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Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 221
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, June 16, 2006 - 10:25 pm: | 
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Cornel West Gives Black Scholars a Bad Rap
By John McWhorter
BY DAY I AM A PROFESSOR, and have written two academic books and numerous articles on my subject, linguistics. Though I relish my vocation, I'm troubled by its hermetic nature. Most academic work is consigned quickly to libraries, consulted only by the occasional student or professor.
So, rather as Cornel West has done, I've tossed my hat into the public fray -- writing books and newspaper articles for lay readers. But here ends my resemblance to Mr. West, a professor of Afro- American studies. This is my second career. I still produce a linguistics article every few months. Having just put the finishing touches on an anthology of magazine essays on race, I am now writing an academic paper examining whether our ability to speak is innate. And my current research will culminate in an academic book, which will most surely not net me any talk- show appearances.
'Disrespected'
I find myself thinking about these matters in light of Prof. West's decision to leave Harvard for Princeton, feeling "disrespected" by the suggestion, made by Harvard President Lawrence Summers, that he produce new academic research. Prof. West is known for his lucrative career as a public speaker, and has recently recorded a rap CD and supported Al Sharpton's bid for the U.S. presidency. His decision to decamp to Princeton betrays tragic assumptions, of the sort that lead too many African-American leaders and thinkers to reinforce the very stereotypes they seek to exterminate.
Some may respond that his academic gravitas is confirmed by his having authored over a dozen books. He has written some academic volumes in his field -- philosophy -- but he wrote these over a decade ago. His books since he has become a celebrity are all edited anthologies, collections of pieces written for the media, or co-authored books for the general public. That is no mean feat -- but these are not academic books.
The simple fact is that serious academics are expected to produce a steady stream of academic work. Of course, Prof. West proudly identifies with the class of "activist scholars." As such, he likely sees it as morally urgent that he communicate with the general public. And there is not a thing wrong with this. But he attempts to maintain a foothold in the academic realm.
It's a delicate balance. Today, I don't write as many linguistics articles as I used to. I will soon take a year's leave of absence from Berkeley to write a book for the general public. Yet at the same time, I will continue to write a grammatical description of a creole spoken in Suriname. My academic career impinges on my public one: I turn down requests to write and speak in favor of maintaining my scholarly output.
In that light, what troubles me is Prof. West's reflexive insistence that it's an attack on his integrity to even question why he, as one of only 14 "university professors" at Harvard, has stopped producing academic work. Or to be more specific, that it's racist. He's been circumspect on that charge with most interviewers, but letting his hair down in a NPR interview with a fawning Tavis Smiley, he conveyed that Mr. Summers' suggestion reflected a fear among Harvard's leadership that "the Negroes are taking over."
There are other responses Prof. West could have made. He could have argued that he has suspended academic work temporarily, feeling a duty to lend his voice and pen to the urgency of the race dilemma in America. But instead, he has implied that a CD and support for Mr. Sharpton are legitimate substitutes for academic work -- a "visionary" paradigm of inquiry. Here is a coded wink to black people that Mr. Summers' failure to understand this is racism.
I see a different subtext here: that serious academic work is optional for black intellectuals, and that to require it of a black scholar beyond a certain point is a racist insult. But can Prof. West not see that this only reinforces the stereotype of black mental dimness that feeds the very racism he is so quick to sniff out? Visionary or not, rap is not scholarship. Nor is putting one's arm around a hustler like the Rev. Sharpton "speaking truth to power."
But wait, there's more. Prof. West's spokesman, Harvard Law Prof. Charles Ogletree, says that his client is indeed working on three academic books. This is staggering, and begs the question of why Prof. West didn't mention this to the New York Times, or on NPR to "Brother Tavis." Ideally, he should have told Mr. Summers that he was engaged in just such work and felt that this was a triumph. Instead, he played down that he was, in fact, doing exactly what was being asked of him, and finally left for Princeton to maintain his "dignity."
Party Turn
This only makes sense as a scripted routine: After all, he could assert dignity more resonantly by standing his ground and producing new academic books. Bolting only qualifies as "dignity" under an assumption that playing victim trumps showing us the money. The overarching message is that for black scholars, serious academic work is just a party turn.
Top black scholars smugly support Prof. West's decision, but I can't see them as role models. If in 10 years I had restricted my academic output to pop work, my department head would call me out on the mat, and the only thing that would make her a racist would be not doing so. Is it racist to hold black scholars to mainstream standards of evaluation? Prof. West's muse, W.E.B. Du Bois, is turning in his grave.
Mr. McWhorter, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and associate professor of linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of "The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language" (W.H.Freeman, 2002).
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2298
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 10:12 am: |
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John McWhorter gives human beings a bad rap |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 4581
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 11:08 am: |
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Well, Ntfs_encrypton, McWhorter says what needs to be said about the smug, sacro-sanct Cornel West. Of course, I'm just a sucker for anybody whose credentials have to do with linguistics because I am fascinated by how language can either imprison or liberate ideas. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2301
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 11:40 am: |
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Cynique:
"I'm just a sucker--"
You could have stopped right there-- |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2302
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 11:41 am: |
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All:
Plus that McWhorter misrepresents himself.
By day he is a craven bootlicker. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 4584
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 12:08 pm: |
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The oracle has spoken! Or should I say the orfice; orfice as in ass-hole, asshole as in chrishayden. (John McWhorter's stock has just gone up) |
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1054
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, June 17, 2006 - 12:22 pm: |
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Public scholarship, engaged scholarship--no matter the term, the fact is that the idea of "giving back to the community" and "improving town-gown relationships" by communicating with lay audiences has been all the buzz in academia for decades. However these kinds of activities still are not looked upon possitively when it is actually put into practice by scholars. How does one use the output in public scholarship in tenure review decisions? How much should a popular magazine article count versus a scholarly journal article?
The debate will continue to rage in academia. Dr. West is just plain wrong if he thinks that only Black scholars doing engaged work are subject to such scrutiny. By the same token, plenty of scholars get to the point in their careers where they have tenure and they do not produce any original scholarship for a decade--or even longer. I can't remember the specifics, but if (ex) President Summers only singled out West, I would have to question that.
That being said, I wonder why Dr. McWhorter feels the need to speak out about West. Why don't all "academic divas" give all academics a "bad name"? I guess he has found his niche in the public sphere and, like West, intends to make the most of it. And Cynique, I too find his work on linguistics absolutely fascinating, regardless of how I feel about his politics. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 227
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 18, 2006 - 06:10 am: |
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Christhayden wrote: Plus that McWhorter misrepresents himself. By day he is a craven bootlicker.
Uhhhhh...how does he misrepresent himself? Details please. And a "craven boot licker"? Why so? Any info you can enlighten us with? |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 4589
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, June 18, 2006 - 11:58 am: |
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Chrishayden shoots from the lip. His cheap shots are loaded with hot air. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2304
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 12:16 pm: |
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Cynique:
Haven't I taught you not to mix your metaphors?
Yvettep:
Of course one might have an opinion about Cornel West like the one above and be a totally thoughtful rational and committed black person.
All of McWhorter's opinions are like this about any black who is not also a craven bootlicker. He is in the Say-What-Makes-Racist-White-Folks-Feel-Good Bidness and I have no respect for that--I might if he was getting top dollar for it, but he is getting peanuts. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 4594
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 01:13 pm: |
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There were no mixed metaphors in my posted description of you, chrishayden. The comparisons are all compatible with a lame ass who is a defective dud. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2306
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 01:14 pm: |
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You did it again--
It must be the product of that inferior inner city schooling-- |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 4595
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 01:29 pm: |
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A gun is used to shoot, and shots come from a gun that is loaded with bullets that create hot air when they misfire and result in a dud. And of course your frequent reference to me living in Mayberry totally dulls your "cutting" remark about me being a product of an inner city school. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2310
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 01:30 pm: |
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Cynique:
Call me Fuzzywuzzles. You know how I like that one. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 229
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 03:05 pm: |
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"All of McWhorter's opinions are like this about any black who is not also a craven bootlicker."
Uhhhhhhhh.....ok. Any specific examples that come to mind to illustrate his "craven bootlicking" philosophy and advocacy? Just curious.... |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 4703
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 03:30 pm: |
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Arrogance is certainly an affliction that McWhorters suffers no shortage of. But that does not mean his criticism of West is wholly without merit.
WHAT should a professor of African American studies do?
Because one might think that West ingratiating himself into the current Black social-political climate and zeitgeist would/could provide him with boundless subject matter upon which he could wield his enormous scholarly talents. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 2314
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, June 19, 2006 - 04:16 pm: |
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Nfts:
This very article is an example of it. If the students, faculties or alumni of the institution West teaches at have a problem with his scholarship that's between him and them.
Here this coon is taking it on himself to say that West is giving black scholars a bad rap--as I repeat he gives human beings a bad rap. I wonder about his mother. How low she must have been for him to turn out as a right wing apologist--
We all know what his game is. West is a well known leftist--Marxist in fact. McWhorter is a buttboy for the right.
The man admits that West wrote a dozen books but adds that it was "a dozen years ago"
I been to college. I had many a professor who's last work was ten, twenty, thirty years before and he was sitting on the faculty, featherbedding, collecting his check in his dotage.
It ain't about that. If West was licking up under Jesse Helms, McWhorter wouldn't have any problem.
What a professor is supposed to do is what his students, faculty and superiors want him to do. If they are cool with it, what does anybody else have to beef about? |
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