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Cornel West Quotes about Struggle

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To be human, at the most profound level, is to encounter honestly the inescapable circumstances that constrain us, yet muster the courage to struggle compassionately for our own unique individualities and for more

To be human, at the most profound level, is to encounter honestly the inescapable circumstances that constrain us, yet muster the courage to struggle compassionately for our own unique individualities and for more democratic and free societies.

Cornel West
Struggle, Unique, Profound

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
Morning, Struggle, Recovery
Bell Hooks, Cornel West (1991). “Breaking bread: insurgent Black intellectual life”, South End Pr

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

Cornel West
Struggle, Choices, Free Choice
Source: www.pbs.org

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

The rage is still there but I found the right kind of channel, because it's tied to a love, it's tied to a struggle for justice. And most importantly, for me, it's tied to a recognition that I am a cracked vessel.

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

We look at the legacy of Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells and Ella Baker, Malcolm X and Martin King. We have, and part of the struggle now in the age of [Barack] Obama is how do we keep alive the legacy of Martin King?

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

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)

Cornel West
Struggle, Class, White

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
Struggle, Past, Alternatives

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