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293c0dc We have to recognise that there cannot be relationships unless there is commitment, unless there is loyalty, unless there is love, patience, persistence. relationships loyalty Cornel West
165a805 Nihilism is a natural consequence of a culture (or civilization) ruled and regulated by categories that mask manipulation, mastery and domination of peoples and nature. social-science nihilism Cornel West
e275c30 I have tried to be a man of letters in love with ideas in order to be a wiser and more loving person, hoping to leave the world just a little better than I found it. love wise ideas letters Cornel West
669d3c4 Music at its best...is the grand archeology into and transfiguration of our guttural cry, the great human effort to grasp in time our deepest passions and yearnings as prisoners of time. Profound music leads us--beyond language--to the dark roots of our scream and the celestial heights of our silence. Cornel West
a989ac7 In a time in which Communist regimes have been rightfully discredited and yet alternatives to neoliberal capitalist societies are unwisely dismissed, I defend the fundamental claim of Marxist theory: there must be countervailing forces that defend people's needs against the brutality of profit driven capitalism. marxism Cornel West
a1e2484 My aim is not to provide excuses for black behavior or to absolve blacks of personal responsibility. But when the new black conservatives accent black behavior and responsibility in such a way that the cultural realities of black people are ignored, they are playing a deceptive and dangerous intellectual game with the lives and fortunes of disadvantaged people. We indeed must criticize and condemn immoral acts of black people, but we must d.. Cornel West
85f017b Of course, the aim of a constitutional democracy is to safeguard the rights of the minority and avoid the tyranny of the majority. (p. 102) majority minority Cornel West
f818fde I must feel the fire of my soul so my intellectual blues can set others on fire. Cornel West
ceb65ab In these downbeat times, we need as much hope and courage as we do vision and analysis; we must accent the best of each other even as we point out the vicious effects of our racial divide and pernicious consequences of our maldistribution of wealth and power. We simply cannot enter the twenty-first century at each other's throats, even as we acknowledge the weighty forces of racism, patriarchy, economic inequality, homophobia, and ecologica.. courage future change hope inequalities race justice Cornel West
355db12 I grew up in traditional black patriarchal culture and there is no doubt that I'm going to take a great many unconscious, but present, patriarchal complicities to the grave because it so deeply ensconced in how I look at the world. Therefore, very much like alcoholism, drug addiction, or racism patriarchy is a disease and we are in perennial recovery and relapse. So you have to get up every morning and struggle against it. Cornel West
1103c20 Aesthetics have substantial political consequences. How one views oneself as beautiful or not beautiful or desirable or not desirable has deep consequences in terms of one's feelings of self-worth and one's capacity to be a political agent. Cornel West
368ea92 To be a jazz freedom fighter is to attempt to galvanize and energize world-weary people into forms of organization with accountable leadership that promote critical exchange and broad reflection. The interplay of individuality and unity is not one of uniformity and unanimity imposed from above but rather of conflict among diverse groupings that reach a dynamic consensus subject to questioning and criticism. As with a soloist in a jazz quart.. unity social-justice individuality critical-reflection jazz-freedom-fighter improve jazz Cornel West
b025db3 Without the presence of black people in America, European-Americans would not be "white"-- they would be Irish, Italians, Poles, Welsh, and other engaged in class, ethnic, and gender struggles over resources and identity. (p. 107-108)" race-relations Cornel West
7b1f40a None of us alone can save the nation or the world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so. (p. 109) Cornel West
ec02599 In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme. --Aristotle poverty Cornel West
b2e1e38 Market moralities and mentalities-- fueled by economic imperatives to make a profit at nearly any cost-- yield unprecedented levels of loneliness, isolation, and sadness. And our public life lies in shambles, shot through with icy cynicism and paralyzing pessimism. To put it bluntly, beneath the record-breaking stock markets on Wall Street and bipartisan budget-balancing deals in the White House lurk ominous clouds of despair across this na.. Cornel West
b534708 It is a beautiful thing to be on fire for justice... there is no greater joy than inspiring and empowering others--especially the least of these, the precious and priceless wretched of the earth! social-justice joy humanity inspiration empowerment antiracism black-prophetic-fire economic-disparity impoverishment political-motivation political-movements poor-people social-movements social-injustice servant-leadership democracy Cornel West
ede0344 I'm a bluesman moving through a blues-soaked America, a blues-soaked world, a planet where catastrophe and celebration- joy and pain sit side by side. The blues started off in some field, some plantation, in some mind, in some imagination, in some heart. The blues blew over to the next plantation, and then the next state. The blues went south to north, got electrified and even sanctified. The blues got mixed up with jazz and gospel and rock.. music Cornel West
41d03a6 begin by talking about the kind of existentialist chaos that exists in our own lives and our inability to overcome the sense of alienation and frustration we experience when we try to create bonds of intimacy and solidarity with one another. Now part of this frustration is to be understood again in relation to structures and institutions. In the way in which our culture of consumption has promoted an addiction to stimulation - one that puts.. Cornel West
4de1c6f The need of black conservatives to gain the respect of their white peers deeply shapes certain elements of their conservatism. In this regard, they simply want what most people want, to be judged by the quality of their skills, not by the color of their skin. But the black conservatives overlook the fact that affirmative action policies were political responses to the pervasive refusal of most white Americans to judge black Americans on tha.. Cornel West
ecc26f6 When ordinary people wake up, elites begin to tremble in their boots. They can't get away with their abuse. They can't get away with subjection. They can't get away with subjugation. They can't get away with exploitation. They can't get away with domination. It takes courage for folk to stand up. Cornel West
2923d52 Prophetic pragmatism attempts to keep alive the sense of alternative ways of life and of struggle based on the best of the past. In this sense, the praxis of prophetic pragmatism is tragic action with revolutionary intent, usually reformist consequences and always visionary outlook. Cornel West
f39b7d2 And every historic effort to forge a democratic project has been undermined by two fundamental realities: poverty and paranoia. The persistence of poverty generates levels of despair that deepen social conflict the escalation of paranoia produces levels of distrust that reinforce cultural division. Rae is the most explosive issue in American life precisely because it forces us to confront the tragic facts of poverty and paranoia despair, an.. poverty race democracy Cornel West
5db77e1 To be humble is to be so sure of one's self and one's mission that one can forego calling excessive attention to one's self and status. Cornel West
8f47261 the major enemy of black survival in America has been and is neither oppression nor exploitation but rather the nihilistic threat--that is, loss of hope and absence of meaning. For as long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive. The self-fulfilling prophecy of the nihilistic threat is that without hope there can be no future, that without meaning there can be no struggle. nihilism oppression Cornel West
817df88 QUALITY leadership is neither the product of one great individual nor the result of odd historical accidents. Rather, it comes from deeply bred traditions and communities that shape and mold talented and gifted persons. Without a vibrant tradition of resistance passed on to new generations, there can be no nurturing of a collective and critical consciousness--only professional conscientiousness survives. Cornel West
e1cf98f How does one undermine the framework of racial reasoning? By dismantling each pillar slowly and systematically. The fundamental aim of this undermining and dismantling is to replace racial reasoning with moral reasoning, to understand the black freedom struggle not as an affair of skin pigmentation and racial phenotype but rather as a matter of ethical principles and wise politics, and to combat the black nationalist attempt to subordinate .. Cornel West
8b9b52d We need serious strategic and tactical thinking about how to create new models of leadership and forge the kind of persons to actualize these models. Cornel West
9aa4c98 Without some redistribution of wealth and power, downward mobility and debilitating poverty will continue to drive people into desperate channels. And without principled opposition to xenophobias from above below, these desperate channels will produce a cold-hearted and mean-spirited America no longer worth fighting for or living in. black-jewish-relations mobility race-relations-in-america xenophobia redistribution-of-wealth Cornel West
fed493d Where there is no vital community to hold up precious ethical and religious ideals, there can be no coming to a moral commitment--only personal accomplishment is applauded. Cornel West
710928a The Poverty Tour provided the opportunity to meet many people who had been living paycheck to paycheck even before the economic downturn. To so quickly slide from the great middle into the underworld of the poor validated our suspicions that perhaps these citizens never really were bona fide, middle class Americans. Indeed, some economists assert that the middle class evaporated decades ago. poverty race Cornel West
4b8f0a4 This market way of life promotes addictions to stimulation and obsessions with comfort and convenience. capitalist-market consumerism Cornel West
2e7d22b King never confined himself to being solely the leader of black America--even though the white press attempted to do so. Cornel West
0c9bad6 To be a Christian - a follower of Jesus Christ - is to love wisdom, love justice, and love freedom. freedom spirituality love wisdom christian justice Cornel West
ee109a4 Yet the enslavement of Africans--over 20 percent of the population--served as the linchpin of American democracy; that is, the much-heralded stability and continuity of American democracy was predicated upon black oppression and degradation. Without the presence of black people in America, European-Americans would not be "white"--they would be only Irish, Italians, Poles, Welsh, and others engaged in class, ethnic, and gender struggles over.. slavery american-democracy political-struggle white-race epilogue white-supremacy racism-in-america Cornel West
be32489 To be humble is to be so sure of one's self and one's mission that one can forego calling excessive attention to one's self and status. And, even more pointedly, to be humble is to revel in the accomplishments or potentials of others -- especially those with whom one identifies and to whom one is linked organically. humility Cornel West
43e62d8 There are hundreds of political prisoners right now in America's jails who were so taken by Malcolm [X's} spirit that they became warriors and the powers that be understood them as warriors. They knew that a lot of these other middle-class [black] leaders were not warriors; they were professionals; they were careerists. But these warriors had callings, and they have paid an incalculable and immeasurable price in those cells. racism leadership african-american-men black-leadership black-liberation-movement black-middle-class black-prophets black-revolutionaries careerists conscientious-objection freedom-fighters industrial-prison-complex mass-incarceration political-advocacy political-prisoners prison-reform martyrs african-americans malcolm-x black-history-month racial-discrimination warriors political-philosophy Cornel West
bfcf463 None of us alone can save the nation or world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so. Cornel West
5083105 The blues is relevant today because when we look down through the corridors of time, the black American interpretation of tragicomic hope in the face of dehumanizing hate and oppression will be seen as the only kind of hope that has any kind of maturity in a world of overwhelming barbarity and bestiality. That barbarity is found not just in the form of terrorism but in the form of the emptiness of our lives - in terms of the wasted human po.. blues world-history oppression Cornel West
f3d1171 Racial reasoning conceals these presuppositions behind a deceptive cloak of racial consensus--yet racial reasoning is seductive because it invokes an undeniable history of racial abuse and racial struggle. Cornel West
8b935ca Justice is what love looks like in public. Cornel West
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