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Cornel West Quotes - Page 5

All Quotes Accountability Addiction Arrogance Children Church Commitment Community Compassion Country Culture Democracy Dialogue Evidence Evil Fighting Genius Giving Greatness Greed Hatred Healing Heart Hip Hop House Humanity Inequality Inspirational Integrity Jazz Jesus Joy Justice Language Legacy Loneliness Luther Lying Morning Obsession Optimism Overcoming Pain Passion Philosophy Pleasure Quality Racism Rage Reading Sacrifice Sadness School Serving Others Silence Slavery Soul Struggle Suffering Values Wall War Wealth White Supremacy Wrestling

The capitalist culture of consumption... does not provide meaningful sustenance for large numbers of people.

The capitalist culture of consumption... does not provide meaningful sustenance for large numbers of people.

Meaningful, Numbers, People

Cornel West (1999). “The Cornel West Reader”, p.376, Basic Books

The black agenda, from Frederick Douglas to Ida B. Wells to Martin King, has always been the most broad, deep, inclusive, embracing agenda of the nation.

Kings, Black, Agendas

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Barack Obama has domesticated the left in such a way that we feel as if we have no alternative but him...I refuse to accept that.

Alternatives, Way, Accepting

Collaborating with the musical genius of our time in some ways with Prince himself - late, great Gerald Levert,all these are forms of singing education, what the Greeks call paideia,that deep education to get us to shift from superficial things to serious things, to shift from bling-bling to life and death to justice and pain and joy, those fundamental, elemental things that we must come to terms with as we make our moves from our mother's womb to the tomb.

Mother, Pain, Moving

I still have a righteous indignation at injustice, no matter what form it takes. It could be homophobia, it could be white supremacy, male supremacy, imperial arrogance, class subordination or whatever.

White, Class, Arrogance

"Cornel West, 'Living And Loving Out Loud'". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. October 29, 2009.

And when I talk about love, I'm talking about something that's great, though, brother. I'm talking about something that will sustain you.

Brother, Talking

"Cornel West Reconsiders President Obama". "Talk of the Nation" with Tony Cox, www.npr.org. August 2, 2010.

It is very difficult to sustain a high-quality relationship that has the kind of mutual intensity, that has a kind of mutual respect, without putting in time.

Quality, Kind, Intensity

"Cornel West, 'Living And Loving Out Loud'". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. October 29, 2009.

The condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak - that gives it an existential emphasis.

Giving, Suffering, Speak

Source: genius.com

I love my gay brothers. I love my lesbian sisters. I love my transvestite, my gender-bending folk. For me, it's a matter of embracing their humanity, allowing them to choose in such a way that they are in the driver's seat regarding their lives.

Brother, Gay, Humanity

"Cornel West, 'Living And Loving Out Loud'". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. October 29, 2009.

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.

Dream, Kings, People

Source: www.chicagotribune.com

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

Brother, Believe, Gay

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.

Expression, Self, People

Cornel West (1999). “The Cornel West Reader”, p.272, Basic Books

There's no doubt that many of the mainstream white institutions tend to be cosmetic and symbolic when it comes to including African-Americans, whereas we black folk tend to be much more sensitive about embracing others, and we have a long history of that.

White, Long, African American

Profound music leads us beyond language...to the dark roots of our scream and the celestial heights of our silence.

Dark, Roots, Profound

Cornel West (1999). “The Cornel West Reader”, p.17, Basic Books

We can't have a freedom struggle without free choice.

Struggle, Choices, Free Choice

Source: www.pbs.org

what I think separates me from most philosophers probably is that I'm a bluesman in the life of the mind, I'm a jazzman in the world of ideas.

Thinking, Ideas, Mind

Source: genius.com

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.

Morning, Struggle, Recovery

bell hooks, Cornel West (2016). “Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life”, p.125, Taylor & Francis

We have to be self-critical even in context that we might be critical of, even as we - our pieces appear in it.

Self, Pieces, Might

"Cornel West Reconsiders President Obama". "Talk of the Nation" with Tony Cox, www.npr.org. August 2, 2010.

He who learns death unlearns slavery.

Slavery, Thrive, Unlearn

For me, music is in no way ornamental or decorative, it's constitutive of who I am. And that's why, when I say I'm a blues man, that's a very serious vocation - to muster the courage to find your own unique voice, to forge your distinctive style in the world, to leave your imprint in the sands of time in such a way that your singularity, your individuality, remains something that people have to come to terms with.

Unique, Men, Who I Am

"Cornel West, 'Living And Loving Out Loud'". "Talk of the Nation" with Neal Conan, www.npr.org. October 29, 2009.

It's so easy to begin to demonize someone you think is so far removed and as the demonization begins to expand, it ends up being everybody but your friends. After a while everybody else but you. That is a slippery slope that is so easy to slide down, and that's what is dangerous.

Thinking, Down And, Slippery Slope

Source: www.pbs.org

I think those who choose to find joy in serving others, those who choose to find their voice, to pursue their vocation and to act on their vision oftentimes have to sacrifice much.It's almost like a crucifixion in terms of the cross you have to bear.

Sacrifice, Thinking, Voice

Source: www.pbs.org

I'm not romanticizing black people, because we've got gangsters like everybody else.

People, Black, Black People

Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

As long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive.

Long, Civil Rights, Overcoming

Cornel West (2000). “Race Matters”, p.15, Beacon Press

Theology is indispensable for religious communities to make sense of themselves and their changing views about the world in light of what is perceived to be revelation, but, at the same time, that theology can have a pretentiousness, or double pretentiousness, if it is acontextual as opposed to contextual, if it is foundationalist as opposed to antifoundationalist, or ahistorical as opposed to historicist.

Religious, Light, Views

Source: blogs.ssrc.org

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