Man was a theology professor. Obviously he taught some Black Liberation Theology, but his scope is beyond AA studies.
Wasn't it Harvard Publishing that supported the Black Book of Communism? Comrades in Harvard should be calling them out on that bullshit, they knew the data were false but still published them.
FUCK HARVARD
Isn't the Harvard president a pretty big Epstein guy? The whole thing is rotten. They just keep people like West around as tokenism, both for his race but also for his political views. Been my experience with other elite, private schools. They like to keep a few radicals around for the sake of attracting students and looking non-ideological but those professors are kept on a short leash and embattled by the institution and their shitlib peers
https://crimethinc.com/2018/05/29/theres-no-such-thing-as-revolutionary-government-why-you-cant-use-the-state-to-abolish-class
Chiapas is pretty legit, but only because of the Zapatistas.
The Zapatistas are the ownly legit state part of it, though (and they aren't a state in the sense I meant)
"FIRST OFF, FUCK YOU LICHS AND THE CLIQUE YOU CLAIM"
---Prof. Cornell West
Several other big name faculty have left Harvard Divinity in recent years too. Truly a shitty place
I glanced at one and it was good and I immediately closed the window. If you're gonna gamble, you gotta know to quit when you're ahead.
I'll be honest, I couldn't get more than half way because it's written in an incredibly pretentious and verysmart way. Why does he have to write like he's an alien?
It's literally a letter to the Harvard administration, there is no more appropriate time to write in that way.
Possibly the only appropriate time to write that way, but yeah the man knows rhetoric and knows his audience.
The disarray of a scattered curriculum, the disenchantment of talented yet deferential faculty, and the disorientation of precocious students loom large.
You don't see a problem with this? Nobody speaks this way, it's not how anyone communicates. Saying something is mendacious is fine, it's not uncommon words that are the problem, it's the structure itself. A letter should be written as a conversational message not like a novel telling a story.
Not sure how Americans usually react to this kind of thing but this would go over really poorly in the UK and serve to further alienate academics from sections of the masses because of the pretentious style.
I mean, this is pretty much exactly how he sounds in interviews. And it doesn't come off as pretentious at all, he's really just super wicked smart
Yeah, are we really going to look down on Dr. Cornel fuckin West for being highly intelligent? What a horrible take.
True story: I know someone who sorta knows him. He said to take however smart he is based on how you see him in interviews. Now multiply that number by 1,000. He is off the charts smart.
If he's so smart how come he's not hired by Harvard anymore.
e: Oh he resigned lol
in the UK they would be like, "U WOT M8? ITS COMING HOME! [17 racial slurs]"
Reads like he's describing hogwarts under the control of the death eaters. It's definitely pretentious for a letter, come on.
Nobody speaks this way, it's not how anyone communicates
Well, evidently at least one person communicates this way. Regardless, writing in ways other than exact imitations of verbal speech isn't a "problem".
A letter should be
A letter doesn't really have to be anything outside of a few loose requirements like being addressed to someone. And given that this is being written to the dean of America's most prestigious school, I don't think some flowery diction is out of place for the audience.
Also very conservative word count. I'd love it if every paper was written like this. At least the quoted bit
i agree that writing should be as accessible as possible, and i definitely have a pet peeve about anyone using overly pretentious language regardless of whether or not theyre an academic. (if anything, i think being a teaching academic makes overly wrought language even worse). and while i agree that west's writing wasn't the most accessible (and is practicing a pretentiousness that would usually piss people off), its a little different here because west has a unique position of being a black, older, theological, eccentric academic (as well as an actual background in fighting for working class issues) that allows him to get away with writing like this and not being a douche, as someone in normal circumstances would be if they communicated like this.
he's harking back to the traditions set by james baldwin, malcolm x, MLK, the activist black church and more.
his letter is also a practice in rhetorical dramatic academic writing
its also as simple as why neil degrasse tyson can kinda talk in super abstract ways --he's just smart and kinda on another level but its not wrapped up in condescension (from what i understand, but idk tyson could have a douche rep), it's just a function of being wrapped in abstract thought
It's just a formal letter written in protest and that bit you cited is pretty based ngl. It's very specific wording, nothing wrong with a bit of drama considering he's probably pissed
you expect him to talk like Gucci mane as an academic or something?
Bad take, pure anti-intellectualism. There's nothing wrong with the way the letter is written.
I mean, yes it is a bit. But anti-intellectualism in the UK has come about as a result of class struggle itself. The two tier education system where the workers attend state education establishments and get one set of education to turn them into good obedient workers vs the ruling class' educational establishments where they get a different education to learn to rule produced an environment where having "higher learning" is directly related to class. The working class as a result naturally developed conflict with this as it has become unconsciously representative of their class position.
With that said I don't think it's anti-intellectual to a large degree. I'm being anti-pretentious, I can't stand pretentiousness and it reeks of it. Learned habits from the conditions over here perhaps, who knows. There's quite a few things I see around here from time to time that I never speak up on because I know americans like it whereas over here we'd cringe. Usually would've done the same here but oh well. Culturall differences I reckon.
