West Speaks at Hillel

Professor of Afro-American Studies and the Philosophy of Religion Cornel R. West '74 told audience members last night at the Hillel Forum that becoming an intellectual takes a lifetime.

West's lecture, titled "The Crisis of Vocation in Higher Education," led his listeners through an analysis of what he said was the "life of the mind" and "the nature of my own calling."

Using an autobiographical account stretching from his first interest in philosophy on the streets of Sacramento through his evolution at Harvard and Princeton and up to the present, West said that he "never looked at [his work] as a profession."

Instead, he told the more than 90 audience members at the speech that he was "an intellectual freedom-fighter."

Addressing the problem of being an intellectual in modern America, West said that it is necessary "to think about issues of darkness...in a hotel civilization that likes to have the lights on all the time."

West said that after a lifetime of building an intellectual foundation, he is just beginning to come of age as a thinker.

"I needed 18 to 20 years just to set a foundation...a springboard for the work I wanted to do," West said.

West's comments turned political when he took a question regarding the upcoming visit of Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

He pointed out the "hypocrisy" of the Clinton Administration in differentiating in foreign policy between Cuba and China.

At the end of his comments, West interacted with the audience on issues of undergraduate impressions of Harvard.

He said that "the academy...remains the special site for one who takes the life of the mind seriously."

West said that he became an academic so he could pursue his calling as an intellectual to search out the life of the mind.

"I needed time, so precious, to read, write and converse," West said.

He said that his mission is to "keep the dialogue going inside the academy, outside the academy, and so on."

Event organizer Anna E. Lumelsky '00 said that she was inspired by West's speech.

"I related to the idea that when you get into a place like Harvard, you suddenly feel separated from the rest of the world," she said. "I was inspired by the comments on how to break that barrier."