In West's book, _The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought_, he identifies Malcolm X, Panthers, and James Cone as his earliest influences, but states that MLKjr's "humble spirit and sense of urgency" is his most important personal inspiration.
West's most succinct evaluation of Du Bois is in a later work where he remarks on Du Bois' choice to join the Communist Party, "Locked into the narrow options of American political culture D. ultimately preferred a repressive communism that resisted European and American imperialism to a racist America that promoted the subjugation of peoples of color." He sees Du Bois as tragically flawed.
> I also get the feeling that West is a closet socialist. I remember him
> writing some book on Marxism & another on socialism some time back.
There's no "closet" to it! West's work before _Race Matters_ was clearly socialist in content and often Marxist in inspiration. RM sanitizes West's socialism in my view, although I don't know if this was West or the publisher's doing. In addition to _Ethical Dimensions_, West's _Prophesy Deliverance_, _Prophetic Fragments_, and _American Evasion of Philosophy_ are all texts where West's socialism is in the forefront.
> I'd say the West is a modern day DuBois.
I would say that his philosophical bent leans him toward MLKjr, but of
course his preaching doesn't touch MLK. West also explicitly rejects
non-violence.
-- Charley Earp