he trooper ignored the three-piece suit. If there was a briefcase on the seat, he missed it. If there were books on the floor, he didn’t care. All the officer saw was a black face in a sports car.

It was the face of Cornel West. He was commuting to his new job at Williams College, in Massachusetts. After he was pulled over, West explained to the officer that he was a professor on his way to teach a philosophy class.

"Yeah," the trooper said. "And I’m the Flying Nun. Let’s go, nigger!"

More than 15 years have passed since West heard that sentence, but he still feels its sting. It reminds him that words have power. Now a Harvard professor, philosopher, theologian, and social activist, West uses his own words to inspire action. Best known for his 1993 bestseller, Race Matters, West links and condemns all forms of oppression--racism, sexism, homophobia, and classism--but offers few solutions. Instead, he walks a rhetorical tightrope by drawing on anything and everything to get people talking about social injustice. He weaves together references from fiction, hip-hop, jazz, and philosophy to shed light on the history of racism. Inspired by social leaders like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., he embraces the seemingly opposing philosophies of Christians and Marxists, Baptists and Black Panthers and liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans. This broad approach creates an ambiguous persona that makes West difficult to peg.

But he knows how to work a crowd.