Besides the rebellious, bushy goatee and thick glasses, Dr. Cornel West is probably best known for being one of the most public, political and controversial professors in America.

On Saturday, West, a professor of religion at Princeton University, avoided divisive politics, which have defined his career. Instead, before a multi-ethnic audience at Hendricks Chapel, West spoke almost directly to the young black men of the African-American Male Congress. West served as keynote speaker for the AAMC’s Baccalaureate Ceremony, where new members were sworn in.

‘I’m not surprised when I see young, black brothers like you excel,’ West said, ‘because I expect it.’

West’s speech focused on having black men overcoming societal pitfalls and rising above stereotypes.

‘I want you all to fly like eagles the way R. Kelly says to fly. He’s got some problems of his own, but I want you to fly,’ West said, to a resounding chorus of laughter. ‘I don’t want you to be successful. I want you to be great.’

To West, a black man has not succeeded by just being a professional success or living comfortably in the middle class. West insisted the young men use their success, as he undoubtedly thought they would achieve, to help others rise.

‘You have to decide to be the person who will use your success to achieve a great end,’ West said, ‘and never use success as an end in and of itself. The strong must bear the inferiorities of the weak.’

West spoke prophetically, suggesting all great black men (W.E.B. DuBois, Martin Luther King Jr., Marvin Garvey and John Coltrane, among others) had taken the journey the men in the AAMC were now on. He urged his black male audience to carry on their tradition.

West spoke emotionally, at times clasping his hands against his face, leaning forward, tightening his shoulders and stretching his eyebrows. His voice rose and fell as he spoke, slowed and quickened as he weaved through black America’s past and implored the younger generation to recapture the spirit of West’s day.

He used the English language with simplicity, playing on words and incorporating hip-hop culture.

‘(Martin Luther King Jr.) said, ‘Let freedom ring,” said West, who didn’t read from notes. ‘Now it’s about the bling. That’s called a decline. That’s deterioration.’

‘His speech was awesome,’ said Travis Mason, president of the AAMC. ‘The thing was he set the journey that African-American men who aren’t even in this organization have to take.’

‘How could you not love his speech? Everything he said was dead on. He spoke about not being complacent, not being satisfied about academic success. It was big for everyone to hear that, big for me to hear that,’ said Rotimi Paul, senior vice president of the AAMC.

Many have likely heard of West not through his talks on black America, but from what were very public spats through the years.

West has had many books published. Four of which – ‘Race Matters,’ ‘The Future of American Progressivism,’ ‘The Cornel West Reader’ and ‘Democracy Matters’ – sold out at the book signing following the show. In 1995, The New Republic’s Literary Editor Leon Wieseltier wrote a piece entitled ‘The Unreal World of Cornel West,’ in which he disparaged West’s texts, calling them ‘almost completely worthless’ and ‘noisy, tedious, slippery … sectarian, humorless, pedantic and self-endeared.’

West never responded to Wieseltier’s critique.

West also most recently endured a public fight with Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, who in 2001 felt West wasn’t focusing enough on academic pursuits. At the time, West was teaching at Harvard. West had endorsed Ralph Nader for president in 2000 and had recently produced a hip-hop CD entitled ‘Sketches of My Culture.’ The next year, West returned to Princeton, where he earned his Ph.D.

Indeed, West is more political than many professors. This past year he signed the ‘Vote to Stop Bush,’ encouraging progressive voters to vote for Kerry instead of Nader, even though West disapproved of many Kerry policies.

That West is more of a non-traditional professor, speaking so politically, has likely opened the professor for much of his criticism.

‘You heard him talk about vocation,’ said Jim Wiggins, former chair of the Syracuse University religion department and longtime friend of West’s. ‘It’s his calling (to be politically active). He’s not just supposed to be successful. He’s supposed to be magnificently successful. He feels an obligation that means getting out there and talking.’

On Saturday, though, West strayed from politics, except momentarily mentioning the war in Iraq and how terrorism was not new to America on Sept. 11, since the country had terrorized its black community for 350 years.

In sum, though, he spoke to the young black men in the AAMC, who honored West with an honorary membership following the professor’s speech.

‘I felt like he was teaching us in a way,’ Paul said. ‘It was all mental. He had no notes. It added a sense of realness to his speech that really engaged the audience.’

Published on April 24, 2005 at 12:00 pm