West praises black wisdom

Legendary black Americans can become role models for a country struggling to cope with a post-9/11 world, religion professor Cornel West GS '80 told a packed McCosh 50 audience this weekend in a two-part lecture on "The Gifts of Black Folk in the Age of Terrorism."

"Toni Morrison and Martin Luther King represented a slice of humanity that stands tall," West said. "Now that the nation has the blues, can we learn something from those who stood up during the blues, people?"

Cosponsored by the Princeton University Press and the new Center for African American Studies, West's speech was the first in a series of annual lectures honoring Toni Morrison, the Nobel laureate and humanities professor emerita. The talks will be compiled and published in book form.

In his lecture, West argued that all Americans have been terrorized or segregated following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and that this experience mirrors that of blacks.

"A black American was isolated at birth and then dishonored — he or she was taught to hate oneself," West said. "Blacks suffered a psychic and spiritual death. Now the whole society has been 'niggerized.' Americans, in the face of the world, have become fearful, subject to manipulation, under control and surveillance and mechanisms of torture."

Americans, therefore, must emulate those black legends who had to "grope in the darkness" but gathered the strength to overcome it, West said.

He added that Toni Morrison, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Muhammad Ali all exemplify "paideia" — a term for disregarding the superficial to focus on the substantial — through their sincerity and honest expression of their beliefs.

"Blacks demonstrate what paideia is about: dying for integrity and for something of so much desire," West said. "Martyrdom isn't normative, but somebody has got to do it."

Speaking to the many students in attendance, West — whom President Tilghman introduced as "larger than life" — related what he believes university students can learn from the African-American experience.

"I try to tell students that as they pursue prosperity and security, they must not forget to have magnanimity and integrity," West said. "We can convince students that they are not here solely for their career, but for a calling — a calling that they are so invested in that they can't conceive of themselves not doing it."

"My number one hope is that every student leaves class at least two to three times while here and recognizes that their worldview rests on pudding," he added. "In other words, they are completely discombobulated."

Though West said Princeton remains fundamentally committed to paideia, he added that many students still live in a bubble, unaware of political plights in the outside world.