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West, Cornel - Race Matters
Sun, Sep. 3rd, 2006 06:58 pm(I am desperately trying to catch up on book blogging...)
This is a collection of some of Cornel West's essays on race. I feel rather unqualified to write about it, since I think it's building up on a black intellectual tradition that I'm unfamiliar with. I liked that it very clearly felt like it was a part of a grand discussion with many people, but that also meant that I felt I was missing out on some things.
West starts out with black nihilism and racial reasoning, both essays that I read about a month or so ago and therefore don't remember that much of. He then goes on to talk about the current crisis in black leadership, affirmative action, black-Jewish relationships, black sexuality, black rage and black conservatism.
I can't remember too many details from all of them, because I read them so far apart, but I like the way West thinks. I couldn't tell if I agreed with him or not about the crisis in black leadership, because I largely don't know enough about it, though I tend to disagree with people who say that the past was much better and the current situation isn't good at all. I very much liked the essay on black-Jewish relationships and how each side may not realize how their comments may sound to the other side because of a lack of understanding of issues historically relevant to blacks and to Jews.
I also very much liked the essays on black sexuality and black rage, particularly the bit on how people try to conveniently downplay the rage or pass it off as unreasonable and irrational. The bit on black sexuality was very interesting; West argues that it is the ultimate taboo subject in society, and yet, because of that, it is a subject that invites a great deal of prurient interest. I can't quite remember how he links it back to slavery and issues therein, but he does, and he also brings up issues of images of blacks as bestial and therefore closer to nature and more "earthy" and sensual, whatever tht means.
Anyhow, I mean to pick up more books by him, particularly the one he co-wrote with Henry Louis Gates Jr.
This is a collection of some of Cornel West's essays on race. I feel rather unqualified to write about it, since I think it's building up on a black intellectual tradition that I'm unfamiliar with. I liked that it very clearly felt like it was a part of a grand discussion with many people, but that also meant that I felt I was missing out on some things.
West starts out with black nihilism and racial reasoning, both essays that I read about a month or so ago and therefore don't remember that much of. He then goes on to talk about the current crisis in black leadership, affirmative action, black-Jewish relationships, black sexuality, black rage and black conservatism.
I can't remember too many details from all of them, because I read them so far apart, but I like the way West thinks. I couldn't tell if I agreed with him or not about the crisis in black leadership, because I largely don't know enough about it, though I tend to disagree with people who say that the past was much better and the current situation isn't good at all. I very much liked the essay on black-Jewish relationships and how each side may not realize how their comments may sound to the other side because of a lack of understanding of issues historically relevant to blacks and to Jews.
I also very much liked the essays on black sexuality and black rage, particularly the bit on how people try to conveniently downplay the rage or pass it off as unreasonable and irrational. The bit on black sexuality was very interesting; West argues that it is the ultimate taboo subject in society, and yet, because of that, it is a subject that invites a great deal of prurient interest. I can't quite remember how he links it back to slavery and issues therein, but he does, and he also brings up issues of images of blacks as bestial and therefore closer to nature and more "earthy" and sensual, whatever tht means.
Anyhow, I mean to pick up more books by him, particularly the one he co-wrote with Henry Louis Gates Jr.