminent black conservative of this century, George S. Schuyler, published a witty and acerbic column in the influential black newspaper The Pittsburgh Courier for decades, and his book Black and Conservative is a minor classic in African American letters.” 

“Similarly, the reactionary essays (some of which appeared in Readers’ Digest) and Republican Party allegiance of the most renowned African American woman of letters, Zora Neale Hurston, are often overlooked by her contemporary feminist and womanist followers. Yet Sowell’s book still signified something new—a bid for conservative hegemony in black political and intellectual leadership in the post–Civil Rights era.”

On Black Sexuality and Race Relations In America

“AMERICANS are obsessed with sex and fearful of black sexuality. The obsession has to do with a search for stimulation and meaning in a fast-paced, market-driven culture; the fear is rooted in visceral feelings about black bodies fueled by sexual myths of black women and men. The dominant myths draw black women and men either as threatening creatures who have the potential for sexual power over whites or as harmless, desexed underlings of white culture.”

“My thesis is that black sexuality is a taboo subject in white and black America and that a candid dialogue about black sexuality between and within these communities is requisite for healthy race relations in America.”

“White fear of black sexuality is a basic ingredient of white racism. And for whites to admit this deep fear even as they try to instill and sustain fear in blacks is to acknowledge a weakness—a weakness that goes down to the bone. Social scientists have long acknowledged that interracial sex and marriage is the most perceived source of white fear of black people—just as the repeated castrations of lynched black men cries out for serious psycho-cultural explanation.”

On Malcolm X and the Impact of Black Rage

“Malcolm X’s articulation of black rage was not directed first and foremost at white America. Rather, Malcolm believed that if black people felt the love that motivated that rage the love would produce a psychic conversion in black people; they would affirm themselves as human beings, no longer viewing their bodies, minds, and souls through white lenses, and believing themselves capable of taking control of their own destinies. In American society—especially during Malcolm X’s life in the 1950s and early 1960s—such a psychic conversion could easily result in death. A proud, self-affirming black person who truly believed in the capacity of black people to throw off the yoke of white racist oppression and control their own destiny usually ended up as one of those strange fruits that Southern trees bore, about which the great Billie Holliday poignantly sang.”

“Malcolm X was the first great black spokesperson who looked ferocious white racism in the eye, didn’t blink, and lived long enough to tell America the truth about this glaring hypocrisy in a bold and defiant manner. Unlike Elijah Muhammad and Martin Luther King, Jr., he did not live long enough to forge his own distinctive ideas and ways of channeling black rage in constructive channels to change American society. Only if we are as willing as Malcolm X to grow and confront the new challenges posed by the black rage of our day will we take the black freedom struggle to a new and higher level. The future of this country may well depend on it.”