Cornel West intelligently entertained on public
intellectuals and race last evening at the leftist Brecht
Forum, to a mixed gathering of brown and pink and
supremacist (as West terms the elite) women and not-women.
60-75 of them sitting, standing, squatting, floor sprawling
-- most of them as roughly dressed as the down-at-at-the-
heels hall. Cornel was typically dapper, vested in trim
ebony suit, bright white french-cuffed shirt, golden-
ringed, mini-afro hair, gapped-teeth ever-blinking.
West is a melodramatic mesmerizer: erudite, articulate,
eloquent, witty, angry, righteous, indignant, condemnatory,
withering, lyrical, caustic, contemptuous, tempestuous. He
buffoons, moon-dances, hallelujahs, arm waves, grasps head
and pulls whiskers, finger shoots his temples, bends
double, claps, jigs, back bends, struts. He orates, shouts,
whispers, croons, soto voces, raps, mimics and mocks
others' speech, rants, chants, rhymes, rhythms. Audio was
weak but his choreography delivered what the sound fizzled.
The message: race matters (as a title of his states). There
is no greater threat to America's survival than racial
prejudice and the denial of full rights and privileges of
citizenship to a substantial percentage of Americans based
on race and skin color. Until that is solved there is no
hope for lesser disputes of economics, ideology, education,
gender, anti-semitism, ethnicity, sexual preference,
disability and other distinctions.
He claims that, lacking an external enemy to unite
Americans, fragmentation and self-interest is increasing
dramatically, and these are linked with a diminishing sense
of obligation to maintain a healthy, responsive and
responsible society.
Leadership is dwindling to demagogic promotion of special
interests. The national media foster indulgent, isolating
consumerism by coupling terrifying news with therapeutic
adver-tainment. Individuals are becoming cocooned by fear
and protective measures, encapsulated against public
responsibility by demagogues who see-saw public anxiety and
palliatives to camouflage unfair benefits for adherents.
West argues that public intellectuals must encourage public
debate, among themselves and with the populace. They must
stimulate wide exploration of the most difficult problems,
beginning with race, and from there move on to other
disparities among the nation's citizenry. Academic
intellectuals must venture beyond their close domains and
engage those who lack institutional accessibility and
resources, and apply the generosity of mind and heart that
the market cannot provide.
A sustained, long-term endeavor by public intellectuals
against unfair privilege is required -- condemnation,
critique, proposal, debate, correction, implementation,
maintenance, reassessment -- to keep the American dream
alive until it is enjoyed by all Americans, not just by
that
privileged majority which West calls the supremacists of
all colorations.
The dream of America will collapse if it does not deliver
the fruits of its promises to all those who believe in it.
West declared of the struggle to win full rights and
privileges for all: if we triumph, we'll party; if we fail,
we'll go down fighting as an example for generations to
come.
Browns syncopated Cornel with grunts, hoots, amens, yeahs
and say its. Pinks were silent, still and fidgeted. At the
end, all applauded at length, then more. Q&A followed. West
was even more masterful then, deftly answering ramblings,
speechifying and mumbles with thoughtfulness, trenchant
citations, affirmation, elaboration of the question -- no
condescension, no evasion, just excellent discourse.
It was a magnificent performance of the public intellectual
doing his duty, earning his forum, staking his plot in the
crowd-raisers of higher and higher public expectations.