Cornel West Biography

Cornel West is an American philosopher, author, social critic, political activist and public intellectual. West who is the son of a Baptist minister focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and the means by which people act and react to their “complete conditionedness.”

Cornel West Age

West was born on 2nd June 1953 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. He is 66 years old as of 2019.

Cornel West Career

He 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 an outspoken in the 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 as well 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.

Professor Cornel West

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 him an various media outlets as a commentator on politics and social issues.

Cornel West Education

Growing up in Sacramento, California, The Matrix Reloaded commentator attended John F. Kennedy High School till 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 dissertation was Ethics, historicism and the Marxist tradition, later revised to be The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought.

Clifton West Cornel West

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.

Dr Cornel West Wife

Dr. West has 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, 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 West supports her.

Cornel West Net Worth

He has an estimated net worth of $500,000 as of 2018.

Cornel West Books

• 1979 – Black Theology and Marxist Thought
• 1982 – Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity
• 1985 – Post-Analytic Philosophy, edited with John Rajchman

• 1988 – Prophetic Fragments
• 1989 – The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism
• 1991 – Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life (with bell hooks)
• 1991 – The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought
• 1993 – Prophetic Thought in Postmodern Times: Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism

• 1994 – Race Matters
• 1994 – Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America
• 1995 – Jews and Blacks: A Dialogue on Race, Religion, and Culture in America (with rabbi Michael Lerner)
• 1996 – The Future of the Race (with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)
• 1997 – Restoring Hope: Conversations on the Future of Black America
• 1998 – The War Against Parents: What We Can Do For America’s Beleaguered Moms and Dads (with Sylvia Ann Hewlett)

• 1998 – The Future of American Progressivism (with Roberto Unger)
• 2000 – The African-American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Century (with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)
• 2004 – Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism
• 2004 – Commentary on The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions; see The Ultimate Matrix Collection (with Ken Wilber)
• 2008 – Hope on a Tightrope: Words & Wisdom

• 2009 – Brother West: Living & Loving Out Loud
• 2012 – The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto (with Tavis Smiley)
• 2012 – Pro+Agonist: The Art of Opposition
• 2014 – Black Prophetic Fire