You can't talk about truth unless you talk about yourself. Cornel West More Quotes by Cornel West More Quotes From Cornel West The legacy of [Martin Luther] King is the very thing that must be expanded if America is to be free and democratic in the 21st century. It's just as simple as that. Cornel West simplekingsamerica 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 rootsbearsplay Hatred of injustice is not the same thing as a love for everyday people. Cornel West everydayhatredpeople When you love people, you give them a priority. You have a sense of urgency about their pain. Cornel West paingivingpeople There is no organizations and institutions that are worthwhile in terms of fighting for and dying for unless there is some individual integrity and character and virtue that is at work within various individuals in those institutions especially their leaders. Cornel West fightingintegritycharacter The authority of science promotes and encourages the activity of observing, comparing, measuring and ordering the physical characteristics of human bodies. Cartesian epistemology and classical ideals produced forms of rationality, scientificity and objectivity that, though efficacious in the quest for truth and knowledge, prohibited the intelligibility and legitimacy of black equality. In fact, to "think" such an idea was to be deemed irrational, barbaric or mad. Cornel West objectivityideasthinking Of course, the aim of a constitutional democracy is to safeguard the rights of the minority and avoid the tyranny of the majority. (p. 102) Cornel West majoritydemocracyrights Education is soul crafting. Cornel West educationalsoul There is no such thing as institutional conditions without any individual actions and no such thing as individual action without institutional conditions. So there is always personal responsibility. Cornel West individualresponsibilityaction Cincinnati like so many other cities, we know that so many of our schools, when it comes to public schools, are still de facto segregated racially. It has to do with residential segregation. It has to do with James Crow, Jr., which is at work, de facto rather than legally so that some of the integration is taking place among more and more well-to-do. Cornel West crowcitiesschool There's a certain pleasure of the life of the mind that cannot be denied. There's a certain pleasure about being around people who enact a playfulness when it comes to the world of ideas. Cornel West mindpeopleideas There's a number of hip-hop artists who are highly talented but politically retrograde. Cornel West hip-hopartistnumbers If you can't have a good time and smile and relate to people across race and class, then the success that you have ultimately is just sounding brass and tinkling symbol. Cornel West raceclasspeople The street is as diverse as any other sector, but in peoples' mind it gets appropriated as a black man who's tough. Trying to make it through by staying hard and phallocentric. To me, that is just an impoverished conception of what it is to be a black male. It doesn't do justice to my grandfather, my father, my brother - or just the black men I grew up with. Cornel West brothermenfather I'm a bluesman, which means that I put an emphasis on the minor keys. Cornel West emphasiskeysmean If Martin Luther King looked at the Obama administration and saw an intimate connection with Wall Street, he'd be very critical. If he saw drones being dropped on innocent people, he'd be very critical. If he saw rights and liberties violated by secret policies of the government, of the kind we've seen by the National Security Agency, he'd be very critical. Cornel West wallgovernmentkings I'm a Christian, but I'm not a puritan. I believe in pleasure and orgiastic pleasure has its place, intellectual pleasure has its place, social pleasure has its place, televisual pleasure has its place [in life]. Cornel West intellectualchristianbelieve Success is such a relative thing for me. I'm fundamentally a Christian which means that ultimately all of the penultimate titles and things you just had to wear with a loose garment. Really. Cornel West titleschristianmean Death is always a constant possibility and probability and of course an inevitability, as well. Cornel West probabilitypossibilityconstant You can't have a high-quality relationship without time and without trust. Cornel West high-qualitywithout-trustquality
