Race Matters, 25th Anniversary, Cornel West
Race Matters, 25th Anniversary, Cornel West
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Race Matters, 25th Anniversary
With a New Introduction

Author: Cornel West

Narrator: Cornel West, JD Jackson

Unabridged: 4 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Beacon Press

Published: 12/05/2017

Synopsis

The twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of the groundbreaking classic, with a new introduction

First published in 1993, on the one-year anniversary of the Los Angeles riots, Race Matters became a national best seller that has gone on to sell more than half a million copies. This classic treatise on race contains Dr. West’s most incisive essays on the issues relevant to black Americans, including the crisis in leadership in the Black community, Black conservatism, Black-Jewish relations, myths about Black sexuality, and the legacy of Malcolm X. The insights Dr. West brings to these complex problems remain relevant, provocative, creative, and compassionate.

In a new introduction for the twenty-fifth-anniversary edition, Dr. West argues that we are in the midst of a spiritual blackout characterized by imperial decline, racial animosity, and unchecked brutality and terror as seen in Baltimore, Ferguson, and Charlottesville. Calling for a moral and spiritual awakening, Dr. West finds hope in the collective and visionary resistance exemplified by the Movement for Black Lives, Standing Rock, and the Black freedom tradition.

Now more than ever, Race Matters is an essential book for all Americans, helping us to build a genuine multiracial democracy in the new millennium.

About Cornel West

Cornel West is a renowned philosopher, scholar, activist, and public intellectual whose work bridges the worlds of academia, social justice, and cultural commentary. With a deep commitment to democracy, love, and justice, he has spent decades challenging systemic oppression and advocating for the dignity of all people. A graduate of Harvard and Princeton, West has taught at institutions such as Yale, Harvard, and Union Theological Seminary, shaping critical discourse on race, class, and philosophy. His influential books, including Race Matters and Democracy Matters, explore the intersections of politics, race, and ethics with unflinching honesty. Beyond the classroom, West is a dynamic speaker and a voice for progressive change, engaging in debates, grassroots activism, and media appearances to push for a more just society. With his signature blend of intellect, passion, and moral urgency, he continues to inspire generations to fight for truth and justice.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kevin on April 24, 2023

Full disclosure: I don’t come to Race Matters from an insightful and enlightened place. I was raised in an all-white town (infamous for the 1907 lynching of James Garden) by all-white parents who used the N-word on a daily basis without the slightest hint of reservation or remorse. In spite of my upb......more

Goodreads review by Kevin on August 31, 2024

Finished reading this as the George Floyd murder and protests are unfolding… Preamble: --The US has the most nuanced propaganda (Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies). How else can the richest and most well-armed empire in human history convince enough people of its “freedoms”,......more

Goodreads review by Zadignose on December 16, 2014

Cornel West would probably not be offended if I pointed out that he doesn't quite have the literary talent of a W.E.B. Dubois... Who does? He doesn't have the fiery character of a Malcolm X. He comes across as someone sure of his ideas, but humble as an individual. His ideas are clear and generally......more

Goodreads review by Kent on March 10, 2018

25 years later it is disheartening to realize that this book is still completely relevant. The current West/Coates feud is explained pretty well, when you realize West is pushing a much more progressive and radical agenda than Coates. Also, West takes a much broader and more accurate approach to iss......more

Goodreads review by Tylor on July 25, 2020

This is the first Cornel West book I have read, and, in fact, it is the first piece I have read fully on the issue of race. As a white person, spending my formative years in an overwhemingly small white town, I was not exposed much to race issues. There was some mention of slavery, but it was someth......more

Quotes

“As moving as any of the sermons of the Rev. Martin Luther King, as profound as W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk, as exhilarating in their offering of liberation as James Baldwin’s early essays.”
—David Nicholson, Washington Post Book World

“Cornel West is one of the most authentic, brilliant, prophetic, and healing voices in America today. We ignore his truth in Race Matters at our personal and national peril.”
—Marian Wright Edelman

“Exciting . . . illuminating . . . West’s thinking consistently challenges the conventional wisdom [and] confronts the reader with profound and unsettling insights.”
—Robert S. Boynton, Newsday

“A compelling blend of philosophy, sociology and political commentary . . . It directly takes on some of the most volatile issues facing American society today. . . . One can only applaud the ferocious moral vision and astute intellect on display in these pages.”
—Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

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