E-mail a friendJune 30, 2009
Professors Cornel West and Michael Eric Dyson assess Michael Jackson's cultural and social legacy.
Dr. Cornel West
Dr. Cornel West
Dr. West says that any great artist wrestles with fear and anxiety and transforms it into artistic expression. (3:02)
Full interview. (21:50)
A renowned scholar, Princeton professor Dr. Cornel West has written/edited more than 20 books, including Race Matters and, his memoir, Brother West. Outside of academia, he's been described as an "intellectual provocateur," with lectures, TV and film appearances and his spoken-word CDs. He provided philosophical commentary on all three Matrix films, and his disc, "Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations," combined hip-hop and intellectual dialogue. West has also taught at Harvard, Yale and Union Theological Seminary.
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson
Dr. Dyson talks about Michael Jackson having to work harder as an African American as his music was not seen as an organic product of American culture. (3:49)
Full interview. (21:50)
Dr. Michael Eric Dyson is a social analyst, ordained minister and best-selling author. A former teen father who once lived on welfare, Dyson went on to earn a Ph.D. from Princeton. He's written books on Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, singer Marvin Gaye and Bill Cosby. In his latest, Come Hell or High Water, Dyson offers a searing assessment of the meaning of Hurricane Katrina. Often described as the "hip-hop intellectual," Dyson is Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania.