Cornel West
I found the Cornel West speech rather interesting because of the way that he used his words and his expressions during his speech. Cornel West is one of the leading African American individuals that appeared in a lot of programs. He used to be a professor in Albert and now a professor at Princeton University. He is controversial because he is outspoken and is very engaged socially. “Getting to know Cornel West has been one of the genuine pleasures of my life,” Gates said. “I have never met a person who combines genuine passion for the plight of human beings less fortunate than he with intellectual insight and the capacity on his feet to communicate both that depth of comparison and to propose solutions that would cure the suffering that he is describing (Morrison, 45). Cornel West brought up several points in his speech that covered a lot of topics in society today. The first topic that West brought upon the audience was about Americans and how they are spoiled and how we don’t have a sense of sentimental history. When we talked about this in discussion, we felt that he meant that American’s focus on the future and don’t dwell on the past. This is unsentimental because we don’t just sit down and think of the past randomly. For example, we just don’t think about historical events even like taking over other countries land or the importance of it. This is because America is only concerned really what is happening presently and in the future. He also brought up another point about America and how we are obsessed with comfort. When we discussed this point in class, we felt that he meant that America always has to be the best at what is convenient for them. West once described America as a “hotel civilization” – “obsessed with comfort and convenience and contentment.” A hotel is “a fusion of home if you have the cash to pay.” When you leave the room it’s dirty, but when you come back it’s clean. He said that in a hotel you are shielded from the unpleasantness of the
Cited: Macionis, J. J. (2011). The School. In Society the basics (11th ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall. (Original work published 2007) Marchand, J. (2011) Class discussion Morrison, J. (2004). Cornel West. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/ books?id=EcwI2eX_aJYC&pg=PA66&lpg=PA66&dq=are+americans+obsessed+with+their+comfort?+cornel+west&source=bl&ots=2Ln82omrvz&sig=sIpWX9xra_ih74q0qUdfKYy1c80&hl=en&ei=rdWtToTDLYLl0QG07bXNDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCcQ6AEwBQ#v= onepage&q&f=false