Study Questions for Cornel West’s Race Matters
Introduction
1. What does West identify as the cause of the L.A. riots?
2. What is the “common denominator” of both liberals and conservatives, according to West, which keeps them from getting somewhere in dealing with racism?
3. Describe West’s vision of new leadership for a multiracial democracy.
Chapter 1
4. What does West mean by “nihilism”? How does it relate to apathy, hedonism, and violence?
5. What does West mean when he says we must go beyond economics and politics and address culture in dealing with the current problems with race?
6. How does American preoccupation with pleasure and the underlying value system of the market contribute to the nihilistic threat, according to West?
Chapter 2
7. What does West mean by “racial reasoning”? How does it differ from “moral reasoning”?
8. How does the preoccupation with “Black Authenticity” feed into the racist ideology (racial reasoning) according to West?
9. What is a “sell out”? How is this concept related to the theme of racial reasoning in this chapter?
Chapter 3
10. What does West mean when he says that the black middle class today is decadent?
11. Explain the difference between race-effacing, race-identifying, and race-transcending political leaders.
12. Explain the difference between race-distancing, race-embracing, and race-transcending black scholars.
Chapter 4
13. Explain West’s rendition of the recent “black intellectual conservative assault on traditional black liberal ideas” (summarize Loury’s points of criticism). What does West find problematic about this assault?
14. What role is played, according to West, by mass media, hedonism and consumerism in the decline of traditional values in African American communities?
15. What is West’s view of the welfare state? How does his view differ from both liberals and conservatives?
Chapter 5
16. What does West mean by a “class-based affirmative action policy”? How does this differ from existing policy? What is West in favor of?
17. What is significant about the word beyond, in the title of this chapter?
18. Explain the two ways in which the black middle class is paralyzed according to West.
Chapter 6
19. What are the three pillars of Black Anti-Semitism according to West?
20. Why is it important for anti-racists to be opposed to Anti-Semitism (as well as opposed to sexism, heterosexism, etc.)?
21. What does West mean when he says: “If the best of black cultures wanes in the face of black anti-Semitism, black people will become even more isolated as a community and the black freedom struggle will be tarred with the brush of immorality.” Is he right? Explain.
Chapter 7
22. Explain the conversation that would take place at your dinner table if you brought home a lover for the first time to meet your family and that lover was of a different race. Explain also what people would be saying to themselves (but not out loud).
23. If lightness and softness are basic ingredients in the ideals of feminine beauty and sexual desirability, how does this fact impact men and women in African-American communities?
24. What are some of the stereotypes of Black Male sexuality? How do these stereotypes help perpetuate harmful treatment of Black males?
Chapter 8
25. Explain what West means when he says that “Malcolm X’s notion of psychic conversion holds that black people must no longer view themselves through white lenses.”
26. Why is there a tension between the sentiments of Malcolm X and the black middle class.?
27. What does West say about Malcolm’s “fear of cultural hybridity”? Why is he opposed to Malcolm’s separatism? What does West offer as an alternative?