I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope. Cornel West More Quotes by Cornel West More Quotes From Cornel West Anger can be a bitterness that devours your soul while righteous indignation is morally driven, it's ethically driven. Cornel West bitterness driven soul Larry Summers, I think, he had a long history of arrogance and relative ignorance about poor people's culture and working people's culture and so forth. Cornel West ignorance summer thinking 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 white class 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. Cornel West mind ideas thinking You can't talk about truth unless you talk about yourself. Cornel West about-yourself healing I like to be multi-contextual, which is much more important than being multicultural. Cornel West multicultural important We're learning lessons from Africa. And the lesson that we need to learn is, how do we straighten our backs up in the face of these oligarchs and plutocrats who are trying to snatch the best of our democracy away? Cornel West democracy trying needs Martin Luther King was a victim of surveillance, and had great solidarity with victims of surveillance. Cornel West surveillance victim kings The interesting thing for me is, if that had been a left-wing person raising questions, [President Obama] probably would have expressed his anger. Because Obama really does get upset about progressives. Cornel West upset wings interesting I was a gangster when I was young. I had a Robin Hood mentality and tended to always want to support the weak against the strong, but sometimes it was cohesive and I really needed to fall in love with the power of education to find the right venue to express my rage. I still have a righteous indignation at injustice, no matter what form it takes. Cornel West support falling-in-love strong I have a whole lot of fun in trying to serve others and just keeping it funky, trying to keep it real, trying to ensure that we are able to be ourselves and get beyond these deodorized discourses and deodorized spaces that put on masks. Cornel West space real fun Rage is fine as long as it doesn't deteriorate into bitterness. Cornel West bitterness rage long Optimism is evidence-based. Cornel West evidence optimism It's fashionable to be indifferent to other people's suffering Cornel West indifferent suffering people Interrogate yours hidden assumptions Cornel West assumption 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. Cornel West government white might When you place a high value on truth, you have to think for yourself. Cornel West think-for-yourself values thinking Context shapes who you are. Cornel West who-you-are shapes Nobody in my family or in my neighborhood used the language that they used at the University of Chicago. I remember the first time I heard the word "value" repeated again and again by my professor. Value to me was the price of a frying pan. Cornel West my-family language remember I recall coming across a line by the late Charles Tilly when he said, "The conditions for the possibility of social movements have been called into question in the twenty-first century." And I said to myself, my god, a society in history without social movements, for me, is very difficult to live in. Cornel West possibility difficult
