Taking a Trip “West” With My Favorite Public Intellectual

I have long been drawn to great critical thinkers and philosophers who are able to tantalizingly weave a set of esoteric ideas together. I’m enthralled by those who challenge my prevailing views and force me to pause and look up words I’m unfamiliar with. 

My late father held these sorts of attributes. A 1958 political science graduate with a B.A. degree from The Ohio State University, he eventually became Special Assistant to the President and Secretary of the Board of Trustees there.  Erudite and extremely well-read, he provided me with a foundational set of principles that continue to stretch me to this day. 

With my father having passed on in 1996, I have looked to others for wisdom and insights about life. And there is no one that has a bigger impact on my prevailing thinking than Cornel West. 

A noted Ivy League academic (he’s now back at Union Theological Seminary, where he first taught 45 years ago) along with a relentless advocate for the oppressed and marginalized, West has emerged as one of the foremost champions in the U.S. for the poor. 

A powerful figure who dons a graying afro and possesses Marxist proclivities reminiscent of sixties Black Panther militant, West is comfortable in his own skin. Explaining why he is always adorned in black clothes during his public appearances, he notes: 

“I’ve kind of always called it what Martin Luther King did, which was cemetery clothes. When he was organizing down in Birmingham, he’d tell people, ‘I want you to come in your suits, because those are your cemetery clothes, and you’ve got to be ready to die for this movement. You’ve got to be coffin ready.’”

Despite appearing to some as radical in both his appearance and political views, West is actually a thoughtful, deeply compassionate, and disarming figure. While unabashedly left in his thinking, he has been equally supportive as well as critical of former U.S. president Barack Obama. I also find myself humored when he affectionately refers to“Brotha (Donald) Trump” as someone he admits he shares “gangster proclivities” with. 

But West’s leftist advocacy is far from what I’m drawn to as Ayn Rand inspired Objectivist. Rather, it’s his ability to use words to sketch out a mosaic of the human condition and the existential journey we all face. 

My favorite book of his is Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, a memoir where he wrestles with his own human frailty and vulnerability while admitting that he is an ongoing work in progress. More than anything it offers a sobering reminder that those we cross paths with in this lifetime are not mere window dressing as they can play a pivotal role in molding our lives in ways that might never imagine. 

In the book West admits to have “never taken the time to focus on the inner dynamics of the dark precincts of my soul." That is, until he penned this book. This powerful memoir takes the reader into the deep recess of West’s transformation from what he affectionately refers to as a “schoolyard gangster and Robin Hood” into a modern day icon. 

Philosopher. Jazz Aficionado. Erudite. Polymath. Raw. Screwed. Urbane. Bold. Compassionate. — these are all attributes that I’d used to describe West and his thought provoking discourse. As someone who reportedly reads for two to three hours a night, listening to West is like being subjected to oratorical intellectual genius on RedBull. 

He self-describes himself as "a jazz man in the life of the mind, and a blues man in the world of ideas," someone carrying on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Malcolm X, or Rabbi Joshua Heschel. In his speeches and public appearances, West compassionately brings to light the enduring struggles of the poor and marginalized while relentlessly challenging us to bring the best version of ourselves to the table at all times. 

Listening to West, you quickly pick up the spirit of his paternal grandfather who was a pastor. The preacher in him can ignite an audience into a fever pitch much like Black church pastors of old. 

Books like “Brother West” along with his spirited lectures  have held me captive for hours on end as I find myself mesmerized by his uncanny ability to syncopate a firehose of disparate ideas.  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.” With his encyclopedic mind, he seems to do this with effortless ease with a steady spice of humor. 

He is the true essence of a critical thinker and is a formidable opponent for anyone who has the gumption to debate him. To this point, check out this brief exchange between West and Fox News host Tucker Carlson in 2020. 

What West shares is based on real world experiential truths, undoubtedly informed by his multiple failed marriages, his two children, his near-fatal experience with prostate cancer, even his brief period of homelessness in a Boston area park while pursuing his Ph.D. It’s here where he highlights what it means to live what he affectionately calls "an aspiring bluesman in a world of ideas and a jazzman in the life of the mind,” often quoting Samuel Beckett's frequent refrain "Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better" 

At a time when our world often finds itself hopelessly divided in vitriolic candor, West offers a refreshing discourse on love and compassion for all races, religions and political persuasions. Irrespective of how far he ventures from home at times in his dialogue and messaging, he remains embodied to a moral compass that consistently points West. 

For West, it’s not about friend or foe. Rather, for him, finding solutions to some of our most pressing societal and world issues is predicated on having discussions about real world, human experiences viewed from a philosophical lense. 

The themes of Dr. West’s canon of works— self-discovery, education, community, and living for a purpose — are key pillars of what we should all examine in our life journey. 

For me, I find myself particularly struck by his sincerity in exposing his own vulnerabilities, allowing one to see pieces of themselves in his book and speeches. Even though with all of this human wrestling, he displays a rare display of self-esteem and self-love, along with a radically sincere love for others, that's truly admirable. 

West is unapologetic in his theology, expressing a steadfast commitment to being a child of God. This he holds near and dear, an unquestioned piece of who he is and everything he does he does and is about.

In the end, this book offers a sobering reminder that those who we cross paths with and encounter on a daily basis are to be acknowledged with love, compassion, and grace as they can actually shape our lives in ways that are unconscionable. For that, I'm thankful for my regular treks out West.