Cornel West: Leading Scholar, Friend of the Oppressed, But Not Good Enough for Harvard In the annals of the Dalit archive, West has created an admirable place for himself. For, very few people have held our hand just to be with us and for the sake of giving us company, at a time when many abandoned and betrayed us. Cornel West. Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr CC BY SA 2.0 World06/Mar/2021 One can easily feel intimidated about commenting on the reputation of Professor Cornel West, the globally renowned scholar who has just been denied tenure at Harvard University. The body of his work speaks for itself and hardly needs the endorsement of those he has inspired to hope for a better world.