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Summary: Very informative
Review: I thought the book was a very informative look at the black race
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Summary: Cornel West makes YOU analyze yourself!
Review: Cornel West is a great philosopher. His book made me think about my own philosophy about race and gender issues in America. His book is a guide that leads the intellect to her/his own way of thinking. The book is insightful, inspiring, and right-on-point! His book is thorough, addressing black nihilism, black leadership, black sexuality, etc. He leaves no stone unturned. No question unaddressed. I have long been an intellectual admirer of West. I first read this book in my undergrad years at Howard University and now in my pre-law school days. I am once again, touched by his depth of knowledge and reason.
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Summary: West does a mediocre job on a complex issue.
Review: Cornel West surfaces a host of issues on the most perplexing and complex issue facing the American social setting today. His strength lies in his passion to educate the public on white-on-black racism. His weakness is not verifying his claims. What could have been a highly recommended reading has turned out to be little more than a long newspaper editorial in the opinion column. Had such a book been published -- if it could have been published at all -- by a professor outside of the Ivy influence, it would have possibly sold six to a dozen copies . . . maybe. My only question is why such a zealous prophet for the liberation of blacks left his 'elegant car' on Park Avenue and took a Taxi to Harlem to get the cover photo for this book taken in his Princeton attire, and then driving back into Princeton that same evening after a nice meal at a restaurant that Harlem slum dwellers could only dream of dining (see preface). Sounds like a slick politician driving into town for a picture photo in the projects, only to wind up spending the evening back at the mansion eating shrimp and drinking fine wine.
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Summary: Provides Thoughtful criticism of both sides
Review: I read this while attending a fairly liberal college. What I enjoyed most was West's open crititcism of both sides. It was the first time that I felt that one of my professors selected a level headed book for a polarized topic.
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Summary: This book is very informative!!!!
Review: Cornel West has supplied many african americans with the tools to realize that racism is still out there. I always knew that racism was alive, but not in so many facets of our society. i believe that anyone that wants to get a grip on the realitys of today's society should read this book!!!!!!
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Summary: Look for this book in the Humor section of your bookstore.
Review: This book was wonderfully funny! I have seen Dr. West on TV and believe him to be a smart man. For this reason, I think he must have had a ghostwriter for this book. He tries to convince weak-minded readers that the in-your-face sexuality of some blacks is a thing to be praised, while free-thinking black conservatives are low-lifes. I would have given the book no stars if it weren't so funny.
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Summary: Another Book Critical of Whites
Review: Cornel West is a light skinned mulatto, who pretends to be otherwise, and his contribution to civilization is one more boring book that's critical of whites. I will agree with him on one thing, however, race does matter, and this is what it means to me: My father was born in Tipperary, Ireland in 1903, and he witnessed a lot of the trauma which involved Europeans during this century: including the Irish uprising in Dublin (1916), the Irish Civil War (1922), the gangsters of Chicago, World War Two England, and managed to live until he was 86 years of age. He died in his bed (but not the one that a German bomb had once left, strangely, high up in a tree). An especially quiet and dignified man from Ireland's Protestant culture, with a regal kind of appearance, at least one neighbor had convinced herself that he was a retired judge. Never any more than a hardworking aircraft builder who began and ended his working life in cabinet making, we knew dad was the grandson of an admiral in Britain's navy. And for us that explained everything about his quality.Decades earlier dad had seen something special in mom besides her Irish Catholic background, so he converted (at least on paper), married her, and they had three children. Two of these were born in England, my brother Kenneth (1947) and myself (1948), before dad brought us all here to America in 1954 Later they had a U.S. born daughter, Lynn (1957). Dad had been to this country earlier, where among other work he took on, he served as an engineer and test pilot for Henry Ford's airplane manufacturing plant (in the days when Edsel Ford would actually stop to greet him enthusiastically by name). Not surprisingly, dad saw America as a center for incredible opportunities and the best place to live. He liked Americans and he was determined to be one himself, though he never quite lost his Irish accent.In 1954, as the Queen Mary entered New York harbor with our emigrating family, he and mom excitedly called out for my brother and I to come quickly and look out the port hole just above a bench seat against the cabin wall. Quitting our game of playing tag around the dining room tables, my brother and I took turns being held up high enough to peer out, and we used our hands to block the glare from inside. I could see the silhouette of a huge statue out there in the dark, it was a lady holding up a bright torch in the driving rain. What do you see? My mother wanted me to confirm that I could see something extraordinary: "I see a lady with a torch, Mammy," I replied in the proper English accent that's long since eroded. And although the full symbolism of it was indecipherable for me at that moment, and Americans often thought the vignette was suspiciously corny when they heard it told, Liberty made an impression that was forever etched into my consciousness. Prior to seeing her I had already seen a lot for a five year old, including England, Ireland, and the Queen Mary riding out a storm at sea.My father and I came to sharing such reminisces one day while sitting in the yard behind the house where he had retired in Northern California. The sun had climbed high overhead, and without either of us having to verbalize it our camaraderie of the moment was intensified. We had a sense that death might not be far away (An accurate enough estimate, for in a few years he died.)Our conversation completed all kinds of turns that day, going through adventures both humorous and frightening (Like the time we had to walk a row boat out of San Francisco's Lake Merced, using the bank to gain a footing, because the wind and rain made it too hard to row. Or the night we drove back from Reno nursing a broken water pump with small amounts of water that "together" we gathered from the most unlikely and widely scattered faucets along the road). Eventually he became especially pensive, and we got into more spiritual contemplations when he was prompted to say:"I know that you believe some things very different from what I believe, and so I was wondering where you think we'll be after we die?" Dad's concentration was zeroed in like an archer poised to strike at some distant target, and he was encouraging me to clarify my own take on the matter. I could also see that this would be one of those rare times when he was going to listen for as long as necessary to understand this unfamiliar side of his own son. I said, "race is my religion, and I look there for the answers to the greatest puzzles." And he asked: "What answers do you get on this one, about the afterlife?" And I began: " I see the seasons come and go, as nature brings life and then death in continuous cycle, and I see ourselves as an integral part of that process, not just something separate from it." As an especially active sportsman, one who had hunted and fished throughout his life, he was on the right wavelength with this. Then he said: "But what becomes of us when we die?" Then I turned to see him for emphasis: "When the plants growing on this earth have done their job they die, but look in the Spring and they come back to us. Very few things about them ever change. What is important is that enough of them survive and prosper to multiply themselves. When you die you can count on living through me and your other children, and through any grandchildren or other relatives that follow" Then he said: "And what of us as individuals. Are we just dead forever?" "Our DNA is passed along, and because of that I resemble you. "That's not a total survival of me," he countered, with the especially quick response of someone who was concerned about the finer details of race for quite some time. And so I said: "How much of an individual must survive in one place to qualify as complete survival? To me it seems an incorrect assumption to believe that the purpose of the individual, of our genes, is to survive alone. I believe that we travel through life physically blended with our family, and no matter what difficulties and disappointments arise, our family is always with us."And dad said: "I notice the Bible has a lot of genealogy information, it even devotes space to dealing with the genealogy of Jesus; so what you're saying doesn't really contradict what I've always believed."As if to acknowledge that there was no great difference in this generation gap, and that it was only natural that we were of one mind on such a vital issue, he added "Whether you are right or the preachers are right, people survive the death of their physical forms.""Yes, that's true, " I said, "And you and I will always be together." Then he smiled, and I read on his face that he was no longer worried, because we really were there together. And the sun continued to shine down on our faces.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've read.
Review: Cornel West's Race Matters is not only speakly directly to the truth, but takes it to the level of understanding hard to reach in other works. He explores many facets that greatly impact our communites and deal with issues prevanlant in today's black America. I was truly inspired by this book to go out and lead our people to victory. I recommend this book to any and everybody.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent launching pad for critical thinking.
Review: I found "Race Matters" to be unique in its call for "race-transcending" initiatives. I was quite pleased with Mr. West's ability to place the aspect of race within a larger historical narrative. Additionally, it was good to see a credible critique of contemporary leadership and how it can be strengthened. Most important was Mr. West's characterization of nihilism as public enemy number one for black people. "Race Matters" is an excellent launching pad for critical thinking, and is a must for the library of the "race weary."
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Summary: Writing Skills Matter
Review: I recently read D'Souza's "The End of Racism" and found myself agreeing so much with him that I needed a second opinion. Because of "Race Matters" success and West's status, I hoped to find a healthy crosscurrent of ideas and insights. But in this disappointingly muddled and facile book, Cornel West never leaves his assertion of pervasive and debilitating white racism far behind. Perhaps that world exists somewhere, but it just doesn't jibe with my experience in San Francisco and the vicinity. For West, very little has changed in the last generation or so. I suspect one of his lectures or a conversation with him would be more illuminating of his position, because his awkward syntax blurs all but the broadest outline of his thoughts---though in a more cynical vein, there might not be more definition to his thoughts. This book might be subtitled "One Man's Views", because there are no footnotes and virtually no sources are given within the text to corroborate his assertions. His contention that whites both fear and are strangely obsessed with black sexuality is just bizarre and foreign to me. Still, this book has value in that it reveals sentiments that persist on one side of America's racial divide, even if what motivated those sentiments has largely disappeared. It's always harder for the punchee to forget than the puncher. I'm still looking for for a cogent rebuttal to "The End of Racism". Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Black Man", which I've just started, has promise, though rebuttal is not Gates's aim. Whatever else it is, at least it's eloquent, which puts it miles ahead of "Race Matters". Any other suggestions?
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