Cornel West

Cornel West, "On Black Fathering"

Cornel West (1953- ) was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and earned an A.B. from Harvard University in 1973, and both an M.A. (1975) and a Ph.D. (1980) from Princeton University. He has taught at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. His books include The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism (1989), the American Book Award-winning Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism (1993), and The War Against Parents: What We Can Do for America's Beleaguered Moms and Dads (1998), which he co-wrote with Sylvia Ann Hewlett. West's writing also appears frequently in periodicals such as the New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and The New Yorker.

"On Black Fathering," which illustrates one of West's concerns about parenting, is taken from the anthology Faith of Our Fathers: African-American Men Reflect on Fatherhood (1996).

CONTENT

1. According to the author, what two main things must one do to become a good black father?
2. What happens when the author's dad turns thirty-one?
3. What does the author mean by the phrase "patriarchal identity"?
4. How does West define love?
5. At the end of the essay, what is the author looking forward to?
6. Where did Clifton Lincoln West Jr. go to college? Where did he apply first? What happened to his first application?
7. Describe the author's relationship with his father.

STRATEGY AND STYLE

1. Discuss this piece as a cause and effect essay. What main causes does the author describe? What are their effects? Do any of these effects in turn become causes?
2. In paragraph nineteen West contrasts Kool-Aid and blood. How can you explain this contrast in light of the author's feelings about family?
3. The author names the workingmen of Glen Elder in a particular way in paragraph nineteen—Mr. Peters, Mr. Pool, Mr. Powell, Mr. Reed. How else could he have identified them? How does his choice give you an indication of how he felt about these men?
4. This essay is divided into two parts. What are they? How does the tone differ from one part to the other? Use specific words and phrases from your text to support your answer.

1. How would you describe your relationship with your parents? What thoughts of parenting crossed your mind as you read this essay?
2. Think of a friend from an ethnic background that's different from yours. What's different in the style of parenting you've observed when with your friend, as opposed to your own upbringing? What's similar? What does ethnic background have to do with these things?

SUGGESTIONS FOR SUSTAINED WRITING

1. Write a comparison/contrast essay using this piece and one of the following readings from your text: Anna Quindlen's "Evan's Two Moms," Judith Cofer's "Casa," or James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son."
2. Using your reading and your own experience, write a definition essay in which the main topic is love. Make sure to mention West's ideas of love, which you examined in Content question d.) above.

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Review your answer to Content question f.) above, and do some research to answer the following questions: How many black students were attending the University of Tulsa in the five years following World War II? How many were attending Fisk University? How can you characterize Fisk? How did your research deepen your understanding of this essay?

WEB CONNECTION

Read this critique of some of West's views of parenting from the online magazine, Salon. What similarities did you find between the essay and this article? How are they different? Defend your answer with specifics from both "On Black Fathering" and the Salon.com article.

LINKS

Biographical

Here's West's page at Harvard, where you'll find biographical information, a photo, and some links.

Take a look at another West biography from Harvard, this one from the Coop, the university's main bookstore. How does the information here differ from the information on the page above? What might account for the difference?

Bibliographical

It's time for some of West's work in etext. Click here to read (you can listen, too!) to "A Conversation on Race," which the author prepared for the PBS program Frontline. Do you like to use etext? Explain.

Ready to do some further research about this author? This West bibliography will give you plenty of sources to consider. (It compiles more than 130 works by and about the author.)

Cultural

How about a taking a look at this author from another perspective? Take a visit to Cornelwest.com, and you'll find a lot of information about an album West collaborated on with Derek "D.O.A." Allen called Sketches of my Culture.

Want more background about one of this author's frequent topics? Here's the homepage of Parents magazine.

How about some similar information from a different perspective? Check out the homepage of the I Am Your Child Foundation. What did you learn by clicking through this site?