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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.

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
Musicians
Poets
Tone
Musician
Coltrane
Poet
Tones
Like
Tempo
Describes
Beethoven

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Black people have always been America's wilderness in search of a promised land.
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The greatest gift you can give someone is the gift of inspiration.
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This is what it is for Asians to be part of - support affirmative action, even though it may be against their interest, but they feel it's a matter of justice.
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In situations of sparse resources along with degraded self-images and depoliticized sensibilities, one avenue for poor people is in existential rebellion and anarchic expression. The capacity to produce social chaos is the last resort of desperate people.
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Rap is just a movement within the larger culture of hip-hop.
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There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a bigger price for living a lie.
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I think hip-hop can be prophetic and progressive, and at the same time, the dominant forms tend to be homophobic, misogynistic and something that we need to critically call into question.
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We have a market-driven society so obsessed with buying and selling and obsessed with power and pleasure and property.
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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.
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The problem is that in America is that the nation state has been so weak when it comes to the history of big markets the history of big business in a way so we have a very weak welfare state compared to European nation states.
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It takes more courage to examine the dark corners of your own soul than it does for a soldier to fight on the battlefield.
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I like to be multi-contextual, which is much more important than being multicultural.
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Rage is fine as long as it doesn't deteriorate into bitterness.
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There is no fundamental social change by being simply of individual and interpersonal actions. You have to have organizations and institutions that make a fundamental difference.
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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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As long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive.
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Context shapes who you are.
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Death is always a constant possibility and probability and of course an inevitability, as well.
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I wished the president [Barack Obama] were more Martin Luther King-like.
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The women can always choose the patriarchal models, and you end up with a Margaret Thatcher.
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