Horowitz: "Cornel West is a black airhead"

Summary: David Horowitz referred to Princeton University professor Cornel West as a "black airhead," adding that he "is blessed with these unearned and undeserved perks solely because he's black." Horowitz further described West's work as "useless" and claimed that he "hasn't written as scholarly paper or book in twenty years (if ever)."

In a May 28 FrontPageMag.com weblog post, right-wing activist and author David Horowitz referred to Princeton University professor Cornel West as a "black airhead," adding that he "is blessed with these unearned and undeserved perks solely because he's black." Horowitz further described West's work as "useless" and claimed that he "hasn't written as scholarly paper or book in twenty years (if ever)." Horowitz's remarks appeared in defense of recent attacks on his book, The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America (Regnery, January 2006), in which he criticized numerous professors for their political views and participation in political events outside the classroom.

Horowitz used the term as part of his purported paraphrase of a May 26 AlterNet weblog post by Evan Derkacz, which criticized Horowitz for his attacks on West. In fact, Derkacz defended West as "an American Book Award winner and distinguished intellectual."

West, a professor of religion who has published extensively, is no stranger to criticism and controversy.

Media Matters for America has repeatedly pointed out false and misleading claims that Horowitz has made about his own book, most recently his comparison between the recent allegations of plagiarism and related academic misconduct by Ward Churchill, professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder, and the reported activities of other professors Horowitz profiled in his book.

From Horowitz's May 28 FrontPageMag.com blog post:

One of the professors profiled in my recent book of that title is Cornel West, a man [who] confuses attitudinizing with thought, whose intellectual output the liberal New Republic assessed and found "worthless," who is one of the academic world's most honored and distinguished figures and yet hasn't written a scholarly paper or book in twenty years (if ever).

The leftwing journal Alternet is outraged by these facts. Here is its entire argument against my description of the unbearable lightness of Cornel West's being: "In the nation's top universities, African-American representation goes from offensive to paltry. Anywhere from less than 1% of tenured faculty are black to a high of 4.3%. In other words, you'd need to go out of your way to pluck a black professor for your rant about the nature of academia."

In other words, Cornel West is a black airhead so don't hurt his feelings by pointing this out. Actually, my book The Professors features portraits of several bloviating dummies like West who are white. Professors Michael Vocino and Grover Furr for example. However, neither Vocino nor Furr have 20 honorary degress, a professorship at Princeton, a $35,000 academic speaking fee, a several hundred thousand dollar academic salary, or a lucrative book racket for appending their signatures to encyclopedic publications of the Harvard press.

Cornel West is blessed with these unearned and undeserved perks solely because he's black -- there is no other explanation (but don't hurt his feelings by pointing this out).

—B.F.