Couldn't agree more.

But no one apologizes for anything in our public discourse, so don't hold your breath.
 

Well, I apologize, but of course anonymously.
As a Harvard professor, I underestimated this man. I now believe that Summers' intellectual seriousness is more in doubt than West's.
Footnote: the tributes to Rorty which are now so prevalent do not mention West, but Rorty was a great admirer of him, while also recognizing his weaknesses.
 

--And they both of course owed great intellectual debts to Dewey.

West is a man of any occasion, a great American, and an extremely deeply learned individual. Only the pure gossip hounds with dog-whistle-sharp ears for the sound of grinding axes ever thought otherwise (and we readers of this blog are glad to be able to exclude Richard from that group -- he's a gossip hound who does his homework, which can be a terrific thing. Glad you didn't get blown up, Richard).

Cheers,

SE
 

Oops, I just signed off the computer for the night and realized that I inadvertently insulted that anonymous professor who so graciously apologized in public. I didn't mean to say that anyone who 'underestimated' West was an insane gossip hound -- only those who really pushed the notion of his inadequacy while actively avoiding learning anything about the guy and his work.

I'd prefer to say something milder about those who didn't know much about West and idly figured he might not be all he was cracked up to be.

Apologies for my oversweeping insult.

SE
 

It will be interesting to consider how Summers will fare as a University Professor if one applies the same standards to him that he applied to West.

1) Is he away from campus a lot? Does he miss classes?

(The former was true of West, not the latter.)

2) Is he engaged in political activity?

3) Is he working on a deeply serious book worthy of a University professor?

4) Is he devoting time to works that could be considered not serious by the standards of a University Professor?

5) Is he devoting his energies to things entirely unrelated to Harvard? (In West's case, it was his speaking and political engagements; in Summers' case, it would be the same. Oh, and the hedge fund.)

I raise this not for the sake of provocation, but because I think this incident is a blot on Harvard's record, and because I'm serious—apologies are owed. They'd be healthy for everyone involved. They may never come from Summers, but perhaps they should come from Drew Faust.
 

Richard Your questions are right on point. At an appropriate time, this is the stuff for a piece in 02138. A year in the life of two university professors.
 

What a great article that would be 'a year in the life of two university professors'. It would do much to stimulate healthy public discourse on university values. Much needed at Harvard for sure.
 

It would be wise of Drew, Jimmie, Pat, Nannerl,
Bob R., Jim and Bob Rubin to instruct the Secretary to prepare a report of activities of all university Professors to date, before the press goes on after this one. A public story on this subject has the potential to be deeply problematic for the University.
 

would an expose of the disparities provide grounds for legal action on the part of Professor West?
 

An apology from Drew Faust may be too much to expect. But an acknowledgement from Evelyn Hammonds that standards and expectations for university Professors have not been consistently applied and that the consequences have been unfortunate for Harvard might be in the realm of possibilities.

Now Dr. Hammonds has never addressed L'affair West, has she? I wonder why.
 

Standing Eagle, what intellectual debts to Dewey do you have in mind?

What views do you see these days from whence you are perched?
 

"would an expose of the disparities provide grounds for legal action on the part of Professor West?"

No.
 

The premise of this post is that Brother West is deserved an apology: that indeed his work on CD is no disgrace to his then-title of university professor. I don't agree or disagree, but don't think it's been explained, here, how this is actually a significant contribution.
 

9:16 AM, what are you suggesting? Is there any scandal to be uncovered in the behavior of University Professors past or present? What type of scandal might it be?
 

Not to flog my book or anything, but it's a longer discussion worth taking a look at Harvard Rules to see.

I think the short explaination is that the onus of proving the unworthiness of the project should fall on the accuser(s)...and that those accusers' main case on this point against West was that he had recorded a "rap" album, with all the racial and racist implications embedded in that term when it's used by white people of a certain age and perspective. Their presumption that this was in and of itself unworthy of West's position—and was so clearly so that the point required no further elaboration—was fundamentally racist.

If West's album had been "jazz," would people have automatically nodded their heads and said, "Oh, yes, a jazz album, he's got to go, then"? I don't think so. But when many white people say/hear the word "rap," what image comes to their minds? And that image, they think, is not the image they want associated with a Harvard University Professor.
 

"Explanation," by the way.
 

I'm 11:59 back again. I know what accusations were leveled at Cornel West. I'd just like to know if 9:15 AM meant that there is/was scandal (or purported scandal) connected with any other University Professors.
 

A slip of the finger: I meant 9:16 AM in my message above.
 

Re West's response to the question, isn't it obvious he would say it's not either/or, because if it was, we know what side he'd fall on.
 

Each institution has to decide what activities and pursuits are consistent with the role of professor. If a university endorses a broad interpretation of academic freedom, then there will be few limiting criteria. In the broad view, it is presumptuous and counterproductive to prejudge a faculty member's activity. I believe the history of higher education supports the notion that the broad view of academic freedom is more conducive to the mission of the academy, and more than compensates for those instances in which the path traveled by a scholar turns out to be a relative mistake.

Summers rankled not merely because he questioned a faculty member's productivity, but because he presumed to judge outside his discipline. Summers thinks he is the smartest person at Harvard, and that a degree in economics is all one needs to pass judgment on efforts in any discipline.
 

The question is not the role of a professor. The question is the role of a "University Professor." This is a special rank, higher than that of other professors at the university, that allows the holder to decide about how much teaching, if any, he or she will do.
 

But 2:23 p.m., how about the possibility that he in fact believes the high/pop culture dichotomy is ultimately a false one, i.e. take him at his word. Most people realize that much of today’s high culture (Shakespeare, much opera, Dickens, etc. etc.) was yesterday’s popular culture. Same was true in my field, where a poet such as Virgil was cheered when he came into the theater, but also became over time a school text and the main high culture Latin text of the West for 2000 years. He was also a folk hero and protective deity in Naples after his death, a bit like Elvis in terms of a pop-culture afterlife. That’s one reason one can work on someone like Dylan, to whom the same thing is happening in his own lifetime.

CW (now I do mean Cornel West) is taking a popular and influential genre, which has aesthetic appeal to lots of young people, and directing it in ways that are socially, politically and spiritually positive, compared to where some have taken the same genre. That seems pretty important to me, as a pedagogical strategy and in any number of intellectually legit ways. 2:40 p.m. second paragraph has it right, though let me put on my high culture hat and point to the incorrect use of ‘rankled’.

5-2 Sox, bottom of the 8th
 

While we're on the subject, I hereby shamelessly plug (no royalties involved) an issue of Oral Tradition I co-edited, web-only, which implicitly addresses the high/pop-low culture issue at the center of this thread.

http://journal.oraltradition.org/issues/22i
 

Cornel West is coming out with a new CD on August 14. This time he seems mainly to be the conductor, and most of the tracks are performed by other artists. Pre-order now!
 

Okay, I'm going to be politically incorrect. Cornel West's decision to make a rap album was both inappriopriate considering that he is a professor and furthermore a waste of time.
Richard's jazz comparison is reasonable, but try on another one: What if a white professor studying mainstream culture made a pop-rock album? And what if he or she said it was educational? The professor would be laughed at, thoroughly, and most of all by students, because - strange as though it may sound - they have a sense of what behavior is age appropriate, and for whom it is appropriate, and an old guy with a beard making supposedly educational rock music isn't going to do it for them. Many students would certainly describe some of their professors as "cool," but certainly not in the way that they could become pop stars. Furthermore, in order to make a new statement about a genre, i.e. it can be educational or non-vulgar, one has to show credibility within it, and as far as creating pop culture goes, professors have zero. Credibility as far as comprehending it and categorizing it goes, sure, but certainly not making it. It's the same mistake that Glaeser made in his YouTube video - his Ec 1011a students would be the first to admit that he is both witty and engaging, but YouTube was not his medium. YouTube is not going to give him the sort of credibility that a 20-something has talking to another 20-something, he comes from outside the culture, and his efforts to appear to "get it" come off as, in an odd way, pretension. He's too far over the hill, maybe it's not fair, but it's true. Does Cornel West come from black culture? Sure! But not the black culture of 20-somethings. They're not buying it. And most people his age have the perspective to realize that, I'm pretty sure (although, as is patently obvious, I'm not there yet). Which is probably why many of them consider West's rap research not to be serious.
I think it's for professors to study rap music, and I agree with the previous poster who said that the pop-culture of yesterday is the art of today to an extent. But the industrial revolution has changed a lot, and as far as I know, most top academics are not studying the lyrics of rock music too carefully. Metalheads will tell you that they're deep but I don't buy it. So fine, go ahead, but in moderation. Being black does not give professors license to study aspects of black culture that aren't worth studying. God knows there are plenty that are.
I also want to pick a bone with the poster who said that it's not Summers' place to judge work in academic disciplines outside his own. Of course he needs to rely on department heads to do this for him for the most part, but he was West's boss, and for better or worse his opinion goes. Occasionally people in high places don't get good advice and have to use their common sense (would it that the president of our country had some). The FAS seems to forget this. Often. However you feel about Summers' common sense (I am a fan, but I am aware that I am in the minority on this forum), you have to accept that once in a while he will feel obliged to use it.
 

But 6:07, it's really not the same for a white professor and a black professor, is it? It's pretty obvious that many African-American professors see their role more broadly than some of their white counterparts do—that they have a greater sense of obligation to African-American students, many of whom live in poverty, than white professors feel for, say, impoverished white people. And I'm not sure that's something Larry Summers ever understood. As you'll see from Harvard Rules, he also had many of his facts on the matter wrong. There's reason to wonder if he hadn't intended Cornel West to be a sort of Sister Souljah moment, in which the new guy finds an easily stereotyped social minority to use as a foil for his own ambitions.
 

Hey, "Common Sense" 6:07,

Seems you've done some thinking on this.

Hate to do this to you:


The album wasn't rap.


Start over.

SE