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Friday, September 10, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M. Scholar, author and activist Cornel West is calling for a political awakening By Tyrone Beason
If the Ivy League ever designated the title of Soul Brother No. 1 of American Intellectuals, Princeton University professor Cornel West could be its first laureate. His Afro, street-preacher's gift for phrasing, controversial forays into hip-hop and dizzying riffs on the similarities between the work of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov and American blues music are legendary. West, who teaches religion and African-American studies, has made an art of strutting between ivory-tower loftiness and barbershop straight-shooting, making guest appearances in music studios, social movements and movies along the way. He recently turned up in the last two "Matrix" films, playing — what else? — a wise man. "I'm a multicontextual brotha," West said by phone from New York this week, with his characteristic Ivy League soul man elocution. He deliberately replaces the "er" in "brother" with an "a." This talent for sounding aloof and down-to-earth at the same time makes West a rare breed — a compelling and sought-after deep thinker in a nation weaned on five-second soundbites.
The book, a sequel to West's best-selling "Race Matters," is a meandering, eclectic, enraged yet somehow hopeful critique of what he sees as America's shift away from democratic values toward shallow materialism at home and racist militarism abroad. "I was frightened and very afraid for our future," at the onset of writing "Democracy Matters," he said. West is irritated with proponents of "free-market fundamentalism," which holds market-driven consumerism sacred and community trivial: "How ironic that in America we've moved so quickly from Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'Let Freedom Ring!' to 'Bling! Bling!' " he complains in the book. The leftist West is predictably unkind to conservatives in the book and surprisingly tough on Clinton Democrats and Sen. John Kerry, that party's presidential nominee. The Democratic and Republican elites, he contends, are both beholden to corporate interests and embrace a cynical view of politics. "Democracy Matters," coming as it does during a heated presidential-campaign season, is ultimately a call for a political awakening among ordinary people. He asks them not just to vote but read the likes of Ralph Waldo Emerson to learn how social concern can keep individualism in check. West feels no conflict acting as both an academic and an activist, even when that dual role stirs controversy. Some Jewish observers, for instance, were not pleased that West threw his support behind the Million Man March, which was organized by the Nation of Islam. West, however, considers himself part of a great tradition of modern thinkers devoted to grassroots social concerns, from poet Muriel Rukeyser to essayist James Baldwin.
West's new CD, "Street Knowledge," released this week by the independent label Roc Diamond Records, is a collection of "teachings, musings, anthems and lyrics" set to R&B and hip-hop beats. He and talk-show host Tavis Smiley were recently in the studio to record an interlude for the upcoming CD by R&B singer Gerald Levert. Beyond music, West just completed a six-hour commentary with Ken Wilber on literary references and philosophical ideas found in the Wachowski brothers' "Matrix" film trilogy, which will be included in this fall's release of a special 10-DVD "Matrix" box set. West's genre-hopping has dismayed some critics as well as peers in the Ivy League. His 2001 CD, "Sketches of My Culture," received some scathing reviews. As for his colleagues? "They think I've lost my mind," West joked. "A lot of colleagues will say, 'We like you teaching Hegel and Nietzsche, but what are you doing talking about "The Matrix" and hanging out with the Wachowskis, going in the studio with Gerald Levert and traveling the country talking about 'democracy matters?' " he explained. West described his "hybridity and distinctiveness" as the natural result of sending a "black brotha" from an African-American neighborhood in Sacramento, where he grew up, to Harvard and Princeton, before making him an Ivy League philosopher and theologian. Under those circumstances, a playfully understated West said, "You're going to end up with some real fascinating juxtapositions." The bottom line for West is this: "You can't communicate with others unless you respect people and their world and find the best idiom to communicate with them," he said. Ten-dollar words and abstract ideas may win praise at Princeton, but they won't go over well in a working-class, African-American barbershop where everyday language rules. "And they'll let you know," West quipped. Like the soap-box pontificators in that barbershop, West is certainly not a wide-eyed optimist about how his society deals with its issues. He instead describes his outlook as one of "tragicomic hope," the kind of laughter-through-tears one hears in the blues and soul music. " 'Keep on Pushing' ain't optimistic — it's just hopeful," he said, referring to the 1960s anthem penned by Curtis Mayfield. "The blues is very different from Dolly Parton," he said. "The Dells are not the Beach Boys. You know what I mean?" If not, West will gladly, and no doubt colorfully, elaborate. Tyrone Beason: 206-464-2251 or tbeason@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company
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