For me, music is in no way ornamental or decorative, it's constitutive of who I am. And that's why, when I say… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
King's response to our crisis can be put in one word: revolution. A revolution in our priorities, a reevaluation of our values,… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Some people don't want to be morally consistent. They just want to be tied to their one issue. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I think markets are mechanisms that determine prices that are necessary for mass heterogenous populations, and markets do generate levels of technological… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
We've got the wrong vision, the wrong values, the wrong priority, and as the great prophetic figure Marian Edelman Wright puts it,… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The important thing for me as an educator is how to - how do we unsettle the minds and touch the souls… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The capitalist culture of consumption... does not provide meaningful sustenance for large numbers of people. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
There's a certain pleasure of the life of the mind that cannot be denied. There's a certain pleasure about being around people… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The most important assets we have are our bodies and our energy which can be put to good use as resources in… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
When you teach black people that they are less beautiful, less moral, less intelligent, and as a result you defer to the… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
A neoliberal disaster is one who generates a mass incarceration regime, who deregulates banks and markets, who promotes chaos of regime change… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I have some notions that have people conceiving of themselves as capable of changing the world. That's why, for me, the issues… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The problem is not just affirmative action, though. The problem is poor people, working people and their children, and affirmative action for… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
All talks about legacies of white supremacy must be tied to empowering the lives of poor and working people as a whole.… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I think it's important not to view Martin Luther King Jr. in a narrow political manner. His fundamental commitment is to a… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
In situations of sparse resources along with degraded self-images and depoliticized sensibilities, one avenue for poor people is in existential rebellion and… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Poor people and working people have not been the focus of the Obama administration. That for me is not just a disappointment… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Greatness is telling the truth & being courageous in pursuit of justice. The worst thing you could tell young people is to… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Martin King was fundamentally committed to the least of these [poor, working people]. Of course, he was a Christian soldier for justice… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Frederick Douglas's agenda was an agenda, not for black people to get out of slavery. It was for America to become a… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
You can't lead the people if you don't love the people. You can't save the people if you don't serve the people. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The only countervailing force against organized money at the top, is organized people at the bottom. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
No community dictates to any individual how to live their lives. You can criticize and you can push but people freely choose. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I had blackouts, fallen out, of course, the death threats, people showing up, putting guns to my wife's head with mask, and… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The country is in deep trouble. We've forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
There has certainly been ugly, right-wing hatred targeting Barack Obama. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
What is accurately portrayed is the rich humanity not just of Martin Luther King but of the movement, which was a multiracial movement. You… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I feel as if I have been blessed to undergo a transformation from 'gangster' to 'redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.' — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“Like King, we need to put on our cemetery clothes and be coffin-ready for the next great democratic battle.” — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“You can't really move forward until you look back. [From Remaking America panel discussion at George Washington University]” — Cornel West Copy Share Image
When we think of globalization we are thinking in part of structures and institutions that have been developed over time and that have allowed… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The challenge artists face today is whether to be an underground, unheard genius, or to dilute their art for the marketplace. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
The need of black conservatives to gain the respect of their white peers deeply shapes certain elements of their conservatism. In this regard, they… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
For me, musicians are poets. Beethoven describes himself as a poet of tones, just like Coltrane's a poet of tempo. — Cornel West Copy Share Image
I don't draw any distinctions between forms of bigotry or forms of ideology that lose sight of the humanity of people. I can't stand… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
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… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
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… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
