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Racism Quotes by Cornel West

51 Racism quotes by Cornel West

All Racism quotes Cornel West’s page

White supremacy is deep‑seated, making it hard to see its end. The quotes say no form of bigotry should be ignored and that Martin Luther King’s love put the poor at the center. They also call for open, diverse conversations in black America and stress integrity over popularity.

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Black people have always been America's wilderness in search of a promised land.

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The crisis in black America is threefold...economic...political...and spiritual.

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Martin Luther King was an extremist of love.

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Black people have been working hard for decades.

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When black America is on the move, America is on the move.

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If you can't have a good time and smile and relate to people across race and class, then the success that you…

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Martin Luther King was a victim of surveillance, and had great solidarity with victims of surveillance.

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Martin Luther King was a radical democrat, by which I mean someone who is a foe of wealth inequality.

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The black church often has reinforced certain self images that are damaging to black peoples' beauty, black peoples' confidence.

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Well technologically and so forth, it's a breakthrough, and yet [Birth of a Nation,] it's very white supremacist to the core in…

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The black agenda, from Frederick Douglas to Ida B. Wells to Martin King, has always been the most broad, deep, inclusive, embracing…

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Martin Luther King was not a Marxist or a communist, but his radical love leads him to put poor and working people…

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The legacy of [Martin Luther] King is the very thing that must be expanded if America is to be free and democratic…

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Racism is a moral catastrophe, most graphically seen in the prison industrial complex and targeted police surveillance in black and brown ghettos…

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I have some notions that have people conceiving of themselves as capable of changing the world. That's why, for me, the issues…

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When you teach black people that they are less beautiful, less moral, less intelligent, and as a result you defer to the…

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It's clear that he was incredibly courageous in his critique of white supremacy, wealth inequality, and imperial power as it relates to…

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So much has to do with going beyond treating black people as cosmetic and symbolic items, as opposed to genuine personalities and…

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The most dangerous thing in American society is a self-respecting and self-loving black person, because they're on the road to freedom and…

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We live in a world where people are fearful of extremism, but Martin Luther King would say he was always trying to…

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There's no doubt that many of the mainstream white institutions tend to be cosmetic and symbolic when it comes to including African-Americans,…

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And every historic effort to forge a democratic project has been undermined by two fundamental realities: poverty and paranoia. The persistence of…

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I think Martin Luther King would always keep track of collective insurgencies among poor and working people. He was concerned about the…

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The street is as diverse as any other sector, but in peoples' mind it gets appropriated as a black man who's tough.…

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The American Dream is individualistic. Martin Luther King's dream was collective. The American Dream says, "I can engage in upward mobility and…

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White supremacist ideology is based first and foremost on the degradation of black bodies in order to control them. One of the…

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All talks about legacies of white supremacy must be tied to empowering the lives of poor and working people as a whole.…

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I think it's important not to view Martin Luther King Jr. in a narrow political manner. His fundamental commitment is to a…

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I grew up in traditional black patriarchal culture and there is no doubt that I’m going to take a great many unconscious,…

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“Black anti-semitism is a form of underdog resentment and envy, directed at another underdog who has made it in American society. The…

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“My aim is not to provide excuses for black behavior or to absolve blacks of personal responsibility. But when the new black…

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“Needless to say, this fragile experiment began by taking for granted the ugly conquest of Amerindians and Mexicans, the exclusion of women,…

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“The prevailing discriminatory practices during the sixties, whose targets were working people, women, and people of color, were atrocious. Thus, an enforceable…

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There ought to be a robust, uninhibited conversation in black America with different black ideological perspectives.

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Martin Luther King's legacy is never to be measured by bricks and mortar, but rather by the kind of lives that we…

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White supremacy is so deep-seated that it's hard to see it eliminated. But we could definitely push it back.

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Martin Luther King wanted to be morally consistent and speak out against various things that were wrong, not just racism.

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Anybody who takes Martin Luther King seriously has got to go beyond the standard understanding of who he was, has to connect…

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It's no accident that most of the great black spokespersons and leaders understood the centrality of self-affirmation, self-respect and self-love.

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Martin Luther King Jr. was not just a man of peace. He was a radical pacifist, and so he was against war…

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More by Cornel West

There has certainly been ugly, right-wing hatred targeting Barack Obama.

What is accurately portrayed is the rich humanity not just of Martin Luther King but of the movement, which was a multiracial movement. You…

I feel as if I have been blessed to undergo a transformation from 'gangster' to 'redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.'

“Like King, we need to put on our cemetery clothes and be coffin-ready for the next great democratic battle.”

“You can't really move forward until you look back. [From Remaking America panel discussion at George Washington University]”

When we think of globalization we are thinking in part of structures and institutions that have been developed over time and that have allowed…

The challenge artists face today is whether to be an underground, unheard genius, or to dilute their art for the marketplace.

The need of black conservatives to gain the respect of their white peers deeply shapes certain elements of their conservatism. In this regard, they…

For me, musicians are poets. Beethoven describes himself as a poet of tones, just like Coltrane's a poet of tempo.

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…

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…

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…

The greatest gift you can give someone is the gift of inspiration.

You can see it in terms of the obsession on Wall Street with not just profits but greed, more profit, more profit.

Anybody who takes Martin Luther King seriously has got to go beyond the standard understanding of who he was, has to connect those dots.