The Tenure of Racism: Cornel West, Critical Race Theory, and the Neoliberal Assault on Critique

[...]ranking, the ultimate mark of prestige, remains a prime directive. [...]professional performance continues to involve only that which is quantifiable-and that which is not quantifiable does not matter. What underlies Dyson's critique of West and Harvard's disrespect to his stature as...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Comparatist 2022-10, Vol.46 (1), p.84-100
Main Author: Di Leo, Jeffrey R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic freedom
African American literature
Agamben, Giorgio
American literature
Analysis
Assaults
Attitudes
Biopolitics
Citizenship
Colleges & universities
Critical race theory
Discrimination
Employment
Environmental justice
Neoliberalism
Obama, Barack
Pandemics
Poverty
Race
Racism
Stereotypes
Tenure
Violence
West, Cornel
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Summary:[...]ranking, the ultimate mark of prestige, remains a prime directive. [...]professional performance continues to involve only that which is quantifiable-and that which is not quantifiable does not matter. What underlies Dyson's critique of West and Harvard's disrespect to his stature as one of the preeminent critical race theorists of his or any generation, is a dismissive attitude toward his work on the coupling of neoliberalism with racism. [...]I will submit that Dyson's and Harvard's takedown of West opened the door for the question of whether state universities should be funding work like West's when not even one of the most prestigious private universities in the world would do so. [...]as we shall see, the ways in which these state and university actions regarding West represent a form of racist logic is also a comparative question that speaks to the future of critique in academe. [...]environmental racism refers to the connections between race, poverty and the environment. According to Appiah, there are "at least three distinct doctrines that might be held to express the theoretical content of what we call 'racism'" (4).
ISSN:0195-7678
1559-0887
1559-0887
DOI:10.1353/com.2022.0005