West Makes Brief Return

Former Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West ’74 returned yesterday for his first public appearance at Harvard since his departure for Princeton University.

While most of his speech focused on the importance of transgressing the bounds of political correctness and academic scholarship to critically examine and change society, West did allude to last year’s clash with University President Lawrence H. Summers.

Toward the end of his speech, West seemed to assail the attitude Summers held during the now infamous Mass. Hall meeting last fall between the two men.

“I’d rather tell my truths in a fallible way then ascend to some higher position,” he said. “That’s why I try to hold back my rage, especially against a certain president.”

West also made light of his temporary return to Cambridge.

“I’ve been through these halls before. I have a lot of precious memories. Glad to be back for a moment,” West said to begin his speech.

West spoke to an overflow crowd at the Law School’s Langdell Hall, commemorating the late A. Leon Higginbotham, the youngest black to ever become federal judge and a former professor at the Kennedy School of Government.

Addressing the primary purpose of his speech, he spoke of civil right activist Higginbotham as one who had not allow social taboos to stem his activism.

“He never lost his will to sacrifice for a grand cause much bigger than him,” West said.

Comparing Higginbotham to Socrates, he said both believed that the ideal human life was not a life of complacency, but a life of awareness and critical examination.

But unlike Socrates, West said Higginbotham did not ignore his emotions in his intellectual examination of society’s problems.

“Leon Higginbotham went beyond Socrates because Socrates was never depicted as shedding a tear,” he said. “The condition of veritas is to allow the cry of pain to be heard.”

West also said that, unlike many politicians, Higginbotham was unafraid to express many radical opinions. West said this was a sign of a truly prophetic person.

“[People said] the book was too radical, the articles were too incisive. ‘Time for you to back off, Mr. Higginbotham.’” But West said that Higginbotham responded, “No, I’d rather be prophetic.”

West criticized current politicians, notably members of the Democratic Party, who he sees as unwilling to risk reelection and public support by voicing and acting upon unpopular opinions.

“Everyone ends up cowardly, but elected...Everyone ends up denying the pain, but elected,” he said.

Dismissing personal advancement as unimportant in the face of concrete social change, West encouraged action to eliminate the pains of the common man.

Mirroring the language of Malcolm X, West said if America does not accept the existence of society’s past sins and attempt, once and for all, to atone for them then “let’s see if the chickens won’t come home to roost.”

Among these problems, he said, are racism and infringement upon civil liberties.

“Anti-Arabism, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism—they all must die in order for America to live,” he said.

Third-year Law School student Michelle C. Yau said she found West’s speech inspirational.

“It’s rare to hear someone really talk about something in a very real way,” she said. “I’m a survivor of child abuse. And that’s not an issue that we talk about in law school. But he triggers the feeling that you have a right to talk about the unspeakable.”