Cornel West, American philosopher and political activist, Cornel Ronald West was born on June 2, 1953 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
As a young man, West took part in civil rights marches and led protests calling for Black Studies classes at his high school, where he served as student body president.
In a later essay, he claimed that as a young man he was inspired by “the heartfelt black militancy of Malcolm X, the defiant rage of the Black Panther Party, and the livid black theology of James Cone”.
After graduating from high school in 1970, he enrolled at Harvard College where he studied philosophy under the tutelage of Stanley Cavell and Robert Nozick.
West graduated magna cum laude in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization from Harvard in 1973. He credits his exposure to a wider range of viewpoints at Harvard, influenced by both its scholars and the Black Panther Party.
West claims that because of his Christianity, he was unable to join the BPP and instead chose to work in breakfast, prison and neighborhood church programs.
After completing his undergraduate studies at Harvard, West enrolled at Princeton University, where he earned a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in 1980.
He completed his thesis under the supervision of Raymond Geuss and Sheldon Wolin, making history by becoming the first African American to receive this degree from Princeton.
Cornel West career
West is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual.
West, the grandson of a Baptist pastor, is interested in how race, gender and class function in American culture as well as how people act and react to their ‘radical conditioning’ .
Marxism, neopragmatism, transcendentalism, black church, Christianity and black church are just some of the philosophical traditions from which the socialist West draws.
Race Matters (1994) and Democracy Matters (2004) are among his most important works. In American leftist politics, West is a prominent voice.
He has held faculty positions and fellowships at universities including Harvard, Yale, Union Theological Seminary, Princeton, Dartmouth College, Pepperdine University, and the University of Paris during his career.
Additionally, he frequently comments on politics and social issues in various media. Smiley and West was a radio show that Tavis Smiley and West co-hosted from 2010 to 2013.
In addition to appearing in various documentaries, he has also commentated on two Hollywood productions, The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Reloaded.
Additionally, West has released a number of spoken word and hip hop CDs. For his efforts, he was voted Artist of the Week by MTV.
Along with Tricia Rose, West co-hosts The Tight Rope podcast. He frequently speaks about the value of a liberal arts education, freedom of speech, and respectful speech in colleges and universities with his friend Robert P. George, a well-known conservative philosopher.
He was ranked the fourth greatest thinker of the COVID-19 era in 2020 by Prospect magazine.
How much is Cornel West worth?
Cornel West has an estimated net worth of around $1 million.
Source: www.ghgossip.com
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