Lea Kahn

By: centraljersey.com
LAWRENCE – Frederick Douglass. Ida B. Wells Barnett. Louis Armstrong. Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X. Stevie Wonder. Thelonius Monk. John Coltrane.
It’s hard to find a group of people that exemplifies the best of what it means to be human, said Princeton University professor Cornel West, the keynote speaker for Black History Month at Rider University.
"I am who I am because somebody loved me, cared for me, and tended to me. You are who you are because somebody loved you, cared for you and tended to you," Mr. West told the audience of more than 200 people – many of them students – Monday night.
"What kind of person are you going to be, from the womb to the tomb?" he challenged the students. "What kind of legacy are you going to leave? How connected are you to the three dimensions of time – past, present and future?"
Black history challenges people to figure out what it means to be human, he said. The unexamined life is not a life for humans. But the examined life is painful. It takes more courage to examine the dark corners of the soul than to fight on a battlefield, he said.
Mr. West also repeated the first line of the Negro National Anthem – "lift every voice and sing." But don’t confuse "voice" with "echo," he told the audience. The young generation has too many echoes and not enough voices, he said.
Black history also is concerned with trying to tell the truth, Mr. West said. People have been raised in a culture where most folks are up for sale – "you know, you’ve been wrestling with integrity but that money looks great," he said. But Frederick Douglass would not sell his soul for a mess of pottage, he said.
When people talk about black history, they should understand that hope is not the same as optimism, he said. The blues is not optimistic, but the blues is a way of being in the world that allows one to wrestle with what it means to be human, he said.
Lastly, Mr. West said the students should appreciate the education they have received at Rider University. He urged them to find their calling, which is different from their career. He also challenged them to figure out what they are going to do in the short time they are here on earth.