ONE WOULD think Cornel West's lecture "Race Matters" would have included a substantive discussion of racial problems and solutions. But it did not. Empty rhetoric and misleading generalizations constituted his entire speech this past Friday at Old Cabell Hall.
West has a poetic speaking style. His booming vocals and animated use of body language captivated the audience. People cried, cheered and rose to their feet. He spoke to the audience in their terms - integrating aspects of everyday culture into his discourse.
This made for great entertainment.
The speech failed, however, to offer any analysis of current racial structures, or plausible solutions. Listening to West's speech was the intellectual equivalent of eating a pint of Ben and Jerry's: It tasted good, but had little substance.
Much of West's speech was harmless rhetoric. Assertions ran along these lines: Freedom and justice are good, one should have the courage to love, more democracy is better than less, and public discussion is beneficial. These declarations could have been taken right out of Political Correctness for Dummies.
It is unfortunate that West did not delve into any of these issues on a meaningful level. Take the example of justice. Calls for justice are empty - nobody disagrees with such vague statements. Justice only becomes controversial when it is defined. We then realize we have different ideas about what justice is, and simple calls for justice begin to ring hollow.
This is especially pertinent to the current state of racism. It is not clear whether or not certain courses of action, such as affirmative action, are just. But West never bothered to address these issues. He was too busy raving about the evils of corporate America. Which brings us to the part of West's speech where he used his performance skills to perpetuate gross stereotypes.
West is a neo-Marxist. So it would be appropriate for him to critique market power structures. Instead of explaining or describing these structures, he simply offered undefended suppositions claiming that corporations are greedy and that the wealthiest 1 percent in the nation is "having a party." He continued by insinuating that Bill Gates' bank account reflected his moral character and postulating the increase in childhood depression is a result of the "forces of production" without providing support for these statements.
Accounts such as these are harmful because they encourage a reliance on general stereotypes. Corporations are bad. Rich people are selfish. Greedy millionaires cause all social problems. But it's not that simple. And West knows it is not that simple - his writings on matters of race and class are extensive.
Yet some people in the audience might not know, and be swayed by the intense passion of West. He took the intellectually irresponsible action of using a dynamic presentation to mask the fact that he was not offering a substantive argument.
West was also irresponsible when he used his oratory skills to mock Vice President Al Gore's support for working people. With biting sarcasm and open laughter, West insinuated that Gore's "populist" position was insincere. The majority of the audience thought this "busting of Al Gore" was hilarious.
Very funny. West's so-called evidence for Gore's insincerity was the fact that the ratio of wealth inequality has risen during Gore's terms in office. This is true, but the same eight years also saw the creation of 22.1 million jobs, the lowest unemployment rate in 30 years, a reduction in the poverty rate, an increase in the minimum wage, and the greatest home ownership ever (http://www.algore.com/economy/eco_accomp.html).
In short, working people are better off than they were before the Clinton/Gore administration. West's derisive humor disguised the numerous holes in his claim. The statistics he quoted only served his rhetoric - he avoided explaining the whole picture.
He also avoided explaining how and why race matters - something that should have been clarified. Maybe it was never clarified because West thinks specific arguments are too easily entangled by evidence and reason. Specific arguments can be proven true or false. And as a postmodern pragmatist, West does not like such dichotomies. We should be aware of circumstances that cause our "young black brothers" to be incarcerated at such a high rate, he would say, but wary of explanations that say too much.
But explanations that say too much at least offer solutions. They offer answers to problems. Unlike West. He concluded his speech by saying he could not offer any specific courses of action regarding racial tensions.
All he knew was there had to be a public discussion of the matter. Public discussion of such issues would be beneficial. As long as the public forum is not filled with the likes of West - people utilizing dynamic personalities and the vagaries of our language to incite emotion and avoid reasoned argument.
(Kelly Sarabyn is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.)
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