Cornel West

Cornel West Bio, Wiki, Age, Wives, Children, Net Worth, Books

Cornel West Biography

Cornel West is an American philosopher, author, social critic, political activist, and public intellectual. He is the son of a Baptist minister who focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society.

West is a democrat and democratic socialist who draws intellectual contributions from multiple traditions, that include Marxism, Christianity, neopragmatism, the black church, and transcendentalism. The books Race Matters’ (1994) and ‘Democracy Matters’ (2004) are among his most influential books.

West has been critical of the members of the Democratic Party, and this includes former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, being outspoken in left-wing politics. Apart from commenting on politics, West co-hosted a radio program with Tavis Smiley from 2010 to 2013. The program was called Smiley and West.

He has also featured in several documentaries and made appearances in Hollywood films such as The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, for which he provided commentary. He was once named MTV’s Artist of the Week for his spoken word work as well as hip-hop albums.

He has also been a professor at the following universities: Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Pepperdine University, Union Theological Seminary, and the University of Paris. You can also find his various media outlets as a commentator on politics and social issues.

Cornel West Age

Cornel West is 70 years old as of 2023, He was born on June 2, 1953, in Tulisa, Oklahoma. Cornel celebrates his birthday on June 2.

Cornel West Family

He was born as Cornel Ronald West to Clifton Louis West Jr.,  a general contractor for the Defense Department, and Irene B. West, a teacher and principal. The school known as Irene B. West Elementary School in Elk Grove, California, is named after his mother. He has one brother, Clifton West.

Cornel West Education

Growing up in Sacramento, California, The Matrix Reloaded commentator attended John F. Kennedy High School until he graduated from the school. After high school in 1970, West enrolled at Harvard College and took classes from philosophers Robert Nozick and Stanley Cavell.

He graduated from the college in 1973 in Near Eastern languages and civilization. He then joined Princeton University and received a Ph.D. in 1980. This made him the first African American to graduate from Princeton with a Ph.D. in philosophy.

At Princeton, West was heavily influenced by Richard Rorty’s neopragmatism and the two remained friends for many years even after West’s graduation. His title of the dissertation was Ethics, historicism and the Marxist tradition, later revised to be The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought.

Cornel West Wife

Conel has been married three times and divorced the same number of times. He got married to his first wife Hilda Holloman, in 1977, and together they have one son, Clifton Louis. He later married a second wife in 1981. Her name, is Romona Santiago but it also ended in divorce. His third wife was Elleni Gebre Amlak, to whom he still pays alimony. He has a daughter, Zeytun who lives in Bonn, Germany.

Cornel West Children

West is a father of two. Clifton Louis born in 1977 is West’s first child and only son. He is a result of West’s marriage to his first wife, Holloman. He has a daughter too named Dilan Zeytun West born on 11th November 2000. She was born of a “love relationship,” as he calls it, with a Kurdish journalist who was at Harvard on a Nieman Fellowship. Currently, Zeytun lives in Germany and the West supports her.

Cornel West Net Worth

Cornel West has an estimated net worth of $500,000 as of 2020. West is a democrat and democratic socialist who draws intellectual contributions from multiple traditions, that include Marxism, Christianity, neopragmatism, the black church, and transcendentalism. The books Race Matters’ (1994) and ‘Democracy Matters’ (2004) are among his most influential books.

Cornel West Obama

West publicly supported the 2008 Democratic presidential candidate, then-Senator Barack Obama. He even addressed over 1,000 of his supporters at the Apollo Theater in Harlem on November 29, 2007. However, West criticized the former President when he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, saying that it would be difficult for Obama to be “a war president with a peace prize”.

West further withdrew his support for Obama in an April 2011 interview referring to Obama as a Black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats and now because he has become head of the American killing machine he is proud of it. West said in an interview that he considered Obama a Rockefeller Republican in blackface.

West referred to Obama’s speech in 2013 at the 50th-anniversary celebration of Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a dream’ as contradictory and as pretty words that hide ugly deeds. West stated that Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream while Obama got drones while Martin Luther King Jr. had prophetic missions Barack Obama got deadly missiles that he’s ready to use.

West in 2014, gave an interview slamming Obama, referring to him as a counterfeit who posed as a progressive. He went further to define Obama’s presidency as a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency, and a national security presidency.

Cornel West Hillary Clinton

For the United States 2016 presidential election, West had shown support for Democratic contender Bernie Sanders and after Sanders exit from the presidential race, he endorsed Jill Stein, a Green Party nominee, and her running mate Ajamu Baraka. He referred to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton as a “neoliberal disaster,” and accused Clinton of posing as a progressive.

Cornel West Race Matters

Race Matters is a social sciences book by philosopher Cornel West. The book was first published on April 1, 1993, by Beacon Press. It analyzes moral authority and racial debates concerning skin color in the United States.

Cornel West Books

  • Black Theology and Marxist Thought
  • Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity
  • Post-Analytic Philosophy, edited with John Rajchman
  • Prophetic Fragments
  • The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism
  •  Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life (with bell hooks)
  • The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought
  • Prophetic Thought in Postmodern Times: Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism
  • Race Matters
  • Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America
  • Jews and Blacks: A Dialogue on Race, Religion, and Culture in America (with rabbi Michael Lerner)
  • The Future of the Race (with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)

Cornel West Movies

  • #Bars4Justice
  • What Will Happen to the Gang Next Year? (TV show)
  • The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
  • Examined Life
  • The Matrix Revolutions
  • The Matrix Reloaded
  • Street Fight
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