Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Beacon Press (2015), Edition: Illustrated, 264 pages
Description
"Celebrated intellectual and activist Cornel West offers an unflinching look at nineteenth- and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies. In an accessible, conversational format, Cornel West, with distinguished scholar Christa Buschendorf, provides a fresh perspective on six revolutionary African American leaders: Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Ida Wells-Barnett. West examines the impact of these men and women on their own eras and across the decades. He not only rediscovers the integrity and commitment within these passionate advocates but also their fault lines. West finds that Douglass and, to some extent, Du Bois fall short of the high standards he holds them to, while King has been sanitized and even 'Santaclausified,' rendering him less radical. By providing new insights that humanize all of these well-known figures, West takes an important step in rekindling the Black prophetic fire so essential in the age of Obama"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jenniferb
*Note: My husband and I share this account. This review was written by him, Adam P. Newton. *
Let’s get my bias and privilege out on the table. I’m a college-educated straight cis white male living in Houston, TX in 2015. I am the embodiment of white privilege in the United States of America. I
Yet, I was enamored and enthralled by this text from beginning to end. Black Prophetic Fire represents the keenest possible distillation of the current stage of Dr. West’s career - it’s a delicious blend of philosophy, theology, sociology, and political science laced with heaps of practical ideas..
This series of conversations with long-term friend and fellow academic Dr. Christa Buschendof extended from 2009 to 2013. The reader is treated to a healthy, intelligent, and ultimately hopeful discourse about the nature, history, and contemporary status of black prophetic fire. And while the second half of this dialogue was conducted in the shadow of the initial months of the Occupy Movement, it actually addresses the growth, development, and organizational power of the recent Black Lives Matter movement.
Six key figures from the 19th and 20th centuries provide the content and context for these discussions - each of which speaks to a different key facet of the voice Dr. West wants to see reclaimed and reborn in modern-day African-American activism.
• Frederick Douglass - The ex-slave abolitionist freedom fighter who rose to public prominence in the decades leading up to the Civil War but became subsumed by national politics.
• W.E.B. DuBois - The Northern intellectual who eventually left the ivory tower to embrace leftist politics as a way forward for his people living under Jim Crow.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. - The seminary-educated Baptist preacher who became the charismatic voice of the Civil Rights Movement, only to lose his life when his moral furor for justice for everyone disenfranchised by American Empire became too radical for the powers-that-be.
• Ella Baker - A powerful figure in the Civil Rights Movement with both the SCLC and SNNC who preferred a democratic leadership style, rather than relying upon hierarchy and cult of personality.
• Malcolm X - The revolutionary firebrand and self-taught intellectual from the Nation of Islam who spoke sincerely, truthfully, and caustically from the experience of poor African-Americans in the streets and the prisons.
• Ida B. Wells - Standing historically between Douglass and DuBois, this uncompromising journalist and teacher fought for the rights of African-Americans and women in a time when her voice was neglected and disparaged.
West and Buschendorf give each figure their own chapter, while still comparing and contrasting their styles, personalities, impact, and heft of their black prophetic voices. Proper due is paid to the context in which these six icons lived, with special attention given to factors like education, religious beliefs, gender, public perception, socioeconomics, and more. They’re also considered alongside the presence of contemporaries like Marcus Garvey, James Baldwin, Elijah Mohammed, Booker T. Washington, and Huey Newton.
A further subtle underpinning to these discussions is the role of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Dr. West has been on record long before this book’s publication that Obama hasn’t been the black President he thought he should or could be in terms of engaging with (much less using) black prophetic fire. He compares Obama to a latter-day Douglass in terms of trying to fix things from within the system, but without having faced anything akin to the trials and tribulations experienced by pre-Civil War Douglass.
Ultimately, what the book seeks to define is this concept of “black prophetic fire” and how it can be rekindled in this millennium to address the problems facing African-Americans today - which sadly aren’t too much different than what existed under Jim Crow. It’s about speaking truth to power like Jeremiah from the Old Testament: you warn, cajole, and strive to lead your people onwards and upwards, while working to address the ills of society from outside the structures of systemic power, often while facing violent pushback from those in power.
And as someone who stands to lose power and privilege if true equality for all is ever achieved, I found this book to be brilliant, engaging, and insightful, as it encouraged me to seek out prophetic voices in my world - both to encourage them and to adhere to their wisdom.
Let’s get my bias and privilege out on the table. I’m a college-educated straight cis white male living in Houston, TX in 2015. I am the embodiment of white privilege in the United States of America. I
Show More
have benefitted more from our society because of the institutional racism, patriarchy, homophobia, and general systemic oppression that have dominated this country since its founding. When Dr. West goes looking for black prophetic fire in this generation of African-Americans, he’s looking for people to speak out, speak against, and actively dismantle hundreds of years of systems and structures that benefit me at the expense of nearly everyone else in this country (and world).Yet, I was enamored and enthralled by this text from beginning to end. Black Prophetic Fire represents the keenest possible distillation of the current stage of Dr. West’s career - it’s a delicious blend of philosophy, theology, sociology, and political science laced with heaps of practical ideas..
This series of conversations with long-term friend and fellow academic Dr. Christa Buschendof extended from 2009 to 2013. The reader is treated to a healthy, intelligent, and ultimately hopeful discourse about the nature, history, and contemporary status of black prophetic fire. And while the second half of this dialogue was conducted in the shadow of the initial months of the Occupy Movement, it actually addresses the growth, development, and organizational power of the recent Black Lives Matter movement.
Six key figures from the 19th and 20th centuries provide the content and context for these discussions - each of which speaks to a different key facet of the voice Dr. West wants to see reclaimed and reborn in modern-day African-American activism.
• Frederick Douglass - The ex-slave abolitionist freedom fighter who rose to public prominence in the decades leading up to the Civil War but became subsumed by national politics.
• W.E.B. DuBois - The Northern intellectual who eventually left the ivory tower to embrace leftist politics as a way forward for his people living under Jim Crow.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. - The seminary-educated Baptist preacher who became the charismatic voice of the Civil Rights Movement, only to lose his life when his moral furor for justice for everyone disenfranchised by American Empire became too radical for the powers-that-be.
• Ella Baker - A powerful figure in the Civil Rights Movement with both the SCLC and SNNC who preferred a democratic leadership style, rather than relying upon hierarchy and cult of personality.
• Malcolm X - The revolutionary firebrand and self-taught intellectual from the Nation of Islam who spoke sincerely, truthfully, and caustically from the experience of poor African-Americans in the streets and the prisons.
• Ida B. Wells - Standing historically between Douglass and DuBois, this uncompromising journalist and teacher fought for the rights of African-Americans and women in a time when her voice was neglected and disparaged.
West and Buschendorf give each figure their own chapter, while still comparing and contrasting their styles, personalities, impact, and heft of their black prophetic voices. Proper due is paid to the context in which these six icons lived, with special attention given to factors like education, religious beliefs, gender, public perception, socioeconomics, and more. They’re also considered alongside the presence of contemporaries like Marcus Garvey, James Baldwin, Elijah Mohammed, Booker T. Washington, and Huey Newton.
A further subtle underpinning to these discussions is the role of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Dr. West has been on record long before this book’s publication that Obama hasn’t been the black President he thought he should or could be in terms of engaging with (much less using) black prophetic fire. He compares Obama to a latter-day Douglass in terms of trying to fix things from within the system, but without having faced anything akin to the trials and tribulations experienced by pre-Civil War Douglass.
Ultimately, what the book seeks to define is this concept of “black prophetic fire” and how it can be rekindled in this millennium to address the problems facing African-Americans today - which sadly aren’t too much different than what existed under Jim Crow. It’s about speaking truth to power like Jeremiah from the Old Testament: you warn, cajole, and strive to lead your people onwards and upwards, while working to address the ills of society from outside the structures of systemic power, often while facing violent pushback from those in power.
And as someone who stands to lose power and privilege if true equality for all is ever achieved, I found this book to be brilliant, engaging, and insightful, as it encouraged me to seek out prophetic voices in my world - both to encourage them and to adhere to their wisdom.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Bidwell-Glaze
I was reading this book, Black Prophetic Fire, as one of its authors, Cornel West, was being arrested in Ferguson, MO for a nonviolent resistance. [10 Aug 2015] For that alone I would have liked to give this a five star, but I couldn't. Its audience is too limited, and its thesis too strong for me.
These conversations of black history and theory are between Ph.D professors in African and African diaspora praxis, West and Buschendorf. The authors are very intelligent, engaged, and instructing individuals. This academic book is an exploration of African American resistance and the leadership thereof. It has a great index, its notes lead to other sources to continue research, and it is well organized, although not organized by chronology of subject lives.
I am familiar with the the main individuals being discussed by Buschendorf and West, but only in a superficial way. I have read one or more books by Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, MLK,Jr, and Malcolm X. I have read biographies of Ella Baker and Ida B. Wells. I am not familiar with the philosophers and theoreticians the conversationalists mention throughout. I kept getting the idea that I would understand and like this book better if only I were smarter, knew German philosophers, or was embedded in the Black Community. Constant name-dropping of people I had never heard of, or knew of only peripherally was aggravating.
Overall, the book took a long time for me to read, by my standards, and I never got past a feeling that Cornell and Buschendorf were painting with a very broad brush. There was also no evidence presented for her (Buschendorf's) theories.
1) blacks (African Americans, not Africans or POC) are a special race or culture, distinctly different from whites.
2) that culture / race is collectivist (we-centric), community based, even socialistic.
3) good blacks are socialist / communal if not communist.
4) bad blacks are individualists and/or capitalists
5) prophetic does not need to be defined as it is obvious (not to me, at least not as they use the term).
6) Cornell and Buschendorf are good blacks and President Obama is not.
Show More
These conversations of black history and theory are between Ph.D professors in African and African diaspora praxis, West and Buschendorf. The authors are very intelligent, engaged, and instructing individuals. This academic book is an exploration of African American resistance and the leadership thereof. It has a great index, its notes lead to other sources to continue research, and it is well organized, although not organized by chronology of subject lives.
I am familiar with the the main individuals being discussed by Buschendorf and West, but only in a superficial way. I have read one or more books by Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, MLK,Jr, and Malcolm X. I have read biographies of Ella Baker and Ida B. Wells. I am not familiar with the philosophers and theoreticians the conversationalists mention throughout. I kept getting the idea that I would understand and like this book better if only I were smarter, knew German philosophers, or was embedded in the Black Community. Constant name-dropping of people I had never heard of, or knew of only peripherally was aggravating.
Overall, the book took a long time for me to read, by my standards, and I never got past a feeling that Cornell and Buschendorf were painting with a very broad brush. There was also no evidence presented for her (Buschendorf's) theories.
1) blacks (African Americans, not Africans or POC) are a special race or culture, distinctly different from whites.
2) that culture / race is collectivist (we-centric), community based, even socialistic.
3) good blacks are socialist / communal if not communist.
4) bad blacks are individualists and/or capitalists
5) prophetic does not need to be defined as it is obvious (not to me, at least not as they use the term).
6) Cornell and Buschendorf are good blacks and President Obama is not.
Show Less
LibraryThing member GaryLeeJones
This collection of conversations between Cornell West and German sociologist Christa Buschendorf is mostly West, of course, and therefore highly inflammatory every few pages. But West is highly intelligent, extremely insightful, and a worthy opponent in the reader's mental debates. He is too quick
Show More
to judge the actions and words of others, which is what produces inflammatory passages. But he is too perceptive and insightful to dismiss or to simply ignore. Buschendorf's remarks and questions mostly lead him to say what he wants to say--not much differing opinion from her. But the discussions of Frederick Douglass, W. E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Ella Baker are all engaging and revealing. There are ample endnotes which not only identify the people referenced, but also give a sense of what to read to find out more. And there is a thorough bibliography. The index could be more thorough, but still this is a very thoughtful, spirited discussion by a man who speaks his mind and tells you why he thinks the way he does. Show Less
LibraryThing member nbmars
This book consists of a series of dialogues between the American intellectual Cornel West, and the German intellectual Christa Buschendorf. They discuss six prophetic African American leaders, arranged in the order the conversations were recorded.
The leaders - Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois,
West is particularly eager to break through what he sees as a shift in Black America “from a we-consciousness to an I-consciousness” that reflects both a growing sense of defeatism (or as he says in the conclusion, “desperation, confusion, and capitulation”) but also “a Black embrace of the seductive myth of individualism in American culture.” He wants to keep alive the memory of “Black prophetic fire” and reinvigorate that tradition. He explains the “logic of practice” - i.e., the correlations between social structures and mental structures - and hopes that this book will help inspire Blacks to break free of the socializing myths that acts as such a powerful deterrent to change. Ironically, in his chapter on Du Bois, he mentions Du Bois’s early naivety in thinking that “you just have to teach people; you just have to tell them the truth, and they will accept it and they will change.”
But that isn’t my main problem with this book. To me, it seems like a transcript of a post-grad level seminar that would take place after one had become familiar with at least a selection of writings by all of the leaders covered by these two in their dialogues. I think the essays are excellent, but I can’t imagine they would be more than marginally meaningful to anyone who hasn’t a familiarity not only with the six main subjects of their talks, but also with the many thinkers whose ideas they reference in such an off-hand manner, such as Ruskin, Carlyle, Bourdieu, Evelyn Higginbotham, and Jane Addams, to name but a very few.
So who will the audience for this book be? At the very least, I hope it engenders people to realize it would be a very positive thing to gain familiarity with these six great Black philosophers. And I especially appreciated the outstanding concluding chapter on why the election of Barak Obama has been problematic for the progress of Black America. I would love to see that last chapter replicated in a magazine for a wider audience.
My rating reflects my sense of the limited accessibility of this book, rather than its merits. Cornel West is absolutely brilliant, and it would be wonderful if his words could reach more people.
The leaders - Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois,
Show More
Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Ida B. Wells, all offered analyses of the power mechanisms that allowed white power and privilege to perpetuate itself in America’s social and political structures, and all considered ways to overcome these obstacles.West is particularly eager to break through what he sees as a shift in Black America “from a we-consciousness to an I-consciousness” that reflects both a growing sense of defeatism (or as he says in the conclusion, “desperation, confusion, and capitulation”) but also “a Black embrace of the seductive myth of individualism in American culture.” He wants to keep alive the memory of “Black prophetic fire” and reinvigorate that tradition. He explains the “logic of practice” - i.e., the correlations between social structures and mental structures - and hopes that this book will help inspire Blacks to break free of the socializing myths that acts as such a powerful deterrent to change. Ironically, in his chapter on Du Bois, he mentions Du Bois’s early naivety in thinking that “you just have to teach people; you just have to tell them the truth, and they will accept it and they will change.”
But that isn’t my main problem with this book. To me, it seems like a transcript of a post-grad level seminar that would take place after one had become familiar with at least a selection of writings by all of the leaders covered by these two in their dialogues. I think the essays are excellent, but I can’t imagine they would be more than marginally meaningful to anyone who hasn’t a familiarity not only with the six main subjects of their talks, but also with the many thinkers whose ideas they reference in such an off-hand manner, such as Ruskin, Carlyle, Bourdieu, Evelyn Higginbotham, and Jane Addams, to name but a very few.
So who will the audience for this book be? At the very least, I hope it engenders people to realize it would be a very positive thing to gain familiarity with these six great Black philosophers. And I especially appreciated the outstanding concluding chapter on why the election of Barak Obama has been problematic for the progress of Black America. I would love to see that last chapter replicated in a magazine for a wider audience.
My rating reflects my sense of the limited accessibility of this book, rather than its merits. Cornel West is absolutely brilliant, and it would be wonderful if his words could reach more people.
Show Less
LibraryThing member SoschaF
In Black Prophetic Fire, Dr. West discusses the lives and legacies of six preeminent Black intellectuals and activists (Frederick Douglass, W.E.B Du Bois, MLK, Ella Baker, Malcolm X and Ida B. Wells) and how their examples of prophetic vision are needed to counter the forces of neoliberalism and
Much has been made of Dr. West’s criticism of President Obama but Dr. West’s reasoning here is made clear and one cannot legitimately claim it is based on anything other than substance.
Black Prophetic Fire weighs the reader down with a lot of insights on each of the figures. The book is written as a series of dialogues between Dr. West (author) and Dr Buschendorf (editor), both of whom are likely far more erudite than most readers, and while it’s a fascinating conversation to be eavesdropping on, it’s going to be very hard for the reader to follow without delving back and forth from the dialogue to the (thankfully) extensive notes at the end of the book. I can’t help but thinking it would have been more rewarding for the reader had Dr. West and Ms. Buschendorf collaborated to write this in traditional narrative form rather than just transcribed dialogues. For substance, I’d give the book 4.5 (of 5) stars, but only 3 for format.
Still, this is a very rewarding read and highly recommended.
Show More
capitalist imperialism that have silenced those voices. Much has been made of Dr. West’s criticism of President Obama but Dr. West’s reasoning here is made clear and one cannot legitimately claim it is based on anything other than substance.
Black Prophetic Fire weighs the reader down with a lot of insights on each of the figures. The book is written as a series of dialogues between Dr. West (author) and Dr Buschendorf (editor), both of whom are likely far more erudite than most readers, and while it’s a fascinating conversation to be eavesdropping on, it’s going to be very hard for the reader to follow without delving back and forth from the dialogue to the (thankfully) extensive notes at the end of the book. I can’t help but thinking it would have been more rewarding for the reader had Dr. West and Ms. Buschendorf collaborated to write this in traditional narrative form rather than just transcribed dialogues. For substance, I’d give the book 4.5 (of 5) stars, but only 3 for format.
Still, this is a very rewarding read and highly recommended.
Show Less
LibraryThing member regularguy5mb
Man, this was a fantastic read!
I've been meaning to read more Cornel West, so when I found this browsing through the library, I immediately grabbed it. And I'm so glad I did, because it's a brilliant look at several outstanding figures of the Black prophetic tradition through a series of
These conversations, held over the past few years, cover Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr, Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Ida B. Wells. Wells and Baker were new names to me, which probably says something vital about the patriarchal approach to history we are presented with (and which is one of the points West and Buschendorf make throughout their conversations).
This book is an honest, frank look at the Black prophetic tradition, both in the day of those discussed and in the present. West has a keen mind and a strong system of belief, and he doesn't let anything interfere with the truth that he feels needs to be shared with the world.
I've been meaning to read more Cornel West, so when I found this browsing through the library, I immediately grabbed it. And I'm so glad I did, because it's a brilliant look at several outstanding figures of the Black prophetic tradition through a series of
Show More
conversations between West and Christa Buschendorf.These conversations, held over the past few years, cover Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr, Ella Baker, Malcolm X, and Ida B. Wells. Wells and Baker were new names to me, which probably says something vital about the patriarchal approach to history we are presented with (and which is one of the points West and Buschendorf make throughout their conversations).
This book is an honest, frank look at the Black prophetic tradition, both in the day of those discussed and in the present. West has a keen mind and a strong system of belief, and he doesn't let anything interfere with the truth that he feels needs to be shared with the world.
Show Less
LibraryThing member uufnn
About the authors of this book, quoting from the book's dust jacket, "Cornel West is a prominent and provocative demcractic intellectual. A current professor at Union Theological Seminarym, he has also taught at Yale, Harvard and Princeton. The recipient of more than twenty honary degrees, he has
Show More
written many important books. . . Christ6a Buschendorf is a professor and the chair of American Studies at Goethe-UniversitätFrankfurt am Main., She has puyblished on the transatlantic history of ideas and on African America literature. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
9 inches
ISBN
0807018104 / 9780807018101