Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America

by Cornel West Routiedge, $19.95 319 pp.

On November 19th of 1993, a brilliant and controversial presence passed quietly through Harvard square. As part of the Harvard Bookstore Lecture Series, philosopher, preacher and scholar Cornel West '74 spoke about his most recent book, Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America, at the Cambridge Public Library. West, currently a professor of religion and Afro-American Studies at Princeton University, will be joining the Afro-American Studies department here in the fall of 1994. He is known both for his academic accomplishments and for his activity as a community leader.

Keeping Faith clearly illustrates the value of West's expected contribution to Boston's intellectual and social communities. A collection of essays compiled from various legal, philosophical, cultural and even artistic journals, keeping faith is as multi-dimensional as the author himself. In an interview preceding his lecture, West reflected on those aspects of his work which he believes to be most important. The ideas he chose to emphasize truly reveal the nature of what West understands to be his role as a "New-World African."

Central to West's assessment of American Blackness, as he presented it in the interview and both in the interview and in Keeping Faith, is the appreciation and inclusion of Africa in an American--or "New World"--context. Such an awareness, he claims, is essential to combat existing misconceptions of Africa and must be a part of the "Eveready life of ordinary people in the Black community around this country." West also insists that the importance of all forms of Africanist expression must be recognized, including its more superficial and commodified manifestations. As individuals living in a market culture, he asserts we cannot afford to denounce the marketing of Africa. West explains, "At least [commodified Africa] is available and people have to, in some sense, acknowledge and come to terms with Africa as a signifier for something, and one hopes that what it signifies will fly in the face of the various lies that have been told about it."

Cornel West writes fairly extensively about the misrepresentation of Africa and the problems of racism in New World, or Western, culture. Taken at face value, some of his discussions seem to border on a declaration of "us against them." West is quick to clarify that such an interpretation of his work misleading. A large part of his mission in Keeping Faith is to establish African-Americans as permanent fixtures in, and significant contributors to, Western society. Though is philosophy calls for Blacks in America to reach a full understanding of their separate heritage, his messages is not separatist. Using the term "cultural hybrids," West asserts that for people of African descent, "there's a New World dimension, there's a U.S. dimension. New world Africans dream in European languages and play European instruments but also fuse them with African Polyrhythms, African intonations and so forth...[T]here's tension and friction always there for those of us in the New World. The question is whether we can make it creative or whether it becomes destructive." Keeping Faith is West's direct effort to reconcile the African-American to a New World environment.

This attempt at reconciliation can be noted in several of the essays included in his book. More specifically, West is concerned with linguistic and rhetorical practices which create worldwide conceptions of identity. He challenges his reader to refuse blind acceptance of racial categories. Before classifying individuals or groups of individuals as "Black" or "White" or "Hispanic," we should "go back to Marx and Weber and Durkheim and Du Bois and Simone de Beauvoir and other historical sociologists who are concerned about providing an account of...rhetorical enactments." In other words, we must question the origins of certain racial and racist constructions before we condemn/define/evaluate people in accordance with them. West is interested in the history of the idea of race rather than its current definitions.

Keeping Faith is dense: it is unquestionably an intellectual project which reflects West's awesome breadth of Knowledge. Despite its intellectual challenges, however, the book addresses issues which everybody should consider. West makes plain that the struggle for equality and respect in the New World involves us all. In his first easy he states that all concerned individuals must be willing to "put bodies and lives on the line." Though he maintains that "intellectual weaponry" is an extremely effective tool for advancement, he recognizes that this struggle has been and still needs to be physical as Well. Violence is certainly not on his agenda, but he does believe "that one never rules out any from of struggle when one is struggling for such precious things as freedom and dignity." Not only does every man and women have the abilities necessary to participate in this struggle, but every man and women has that obligation.

Cornel West realizes his ideals through hi writings and his actions. He embodies informed and intelligent action. He believes wholeheartedly in the strength of individuals and in the potential of the community. He supports pride for and understanding of Individual heritages, but opposes the ignorant dismissal of the heritages of others. West's philosophy centers around the idea of balance. Success can only come when the scales of western society are able to support the weights of varying cultures without tipping one way or the other. As West himself admits, Keeping Faith "ain't easy."