The Study Of Cornel West’s Ethnic Political Theory

Racial issues are often intertwined with religious problems, and they together become a worldwide problem across the modern national boundaries. Cornel West sees the racial issues behind the religious issues, the ethnic politics behind the cultural politics. From religious events and ethnic issues, West has demonstrated his fundamental concern on the issue of religion and race. On this basis, this paper analyzes the main contents and viewpoints of West’s ethnic political theory, mainly from the ideological source, theoretical construction and practical research. Among them, the concept of the pedigree materialism, the modern discourse structure and the new cultural politics of difference is important perspectives to understand West’s theory of ethnic politics. Finally, based on the analysis of West’s ethnic political theory and he personally as a thinker and public intellectual actively participates in maintaining the rights of blacks, the author evaluates special contribution to West’s the contemporary political thought and uses a term from Richard Rorty who calls West a practitioner of strong poet; and reminds the public of the concerns about issues such as racial problem, the problem of survival and development of ethnic minorities, because this is not concerning a country, a region, but relates to the survival and development in all human being and the world.