Cornel West

Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, theologian, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual.

The grandson of a Baptist minister, West's primary philosophy focuses on the roles of race, gender, and class struggle in American society.

A socialist, West draws intellectual contributions from multiple traditions, including Christianity, the black church, democratic socialism, left-wing populism, neopragmatism, and transcendentalism.

West was born on June 2, 1953, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 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.

His father, Clifton Louis West Jr., was a general contractor for the U.S. 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 teen, West marched in civil rights demonstrations and organized protests demanding black studies courses at his high school, where he was the 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 graduation from high school, he enrolled at Harvard College and took classes taught by the philosophers Robert Nozick and Stanley Cavell.

In 1973, West was graduated from Harvard magna cum laude in Near Eastern languages and civilization.

He credits Harvard with exposing him to a broader range of ideas and that he was influenced by his professors as well as the Black Panther Party (BPP).

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 Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1980, completing a dissertation under the supervision of Raymond Geuss and Sheldon Wolin.

He became the first African American to graduate from Princeton with a PhD degree in philosophy.

At Princeton, West was heavily influenced by the neopragmatism of Richard Rorty.

Rorty remained a close friend and colleague of West's 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.

In his late 20s, he returned to Harvard as a W. E. B. Du Bois Fellow before becoming an assistant professor at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York.

In 1984, he went to Yale Divinity School in what eventually became a joint appointment in American studies.

While at Yale, he participated in campus protests for a clerical labor union and divestment from apartheid South Africa.

One of the protests resulted in his being arrested and jailed.

As punishment, the university administration canceled his leave for the spring term in 1987, leading him to commute from Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, where he was teaching two classes, across the Atlantic Ocean to the University of Paris.

He then returned to Union Theological Seminary for one year before going to Princeton to become a professor of religion and director of the program in African American Studies from 1988 to 1994.

After Princeton, he accepted an appointment as professor of African American studies at Harvard University, with a joint appointment at the Harvard Divinity School.

West taught one of the university's most popular courses, an introductory class on African American studies.

Among his most influential books are Race Matters (1993) 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 a frequent commentator on politics and social questions in many media outlets.

From 2010 through 2013, West co-hosted the 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-hosted a podcast entitled, The Tight Rope, with Tricia Rose.

He is a frequent conversation partner with his friend Robert P. George, a prominent conservative intellectual, with the two often speaking 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 for the COVID-19 era.

West is a third party candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

After declaring his run with the People's Party in June 2023, he shortly thereafter announced he also was seeking the nomination of the Green Party.

In October 2023, he announced he was again switching his affiliation, and is running as an independent candidate.