Dr. Cornel West at UWM
Dr. Cornel West, prominent American philosopher and author, address students at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on April 2, 2012. All photos by Dan Peters.
“I tell students when they come to my class,” said Dr. Cornel West, “they come to learn how to die.”
This statement was the anchor of West’s address to the sold-out audience in UW-Milwaukee’s Wisconsin Room. UWM’s Students for a Democratic Society partnered up with several other student organizations, including the Black Student Union and the local Occupy movements, to bring the somewhat controversial speaker to town.
As far as I’m concerned, Dr. West’s appearance at the university couldn’t have come at a better time for the city: as the Recall Walker campaign pushes forward amidst across-the-board corruption charges, citizens are trying to remain hopeful.
West is a modern-day Anansi, a trickster intellectual who calls upon collective history to instill the basic lessons of kindness, unity, and love. Part holy-roller, part snake-oil salesman, part post-Mecca Malcolm, West is 100 percent passionate about using academia and articulation to demand a change. He weaves together pharaohs, pariahs, stories, and symbols to create momentary connections in the human web of life. For this audience, West cited police brutality, Scott Walker, and the sale of the American Democracy as contributors to the wrongs suffered by a myriad of citizens.
The oppressors West critiqued went beyond the easy pickings of black and white racism. He called attention to the struggles of the indigenous, of women, and the working class, blaming the inactive as much as those bearing down on the masses. He also spoke about the unfortunate circumstances of American children living in poverty. How can we, as one of the wealthiest nations in the world, stand for such a thing? West stated eloquently, “It’s fashionable to become well-adjusted to injustice.”
On stage, West salutes what he refers to as “the new school brothers and sisters” who have risen up out of these injustices. Acknowledging the work of great civil rights leaders of the past, he called on the words of American Civil Rights champion, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who bade us to straighten our backs for our freedom, because oppressors cannot ride us unless our backs are bent.
Take him or leave him, there’s no denying the relatable enthusiasm of Dr. West. His ability to synthesize significant cultural, political, spiritual, and racial touchstones into something so glaringly apparent is a skill many have lost. It’s clear that he’s taken his own advice — West is a fearless leader who looks his death in the face daily, and continues to march toward social equity for all.
Dr. West says it best and lays down his life.
The only struggle that SDS, the Occupiers, and their fellow intellectual vacuums have any business engaging in, is the struggle to find a bar of soap and fill out a job application.
Hardly. Someone needs to inform West and the children who follow him, that the 1960s ended nearly half a century ago, and all the protests in the universe will never ever bring them back. They’re gone forever.