Cornel West Afro-American Critical Thought

Cornel West

Afro-American Critical Thought

A leading scholar in the field of Afro-American philosophy, Dr. Cornel West has been called “the pre­eminent African-American intellectual of our generation” and “a progressive socialist in the age of triumphant capitalism (West, 1993).” West was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 2, 1958. His family eventually settled in a middle-class neighborhood in Sacramento, California. The grandson of a Baptist

minister, West combines the ethics of African-American religious tradition with key social and political

perspectives. His aim is to examine how Black Americans can continue their struggle for freedom to achieve a racially equal society.

and its related concepts, it will provide an overview of West the scholar, it will identify one of the most recent racial ills among African Americans: Nihilism, and it will explain West’s notions about how

Nihilism can be overcome.
The purpose of West’s Afro-American Critical Thought is to critique African-American history in the United States. Afro-American Critical Thought focuses on African-American suffering and explores options for improving the future. It is largely grounded in the traditions of Black Christianity, or Prophetic Theology which, West maintains, gave African American slaves the ability to hold onto a sense of identity and purpose during times of despair.
West believes that a combination of Black or “Prophetic” Christianity and Marxism holds the hope of Western civilization. His reasoning is that Black Theology provides the sense of personal freedom and equality that secured the hope of black slaves through the years, while Marxism provides the social vision and political program —absent from Black Theology — that is necessary to bring about radical changes in our socioeconomic and political structures. Essentially, West believes that Marxism, as a social system, provides the basics for living: food, shelter, clothing, literacy, jobs and health care. In addition, the “norm of individuality,” which both Christianity and Marxism espouse, reinforces the importance of community, common good, and the harmonious development of personality. In essence then, West is advancing a

philosophy in Afro-American Critical Thought which builds up blacks by providing them with a sense of pride in their past, prescribing ways to improve their economic and social situations (through a new emphasis on Marxism), and directing them to focus on a sense of meaning and purpose beyond their everyday lives (through Black Christianity).

West maintains that knowledge is not a set of proposed foundations, but rather a matter of public testing and an open evaluation of consequences. In other words, he does not believe in absolute knowledge. Instead, he believes that knowledge is created by a community of people who are interested in a particular discipline or idea. So, to West, knowledge is based on the collective perspectives of a scholarly community, where consensus determines truth rather than one person’s definitions or concepts passing as absolute. This perspective checks for discrimination when we consider that there are now a significant number of individuals within the scholarly community (i.e., West, Asante, and others) who speak out against society’s treatment of blacks. In West’s philosophy then, a belief in an absolute “Truth” would assume that the plight of blacks was somehow pre-destined or ordered because it was once accepted as the norm. Thus, to put the ordeal of black slavery into context, one must disagree with the notion of absolute knowledge and challenge the idea of white supremacy which has shaped Afro-American experiences in the modern world.

Americans: self-image and self-determination. The former is the personal struggle to define one’s self. The latter is the political struggle to gain significant control over the major institutions that regulate people’s lives (e.g., economics, government, etc.). These ideas are related to West’s ideas about Christianity and

Marxism in that Christianity provides blacks with a sense of history and purpose and Marxism provides a way to gain control over their economic, social and political struggles.
West’s prescription for overcoming Black Nihilism is for African Americans to first look to themselves and

their common history for help, hope, and power. Second, West argues for the rebuilding of our country’s

infrastructure (for example, water and sewage systems, bridges, tunnels, highways, subways, and streets) to provide blacks with greater access to businesses and other institutions. Then, a large-scale public intervention is required to ensure access by all to basic social goods such as housing, food, health care, education, child care, and jobs, which, according to West, are the fundamentals of a good life.
Finally, Black Nihilism can only be overcome with new leadership. This will involve looking beyond the same elites and older frameworks. West says that there is a desperate need for new leaders who can grasp the complex dynamics of African Americans and who can imagine a future grounded in the best of black history, yet who are attuned to the frightening obstacles that now perplex them. He strongly believes that racial hierarchy dooms us as a nation to collective paranoia and hysteria which, he says, will result in the unmaking of any democratic order.
Based on a review of West’s philosophy, it is not difficult to see the influence of the “loving black

Christian family and church” he experienced during his childhood. To this day, he remains committed to the Prophetic Christian gospel and believes that it holds the promise of a more equal and humane society.

Educated at Harvard and Princeton Universities, West is currently a professor of religion and director of Afro-American Studies at Princeton University.
Applying Cornel West’s philosophy to debate can take a number of forms. Initially, the debater will find relevance in any issue that relates to issues of race. For example, the debater could argue that capitalism uniquely oppresses blacks. As a solution to this systemic problem, the debater could advocate or support Black Christianity as a desirable vehicle for reducing oppression.
Finally, the debater could use West’s philosophy as part of a critique of modernity. As argued previously, West rejects modernity claiming that there is no absolute knowledge. Hence, West’s philosophy could be used to critique and absolute values.