“Without some redistribution of wealth and power, downward mobility and debilitating poverty will continue to drive people into desperate channels. And without… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
Poor people can be greedy, too. It's just that they don't have any material resources. We need shaping of the souls as… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
And every historic effort to forge a democratic project has been undermined by two fundamental realities: poverty and paranoia. The persistence of… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“The Poverty Tour provided the opportunity to meet many people who had been living paycheck to paycheck even before the economic downturn.… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
There are different varieties and forms of capitalism. There are priorities within the capitalist society so that you can have countervailing forces… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
“The new black conservatives claim that transfer payments to the black needy engender a mentality of dependence which undercuts the value of… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
If they think they have issues with the president not doing enough for the poor now, wait and see what happens if… — Cornel West Copy Share Image
When you love poor people THAT MUCH, when you love 'working people' THAT MUCH, that makes you the freest man/woman in the… — 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
