Homophobia is very, very difficult to root out, to extricate. That's why we have to bear witness. That's why we have to be so public about it, and that's why we can't just play footsie with it. Cornel West More Quotes by Cornel West More Quotes From Cornel West White supremacist ideology is based first and foremost on the degradation of black bodies in order to control them. One of the best ways to instill fear in people is to terrorize them. Yet this fear is best sustained by convincing them that their bodies are ugly, their intellect is inherently underdeveloped, their culture is less civilized, and their future warrants less concern than that of other peoples. Cornel West white order people The condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak, it means then that if you have a prophetic sensibility, you are committed to loving others and if you love others, you hate injustice. Cornel West hate suffering mean A fully functional multiracial society cannot be achieved without a sense of history and open, honest dialogue. Cornel West multiracial dialogue honest The blues aren’t pessimistic. We’re prisoners of hope but we tell the truth and the truth is dark. Cornel West pessimistic telling-the-truth dark To be a Christian is to live dangerously, honestly, freely - to step in the name of love as if you may land on nothing, yet to keep on stepping because the something that sustains you no empire can give you and no empire can take away. Cornel West land christian names When ordinary people wake up, elites begin to tremble in their boots. Cornel West wake-up ordinary people 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 unique struggle profound If the Kingdom of God is in you, you should leave a little bit of heaven wherever you go. Cornel West kingdoms littles heaven One of the things I love most about Martin Luther King is that he was willing to sacrifice his popularity in favor of his integrity. He was an honest man, and he would tell the truth. Cornel West sacrifice kings integrity It's no accident that most of the great black spokespersons and leaders understood the centrality of self-affirmation, self-respect and self-love. Cornel West black leader self You've got to be a thermostat rather than a thermometer. A thermostat shapes the climate of opinion; a thermometer just reflects it. Cornel West climate opinion shapes Justice is what love looks like in public. Cornel West justice-and-love justice looks 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. Cornel West agendas black kings 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. Cornel West alternatives accepting way To get up in the morning & do the monumental tasks that face us, our labor is best fueled by love. Cornel West tasks faces morning The aim is not for me to be right. The aim is to make sure that we keep the focus on the people who are suffering. That's what we're here for. Cornel West focus suffering people 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 nation. Cornel West wall loneliness lying 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 recovery struggle morning 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. Cornel West brother talking Philosophy is in fact a quest for wisdom based in sophia; that quest for wisdom has everything to do with a love of wisdom. Cornel West quests philosophy facts