Cornel Ronald West was born on June 2,1953 and is an American philosopher, political activist, social critic, actor, and public intellectual.
65 Facts About Cornel West
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Cornel West is an outspoken voice in left-wing politics in the United States.
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Cornel West is a frequent commentator on politics and social questions in many media outlets.
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From 2010 through 2013, Cornel West co-hosted a radio program, Smiley and Cornel West, with Tavis Smiley.
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Cornel West 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.
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Cornel West has made several spoken word and hip hop albums, and due to this work, has been named MTV's Artist of the Week.
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Cornel West 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.
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Cornel West's mother, Irene Rayshell, was a teacher and principal, and his father, Clifton Louis West Jr.
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Cornel West says his Christianity prevented him from joining the BPP, instead choosing to work in local breakfast, prison, and church programs.
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At Princeton, Cornel West was heavily influenced by Richard Rorty's neopragmatism.
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The title of Cornel 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.
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Cornel West 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.
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Cornel West taught one of the university's most popular courses, an introductory class on African-American studies.
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Cornel West used this new position to teach in not only African-American studies, but in divinity, religion, and philosophy.
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Cornel West was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa in 1998 at SUNY Plattsburgh.
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Cornel West left Harvard after a widely publicized dispute with then-President Lawrence Summers in 2002.
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That year, Cornel West returned to Princeton, where he helped found the Center for African-American studies in 2006.
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In 2012, Cornel West left Princeton and returned to the institution where he began his teaching career, Union Theological Seminary.
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Cornel West continued to teach occasional courses at Princeton in an emeritus capacity as the Class of 1943 University Professor in the Center for African American Studies.
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Cornel West returned to Harvard in November 2016, leaving Union Theological Seminary for a nontenured position as Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy, jointly appointed at the Harvard Divinity School and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Department of African and African-American Studies.
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In February 2021, reports circulated that Cornel West was denied consideration for tenure at Harvard and had threatened to leave the university .
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On March 8,2021, Cornel West announced that he would leave Harvard and move to the Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
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Cornel West submitted a resignation letter to Harvard on June 30,2021.
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Cornel West implied that the decision to deny him tenure was retaliation for his critical stance on Israel and the Palestinian cause.
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On July 1,2021, Cornel West rejoined the faculty of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York, holding the prestigious Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair.
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Cornel West is a long-time member of the Democratic Socialists of America, for which he served as an honorary chair.
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Cornel West is a co-founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives.
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Cornel West is on the advisory board of the International Bridges to Justice.
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Cornel West is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and its World Policy Council, a think tank whose purpose is to expand Alpha Phi Alpha's involvement in politics and social and current policy to encompass international concerns.
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Cornel West was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1997 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999.
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Cornel West appears as Councillor Cornel West in both The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions and provides the voice for this character in the video game Enter the Matrix.
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Cornel West has made several appearances in documentary films, such as the 2008 film Examined Life, a documentary featuring several academics discussing philosophy in real-world contexts.
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Cornel West has made frequent appearances on the political talk show with his most recent appearance on June 10,2022.
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In 2001, Cornel West released his first album, Sketches of My Culture.
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In 2007, Cornel West released Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations, his third album which included collaborations with the likes of Prince, Talib Kweli, Jill Scott, Andre 3000, KRS-One, and the late Gerald Levert.
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Cornel West appeared on Immortal Technique's song "Sign of the Times", which appeared on the 2011 album The Martyr.
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Cornel West is the co-host, along with Tricia Rose, of the podcast The Tight Rope.
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Summers reportedly suggested that Cornel West produce an academic book befitting his professorial position, as his recent output had consisted primarily of co-written and edited volumes.
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Cornel West noted that Summers failed to send him get-well wishes until weeks after his surgery, whereas newly installed Princeton president Shirley Tilghman had contacted him frequently before and after his treatment.
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In 2002, Cornel West left Harvard University to return to Princeton.
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Cornel West lashed out at Summers in public interviews, calling him "the Ariel Sharon of higher education" on NPR's The Tavis Smiley Show.
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Cornel West has called the US a "racist patriarchal" nation where white supremacy continues to define everyday life.
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Cornel West believes that "the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's ugly totalitarian regime was desirable," but that the war in Iraq was the result of "dishonest manipulation" on the part of the Bush administration.
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Cornel West has been involved with such projects as the Million Man March and Russell Simmons's Hip-Hop Summit, and worked with such public figures as Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton, whose 2004 presidential campaign Cornel West advised.
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In 2000, Cornel West worked as a senior advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley.
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When Bradley lost in the primaries, Cornel West became a prominent endorser of Ralph Nader, even speaking at some Nader rallies.
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Some Greens sought to draft Cornel West to run as a presidential candidate in 2004.
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Cornel West declined, citing his active participation in the Al Sharpton campaign.
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Cornel West serves as co-chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives.
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Cornel West co-chaired the National Parenting Organization's Task Force on Parent Empowerment and participated in President Bill Clinton's National Conversation on Race.
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In 2008, Cornel West contributed his insights on the current global issue of modernized slavery and human trafficking in the documentary Call+Response.
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Cornel West is a member of the Campaign for Peace and Democracy.
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In 2011, Cornel West addressed his frustration about some critics of the Occupy Wall Street, who remark about the movement's lack of a clear and unified message.
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On October 16,2011, West was in Washington, DC, participating in the Occupy DC protests on the steps of the Supreme Court over the court's decision in the Citizens United v Federal Election Commission case the previous year.
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In 2014, Cornel West co-initiated the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, a project of the Revolutionary Communist Party USA.
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Cornel West has often spoken about the lack of adequate black leadership and how it leads to doubt within black communities as to their political potential to ensure change.
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Cornel West publicly supported 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama.
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Cornel West spoke to over 1,000 of his supporters at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, on November 29,2007.
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Cornel West criticized Obama when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, saying that it would be difficult for Obama to be "a war president with a peace prize".
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In 2014, Cornel West gave an interview criticizing Obama, calling him a "counterfeit" who posed as a progressive.
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In 2015, Cornel West expressed his support for Democratic contender Bernie Sanders during an interview on CNN Tonight.
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Cornel West argued that Sanders' plans to redistribute wealth from Wall Street elites to the poorest members of society would be beneficial for the African-American community.
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In July 2016, after Sanders exited the presidential race, Cornel West endorsed Green Party nominee Jill Stein and her running mate Ajamu Baraka.
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Cornel West, who is critical of the current US interventionist foreign policy, referred to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as a "neoliberal disaster", and accused Clinton of merely posing as a progressive.
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Cornel West put his support behind Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign.