Cornel West

Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual. The grandson of a Baptist minister, West focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and the means by which people act and react to their "radical conditionedness." A socialist, West draws intellectual contributions from multiple traditions, including Christianity, the Black church, Marxism, neopragmatism, and transcendentalism. Among his most influential books are Race Matters (1994) and Democracy Matters (2004).

West is an outspoken voice in left-wing politics in the United States. During his career, he has held professorships and fellowships at Harvard University, Yale University, Union Theological Seminary, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Pepperdine University, and the University of Paris. He is also a frequent commentator on politics and social questions in many media outlets.

From 2010 through 2013, West co-hosted a radio program, Smiley and West, with Tavis Smiley. He has been featured in several documentaries and made appearances in Hollywood films such as The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, as well as providing commentary for both films. West has also made several spoken word and hip hop albums, and due to this work, has been named MTV's Artist of the Week. West co-hosts a podcast, The Tight Rope, with Tricia Rose. He is a frequent conversation partner with his friend Robert P. George, a prominent conservative intellectual. The two often speak together at colleges and universities on the meaning of liberal arts education, free speech, and civil dialogue. In 2020, he was listed by Prospect magazine as the fourth-greatest thinker of the COVID-19 era.

West was born on June 2, 1953, in Tulsa, Oklahoma,[26] and grew up in Sacramento, California, where he graduated from John F. Kennedy High School. His mother, Irene Rayshell (Bias), was a teacher and principal, and his father, Clifton Louis West Jr., was a general contractor for the US Department of Defense. His grandfather, Clifton L. West Sr., was pastor of the Tulsa Metropolitan Baptist Church. Irene B. West Elementary School in Elk Grove, California, is named after his mother.

As a young man, West marched in civil rights demonstrations and organized protests demanding black studies courses at his high school, where he was student body president. He later wrote that, in his youth, he admired "the sincere black militancy of Malcolm X, the defiant rage of the Black Panther Party, and the livid black theology of James Cone."

In 1970, after graduating from high school, he enrolled at Harvard College and took classes from the philosophers Robert Nozick and Stanley Cavell. In 1973, West graduated from Harvard magna cum laude in Near Eastern languages and civilization. He credits Harvard with exposing him to a broader range of ideas, influenced by his professors as well as the Black Panther Party. West says his Christianity prevented him from joining the BPP, instead choosing to work in local breakfast, prison, and church programs. After completing his undergraduate work at Harvard, West enrolled at Princeton University, where he received a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in 1980, completing a dissertation under the supervision of Raymond Geuss and Sheldon Wolin, becoming the first African American to graduate from Princeton with a Ph.D. degree in philosophy.

At Princeton, West was heavily influenced by Richard Rorty's neopragmatism. Rorty remained West's close friend and colleague for many years following West's graduation. The title of West's dissertation was Ethics, Historicism and the Marxist Tradition, which was later revised and published under the title The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought.