CORNEL WEST UPDATE: John McWhorter examines Cornel West’s behavior and concludes that it reflects badly on black academics.
Prof. West is known for his lucrative career as a public speaker, and has recently recorded a rap CD and supported Al Sharpton’s bid for the U.S. presidency. His decision to decamp to Princeton betrays tragic assumptions, of the sort that lead too many African-American leaders and thinkers to reinforce the very stereotypes they seek to exterminate. . . .
The simple fact is that serious academics are expected to produce a steady stream of academic work. Of course, Prof. West proudly identifies with the class of “activist scholars.” As such, he likely sees it as morally urgent that he communicate with the general public. And there is not a thing wrong with this. But he attempts to maintain a foothold in the academic realm.
As McWhorter says, it’s a “delicate balance.” And it is. That’s why I see Cornel West as a cautionary example for a lot of us.
To some degree, public opining is part of an academic’s job. My Dean thinks I’m doing something worthwhile when I speak to the Maryville, Tennessee Kiwanis Club about constitutional law, or go talk about the Patriot Act before a bunch of alumni, because “public service” and “public education” are supposed to be part of our jobs. And to me, weblogs and op-eds are just the same thing writ large.
But of course, while doing that sort of thing is part of my job, it’s not my whole job. I still teach my classes (without the aid of teaching assistants, which we don’t use much in the law world) grade my exams (ditto on the absence of teaching assistants, and as Eugene Volokh says, that part sucks) and do actual scholarship. Producing one law-review article a year is considered quite productive in my field; I’ll have two this year plus a short “Essay” piece that I wouldn’t count as a full-scale publication, though some people do. I also put out the occasional CD (techno, not rap) but although I list it in the “other creative activity” section of my annual “Faculty Activities Report,” I don’t kid myself that it carries (or ought to carry) much weight in assessing what kind of a year I’ve had in terms of scholarship. And if I felt otherwise, I imagine that someone would point out the error to me.
The problem is that when you’re a University Professor at Harvard, there’s apparently nobody to do that pointing-out except the President of the University. And when Larry Summers did point out that West wasn’t carrying his weight, West responded that he had been “disrespected,” — though, really, telling someone that they’re capable of better and more substantive work than they’re doing, and trying to halt their descent into self-parody, is respect, not disrespect.