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American mainstream is obsessed with black creative genius - be it music, walk, style - but at the same time puts a low priority on the black social misery which is the very context out of which that creativity flows.

Cornel West

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Cornel West
Age: 71
Born: 1953
Born: June 2
Actor
Critic
Philosopher
Theologian
University Teacher
Writer
Tulsa
Oklahoma
Cornel Ronald West
Cornel R. West
Black
Flow
Flows
Social
Creativity
Context
Music
Genius
Mainstream
Time
Walk
Puts
Walks
Priorities
Style
Obsessed
Creative
Lows
American
Misery
Priority

More quotes by Cornel West

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I am excited to have a black president because white supremacy is real and it needs to be shattered.
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For me, musicians are poets. Beethoven describes himself as a poet of tones, just like Coltrane's a poet of tempo.
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Hey, you got something going here. I think we've got a chance for some progressive policy that actually focuses on poor and working people.
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I have some notions that have people conceiving of themselves as capable of changing the world. That's why, for me, the issues of self-love, self-respect and self-regard are preconditions for human agency and especially black agency, given the fact that we have been and are such a hated and despised people.
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Martin Luther King was a radical democrat, by which I mean someone who is a foe of wealth inequality.
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As human beings, everyone has stuff coming at them, and a certain kind of fear.
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White supremacy is so deep-seated that it's hard to see it eliminated. But we could definitely push it back.
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As long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive.
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Every president needs to deal with the permanent government of the country, and the permanent government of the country is Wall Street oligarchs and corporate plutocrats and the questions becomes what is the relationship between that president and Wall Street.
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I'm not saying that President Obama should be exempt from criticism, nor do I believe it is some act of racial treason for a black person to hold our president accountable for his actions.
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Certainly Martin Luther King, in the mainstream perception of him, had a dream. Yes, he did. But the question becomes, what was that dream? It wasn't the American Dream. It was a dream that all human beings, especially poor and working people, be treated with dignity.
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I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.
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For most of the history of the American empire, government has been a tool for preserving and furthering the power and might of white male corporate elites.
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The women can always choose the patriarchal models, and you end up with a Margaret Thatcher.
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Our problem is that we don't have enough people in America, including black people, who are progressive and willing to sacrifice their popularity in order to tell the truth.
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We live in a world where people are fearful of extremism, but Martin Luther King would say he was always trying to keep the flow of love in place. In that sense, he turned the world on its head.
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If you are always trying to do something for a cause bigger than you - connected with serving others - then it is hard to be guilty.
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I'm actually with the classics in general in terms of understanding truth in an existential mode. Therefore, philosophy becomes more a way of life as opposed to simply a mode of discourse.
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I certainly support the right of the gay brothers and sisters to come together. I believe true love can take a number of different forms. If they choose to be married that's fine, but the important thing is I hope they find love
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To be great in our times too often means to have great prosperity and no moral magnanimity at all.
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