Cornel West Accuses Harvard of ‘Anti-Palestinian Prejudices,’ Resigns
2 Min Read
Philosopher and activist, Dr. Cornel West, resigns from his position at Harvard.
-
Philosopher, activist, and former Harvard professor Cornel Wests
Philosopher and activist Dr. Cornel West resigned from his position as a professor at Harvard University. He resigns through a resignation letter in which he criticizes the university for the way he and other black faculty members were treated. He added that he was refused tenure for publicly supporting the Palestinian cause.
In a resignation letter sent by Dr. West at the end of June, which he posted on Twitter Monday, he wrote that "all my courses were subsumed under Afro-American Religious Studies."
This is my candid letter of resignation to my Harvard Dean. I try to tell the unvarnished truth about the decadence in our market-driven universities! Let us bear witness against this spiritual rot! pic.twitter.com/hCLAuNSWDu
— Cornel West (@CornelWest) July 13, 2021
As per Dr. West, other abuses committed against him by the university include: only giving him a one-semester sabbatical after being promised one year, a bad salary, no tenure status, and accusing university officials of indifference to his mother's death.
"This kind of narcissistic academic professionalism, cowardly deference to the anti-Palestinian prejudices of the Harvard administration, and indifference to my Mother's death constitute an intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of deep depths," said West.
The publication of the letter follows a dispute between Dr. West and the university over his tenure request, which was rejected in February. Dr. West claimed that his rejection was "based on the Harvard administration's hostility to the Palestinian cause."
"Talking about Israel's occupation of Palestine is a taboo issue at Harvard," he previously said in a podcast.
West was a key element in the call for Harvard University to divest from companies he described as "complicit with Israel in its occupation of Palestine."
According to the Harvard Crimson newspaper, the university has invested nearly $200 million in companies "affiliated with the Israeli occupation."
