To the editor,
"Tapped" (4/12 and 4/25) is dead wrong about Cornel West. Far from the academic charlatan he has been painted as occasionally, West is really one of the most prolific and important scholars now writing, at least according to the typical measures of such things. As a recent article in the "Latest News" section of the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (JBHE) demonstrated through exhaustive research, West ranked as the second most cited African-American academic in the country between 1996 and 2000, behind only William Julius Wilson. And among Harvard's prestigious elite of 17 "University Professors," he ranked fourth in academic citations between 1998 and 2000. He has also authored 49 scholarly papers in the last five years, and 11 in the last two, according to the JBHE. He additionally is the author of more than 14 books since he earned his Ph.D. 20 years ago. And all this comes on top of being arguably the busiest public intellectual in the country. Like all journalists of integrity, "Tapped" should do its homework before parroting the conclusions of other media outlets. Perhaps then "Tapped" would not be so quick to dismiss such a prominent scholar out of hand.
-- Alex Kellogg
The Prospect Online responds:
Yikes. We're sorry Alex Kellogg is so mad at "Tapped." But The American Prospect Online has hardly been so unbalanced as his letter seems to suggest. While we may have criticized Cornel West in "Tapped," we also devoted an entire article to defending him recently.
The Great Miami Beach Debate:
To the editor:
Mr. Sasha Polakow-Suransky received a letter criticizing his 4/22/02 article "Echo Chamber: 75,000 marched to free Palestine but was anyone listening?" from Mr. Robert Honeyman of Miami Beach, FL. The author's response contained the comment that Honeyman was "... playing armchair general from his beach house in Florida ... ." The author is entitled to his opinion that Mr. Honeyman is an "armchair general," but is his reference to "beach house"fact or opinion? If the latter, what is that opinion based on? And what should areader deduce from that comment if it is an opinion? Alas, most residences inMiami Beach are not beach houses.
Lenore Gittis
New York, NY
