Cornel West, born June 2, 1953, is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual, and political activist. He is a Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He has also taught at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Paris. Probably best known for his books, including Democracy Matters, his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, his most recent releases, Black Prophetic Fire and Radical King, and my fave, Race Matters. West attributes most of the black community’s problems to “existential angst derived from the lived experience of ontological wounds and emotional scars inflicted by white supremacist beliefs and images permeating U.S. society and culture.”