Let Us Now Praise Cornel West

Student Newspaper - Harvard Crimson ^ | 1/11 | ROSS G. DOUTHAT

[BCrago66]

There are many marvelous professors here at Harvard, many glittering luminaries of the academic world. But there is, alas, only one Cornel West. And we are in danger of losing him.

Click the link above.

[BCrago66]

This article is excellent; it tears West apart. And amazingly, it is published in the Crinson, the mainstream, approved Harvard student newspaper.

[CatoRenasci]

bump! One of the funniest things I've read so far this year!

[Britton J Wingfield]

That is awesome! I wonder if the editor skimmed it and thought it was actually praising West. Damned all to hell with faint praise.

[doug from upland]

Great piece. I sent them the Cornel West disco song.

[Congressman Billybob]

Phil, It is WELL WORTH the effort to click up and read the original article. I almost didn't do so because it is not self-evident that the article is sarcastic.

There's hope for Harvard yet, considering that this rip-em-up column by a senior on the editorial board of the Crimson. Wasn't time to get into this subject this morning, but I had a line to use about the Cornel West's of this world. They are like river-boat gamblers in the old West. With two clean shirts and a good vocabulary they could pass for educated men and honorable, while being neither.

Congressman Billybob

Click & bookmark for Phil & Billybob in the morning.

[Travis McGee]

bttt!

[BCrago66]

Thanks for repairing my posting laziness. Better to have everything in one window.

[Bahbah]

Well worth posting. A good use of bandwidth IMHO.

[codeword]

And amazingly, it is published in the Crinson, the mainstream approved Harvard student newspaper.

The Crimson is a privately owned and operated newspaper, paid for solely by advertising and purchases.

[Brett66]

Wow! A towering turd in the world of academia.

[Interesting Times]

Scathing.

A lesser man, having produced such a watershed work, might have been tempted to caper and preen, to indulge in self-congratulation.

Caper and preen. If young Mr. Douthat isn't a freeper, he should be.

[okie01]

"Ross G. Douthat ’02 is a history and literature concentrator in Quincy House."

I believe we have discovered an honest "A" -- for both writing and content.

[BCrago66]

In the words of Carson: I did not know that.

But I still think the essay is remarkable, given the intellectual tenor of Universities in general and Harvard in particular, and given that the Crimson is not known as a conservative paper. For example, the Crimson rejected the David Horowitz ad attacking reparations - see http://frontpagemag.com/horowitzsnotepad/2001/hn03-08-01.htm for verification.

[VietVet]

Outstanding! Irony lives!

(At least, I THINK he meant to be ironic.)

[denydenydeny]

Bumpin.'

[thucydides]

The publication of this article in the Crimson is another straw in the wind. Harvard liberals may not mind a certain amount of patronization of blacks to keep the peace, but they cannot stand to appear second-rate, and this is what the buffoon West has done to them. Summers is a hugely ambitious man who means to leave his mark as president of Harvard. Already in his inauguration speech he has called for an end to stifling orthodoxy, he blamed the academics for getting out of touch with mainstream America on issues of patriotism, and now he does something truly revolutionary: he suggests that there are standards a black academic should observe just as others do. Note: nobody at Harvard outside black studies has criticized him.

[Wife of D28Man]

Yeah, but did this issue of Crimson survive distribution? Down here at U of P, an article like that would condemn the campus to a sudden rash of newspaper thefts. (And it always used to cause the Dean to cluck in severest disapproval.)

[TopQuark]

Indeed, very refreshing to see that in a student paper.