Serious question. I’m vaguely familiar with him as a political commentator on the left, but the more I see of the guy, the more I think he’s just a liberal.

  • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    44
    ·
    1 year ago

    i remember once in class my professor was trying to dunk on me and he said

    “you know who disagrees with you? (dramatic pause) Cornell West!”

    “I disagree with Dr. West”

    sputters “you disagree with Cornell West?”

    like hes a god or something.

    • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      27
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I said something like " the only white writers anyone ever needs to read in college are marx and shakespeare"… i would add Lenin to that list. (obviously others as well like there are more subects but we were only talking about literature and political theory and should education be centered around white writers at an hbcu)

      • Mardoniush [she/her]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        13
        ·
        1 year ago

        I think in terms of need that’s broadly correct (I might add Goethe and Hugo, and of course the Russian greats but certainly that’s it for English). If you’re reading Shakespeare there’s no reason not to be reading Shikibu or Achebe or a thousand other authors modern and ancient. And Dickens and Austen are way down the priority list.

        • Othello [comrade/them, love/loves]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          15
          ·
          1 year ago

          oh yeah in retrospect i would add a few more white people (mostly russians) for the literature side and engels (im sorry i always give marx credit for your work bud) and plato (just to sum up western philosophy before marx lmao). to be fair im quite clearly a Shakespeare nerd when i say you should read shakespeare i mean you should read a LOT of Shakespeare, i love that guy, he is so far above any other writer in English language its not even close!

    • neo [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      A professor I had once did that with Oliver Wendell Holmes, but he was being cheeky about it and his implied purpose for doing so was to challenge us as he made an obvious appeal to authority.