Re: Reply to website article

> >Dear Sir:

> West's existence seems to be entirely dependent upon stirring up
> racial unrest. 

That's absurd; West's training and much of scholarly output is in
philosophy; in fact, he's published less on the philosophy of race and
racism than many, many other scholars.

Oh, except you probably mean to say that as a professor of
Afro-American studies, the only thing he does is "stir up racial
unrest" by educating students about, for example, the history of
African Americans. Yes, I suppose that, from what you give every
impression is your viewpoint about these issues, the truth is a very
dangerous thing.

>  How does a man of such limited appeal -
> <EM>outside of the protected netherworld of academia</EM> - 

Academia, in toto, is a "protected netherworld"? I don't even know
what that means. I have the vaguest inkling that you mean to activate
one of the standard right-wing rants about the university, political
correctness, so-called cultural marxism, and all that rot. How boring.
And beside the point.

But, come on, if you're gonna bash mindlessly, you should at least get
the buzzwords right. "protected netherworld" is simply gibberish.

> succeed in
> assembling&nbsp;a following&nbsp;of seemingly otherwise intelligent
> people as yourself. 

Hey, you damn with feint praise -- how clever! I'm "otherwise
intelligent" but not *really* since I am, or so you think, part of
West's "following". So, lemme get this straight: if a person finds
West compelling or interesting (or merely worth reading), the person
is ipso facto unintelligent? That's sorta a limited litmus test, isn't
it?

As for why people pay attention to West, maybe you should consider the
fact that so many people do -- his first year course in A-A studies at
Harvard was *the single most popular course on campus* -- to be a bit
of falsification of your thesis that he's -- how would you put it? --
"entirely dependent on stirring up racial unrest".

  Comparisons to Einstein are outrageous and
> disgraceful.&nbsp;

Wow, you've got all that pent-up racism *and* you can't read for shit.
The comparison to Einstein was about Princeton's Institute for
Advanced Study, which nicely refutes a lot of the nonsense spread
about West. It's interesting that you try to distort the plain meaning
of what I wrote; people who piss and moan about the "protected
netherworld of academia" are typically the kind of people who
fetishize The Truth, which they think they can wield as some kind of
ideological weapon against those whom they take to be the Evil
Proponents of Political Correctness. Which is ironic since just about
every message I get from a right-winger "criticizing" something I've
written is full of these kind of obvious distortions and fabrications.

The Truth is only worth something when you think it's a bludgeon
against your political opponents. This really is the archetypal
right-wing move, the kind of thing Ann Coulter has raised to an art
form. The hypocrisy is stunning.

However, the comparison isn't as completely untoward as you seem to
think: Einstein and West are both powerful *socialist* thinkers,
though I would be the second to concede that as far as epoch-making
intellectuals, Einstein is light years ahead of West, who'd be the
*first* to concede it, of course.

> Why does such a committed social reformer as West run&nbsp;away from
> his accusers when challenged to defend his intellectual integrity and
> work&nbsp;ethic?&nbsp;&nbsp;I believe it is because he has neither
> integrity nor ethics.

Yes, you clearly believe that; but you're just as clearly wrong in
that belief. If you really don't understand why West refuses to defend
himself against baseless, racially-suspect, prima facie absurd
allegations about "work ethic", then there's nothing I could say to
explain it to you.

Lemme put it this way: how many books and multimedia projects did
*you* complete while battling prostate cancer? And if you don't get
the point of the question, that's an indication that you don't know
what the hell you're talking about, that you lack essential, relevant
facts, and that you're making a fool of yourself.

Kendall Clark