Posted on 01/08/2002 1:56:43 PM PST by kattracks
CNSNews.com) - Cornel West, the Harvard professor and author at the center of a racial controversy at the prestigious school, is being criticized for his contributions to academia by both the political left and right. Author David Horowitz said West is "an incredible intellectual lightweight" who has only achieved success by playing racial politics.
The flap began when Harvard president and former Clinton Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers admonished West, a professor with Harvard's Afro-American studies department, for a variety of perceived offenses. West was called to task for allegedly inflating student grades, his stint as a singer in a self described "hip hop" CD, his role as a leader in Al Sharpton's nascent presidential campaign and his penchant for writing what Summers deemed pop culture books instead of academic books. An outraged West announced that he felt "attacked and insulted" and would not tolerate "disrespect."
Sharpton and Jesse Jackson then waded into the academic dispute. Jackson said the "tension at Harvard is having an impact across the country." Sharpton threatened a lawsuit against Harvard as "an aggrieved party" because West was rebuked for his involvement in Sharpton's campaign.
West is the author of a best selling book, "Race Matters", reviewed by the New York Times as a "compelling blend of philosophy, sociology and political commentary." According to the Times, "One can only applaud the ferocious moral vision and astute intellect on display in these pages."
West is still mulling over whether to leave Harvard for Princeton University. He told National Public Radio that, "In a deep sense, I weep for Harvard."
Race Card?
Author and former 60's radical David Horowitz told CNSNews.com that West "got where he got by politics and by playing the race card which he has played liberally in this conflict."
"I don't believe that Cornel West has ever written a work of serious scholarship," Horowitz added.
Horowitz, the author of Hating Whitey, a critique of the civil rights establishment, called West a "Marxist" who is cozying up to "anti-Semitic blacks" like Louis Farrakhan. Horowitz criticized West for alleging that America had been "niggerized by the terrorist attacks." According to Horowitz, West "means that blacks in America are subject to daily World Trade Center attacks. He's a racial demagogue."
The Economist Magazine editorialized that West's recent foray as a rap musician proved "that the medium is best left to the likes of Snoop Doggy Dogg rather than Harvard professors." The venerable magazine also mocks West's Web site because it "is shot through with embarrassing boasts and grammatical errors."
On his Web site, West, while promoting his hip hop CD titled Sketches of My Culture, states that "In all modesty, this project constitutes a watershed moment in musical history." This prompted the Economist Magazine to ask, "What on earth would the immodest version be?"
The Economist also ridiculed the typographical errors on West's Web site and sided with Summers' original critique. "[The Web site] describes Mr. West as "one of the most preeminent minds of our time" and refers to somebody called "Nietzche." So Mr. Summers clearly has a point." (Editors note: Correct spelling is Nietzsche)
The Washington Post's liberal columnist Mary McGrory sarcastically noted that West and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the chairman of the Afro-American Studies Department at Harvard, are "academic rock stars" who are threatening "to pull up stakes and make tracks for Princeton, where they indicate they will be ever so much more appreciated."
McGrory, in an article titled Hullabaloo at Harvard, referred to West and his colleagues as "academic divas" from a "spoiled college department." She criticized the involvement of Jackson and Sharpton in the dispute, calling them "two premier demagogues" and "two of the world's most preposterous personalities."
The New Republic Magazine has also taken West to task for his academic achievements. Writing in an essay called "The Unreal World of Cornel West" in 1995, literary editor Leon Wieseltier called West's collection of books "almost completely worthless." He chided West for his view that "Marxist thought becomes even more relevant after the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe than it was before."
West also wrote: "The relative unity and strength of our capitalist foes requires that we must come together if our struggle is to win!" Wieseltier said the comment reveals West's philosophy as "monuments to the devastation of a mind by the squalls of theory."
Grumbling at Harvard?
Harvard only has 14 designated "university professors", one of whom is West. According to Horowitz, for West to be chosen "one of only 14 out of 2,000 professors, there must be a hell of a lot of grumbling." Horowitz believes Summers was pressured by the faculty to rein in West.
"Cornel West is extravagantly public in his buffoonery, so it is hard to ignore him," Horowitz stated.
He said the elevation of West to the level of "university professorship" was "a racist joke because he's black. [They] put an idiot into one of Harvard's most distinguished professorships and no one will say anything."
Horowitz believes racial politics trump competence, noting that conservative author Thomas Sowell and economist Walter Williams, whom he considers intellectuals "could not get a job at Harvard."
Summers, who has now backed away from his criticisms of West and apologized, has agreed to meet with Jesse Jackson over Harvard's commitment to affirmative action.
Horowitz said Summers thought he could confront West because he, Summers, was a liberal from the Clinton administration. But, Horowitz now believes Summers is now "groveling" to the Afro-American studies department at Harvard and to Jackson.
"This kind of appeasement of bad behavior only encourages bad behavior," stated Horowitz.
Horowitz says Summers should not fear West's threat to leave for Princeton University. "The Harvard [Afro-American studies] department is undoubtedly the best department, but if it lost Cornel West, it would be even better," he said.
West did not respond to a request for an interview. He told National Public Radio last week that he will not talk to the media because there are "a lot of things going on that it's hard for the newspapers to really tell the truth about."
You know it really is laugh a minute when reading horowitz. what a goof!
Big Brass BTTT
I find it likely the other West in the picture and credits is his son. The website is amusing, the claims of grandeur notwithstanding. LOL
...and this is a news flash? If the truth be said, banishment from FR would follow quickly.
The truth is being exposed by DAVID HOROWITZ and his website Frontpagemag.com. Until now, most Americans have been forced to watch our country and its culture drift further and further to the left. Not knowing the true reasons for this degeneration, we have felt helpless to stop it. We have wasted our time and our money supporting political candidates who have cynically sold us false promises about their ability to restore true American values. Now, after years of investigation and with precious little time to spare, DAVID HOROWITZ has finally found the ACTUAL SOURCE of this foul tide. Armed with irrefutable proof, he has exposed the CONSERVATIVE HOLOCAUST that has until now been secreted behind the tall, ivy-covered walls of academia.
Freepers, I personally urge you to support Mr. Horowitz's campaign in every way possible. Forget the politicians. Instead, speak to your neighbors. Form committees. Demand to see what is actually written in the textbooks given to our kids. Write letters demanding protection for conservative students and faculty. Show up at David's campaign stops. Visit Frontpagemag.com. Finally, and most importantly, I urge you to immediately send David as much money as you possibly can to save our conservative values from extinction. And please, FReepers, DIG DEEP because this is no time for half measures.
With David's leadership, we can and we will DEFEAT INTELLECTUAL TERRORISM and save our country from the evils of FULL BLOWN SOCIALISM.
Thank you, America, LET'S ROLL!
I suppose a purge that would make marxists proud is in order then.
And Horowitz? Who's he?
On the whole, then, I suspect it is a rather good thing if they are now trashing their imgage and the credentials of their faculty by promoting clowns. The prestige of Harvard has been a misused weapon of the Left for too long.
William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site
West is very well read to be sure, though he did a constant rhetorical dance throughout, around and away from the idea of personal responsibility, and accountability even before God, as he claimed to be a Christian since 1961.
That he would, "seek the empowerment of people from underneath", sorts well with the likes of associates such as Al Sharpton, whom he currently champions for President, and Antonio Villaraigsa, who can tie his loss in the recent LA mayoral race to having been up to his lying neck in Clinton's pardon of cocaine trafficker Carlos Vignalli.
I'll sympathize that he's currently struggling with the uncertainty of prostate cancer, and views with "great anxiety" his own mortality in as grand an intellectual fashion as anything in his life. But being one of those whom he so loosely labeled a "conservative", I'd then be seen by him, as he also described, as either realizing or not realizing? the difference between, "Black grief and Black grievances." In this he seemed, as in Shakespeare (whom he also quoted once or twice), "Too cunning to be understood."
Let's just say that I wouldn't raise so much as a finger to save West from the consequences of his actions. He's far more likely to perish at the hands of the thugs, cannibals and looters he's been fostering for the past few decades. Marxism eats its own. As it will you.
West also wrote: "The relative unity and strength of our capitalist foes requires that we must come together if our struggle is to win!"
This doesn't bother you? You find it acceptable for a Harvard professor to say these things?
Isn't "preeminent" a superlative adjective, which would make the use of the word "most" redundant?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.