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2016 Postmortem
Showing Original Post only (View all)OK, so what is -really- important to Cornel West? [View all]
I think this speech reveals the man....It's a great speech, and he is a great man.
Transcript of Cornel Wests January 17, 2013 statements regarding the use of Martin Luther King Jr.s Bible during the inauguration of Barack Obama:
Now, when I got the news that my dear brother Barack Obama, President Obama, was going to put his precious hand on Martin Luther King, Jr.s Bible, I got upset. And I got upset because you dont play with Martin Luther King, Jr. and you dont play with his people. And by his people, what I mean is people of good conscience, fundamentally committed to peace, and truth and justice. And especially the black tradition that produced it.
All the blood, sweat and tears that went into producing a Martin Luther King, Jr. generated a brother of such high decency and dignity that you dont use his prophetic fire as just a moment in a presidential pageantry, without understanding the challenge that he presents to all of those in power no matter what color they are. No matter what color they are!
So, the righteous indignation of a Martin Luther King, Jr. becomes a moment in political calculation and that makes my blood boil. Why? Because Martin Luther King, Jr., he died knowing the three crimes against humanity he was wrestling with. Jim Crow traumatizing, terrorizing, stigmatizing black people, lynching, insultful not just segregation the way the press wants to talk about.
Second, carpet bombing in Vietnam, killing innocent people especially innocent children. Those are war crimes Martin Luther King, Jr. was willing to die for. And thirdly, was poverty of all colors. He said its a crime against humanity for the richest nation in the history of the world to have so many of its precious children of all colors living in poverty, and especially on the chocolate side of the nation, in Indian reservations, in brown barrios, in yellow slices, and black ghettos, then. We call them hoods now, but ghettos then.
So I said to myself, ok nothing wrong with putting your hand on the Bible. Even though the bible talks about justice and Jesus is talking bout the least of these. But when you put in Martins bible? I said, this is personal for me. This is the tradition I came out of. This is the tradition that is connected to my grandmothers prayers, and my grandfathers sermons, and my mothers tears, and my fathers smile, and its over against all of those in power who refuse to follow decent policies.
So I say to myself, Brother Martin Luther King, Jr., what would you say about the new Jim Crow? What would you say about the prison industrial complex? What would you say about the invisibility of so many of our prisoners? So many of our incarcerated, especially when 62% of them are there for soft drugs, but not one executive of a Wall Street bank gone to jail? Not one! Martin doesnt like that. Not one wiretapper. Not one torturer under the Bush administration, at all.
Then, what you say about the drones bring dropped on our precious brothers and sisters in Pakistan and Somalia and Yemen? Those are war crimes, just like war crimes in Vietnam. Martin Luther King, Jr., what would you say? My voice hollers out, and dont tame it with your hand on his bible. Allow his prophetic voice to be heard. Martin, what would you say about the poverty in America now, beginning with the children, then the elderly, then our working folk, and all colors not just here, around the world. Dont hide and conceal his challenge. Dont tame his prophetic fire.
So, that as much as Im glad that Barack Obama won I think that brother Mitt Romney would have been a catastrophe, and I understand my brother Newt told the truth about fat vampire capitalism but thats true for the system as a whole not just Mitt Romney in that regard but when Barack Obama attempts to use that rich tradition of Frederick Douglas and Ida B. Wells-Barnett? Use the tradition of A. Phillip Randolph? Use the tradition of Rabbi Joshua Heschel? Use the tradition of Tom Hayden and so many others struggling to produce that voice that pushed Martin in the direction that it did? I get upset.
People say, Oh brother West, theres Smiley and West, hating Obama. No, no. We just loving the tradition that produced Martin Luther King, Jr. and were not going to allow it to be in any way sanitized, deodorized and sterilized, we want the subversive power to be heard. Thats what made me think, when you said he was gonna put in his hand on that bible. And Im praying or him. Im praying for him. As is Newt both of us Christians, you Catholic, Im Holy Ghost funkygut gutbucket Baptist but were praying for him. Putting pressure on.
Now, when I got the news that my dear brother Barack Obama, President Obama, was going to put his precious hand on Martin Luther King, Jr.s Bible, I got upset. And I got upset because you dont play with Martin Luther King, Jr. and you dont play with his people. And by his people, what I mean is people of good conscience, fundamentally committed to peace, and truth and justice. And especially the black tradition that produced it.
All the blood, sweat and tears that went into producing a Martin Luther King, Jr. generated a brother of such high decency and dignity that you dont use his prophetic fire as just a moment in a presidential pageantry, without understanding the challenge that he presents to all of those in power no matter what color they are. No matter what color they are!
So, the righteous indignation of a Martin Luther King, Jr. becomes a moment in political calculation and that makes my blood boil. Why? Because Martin Luther King, Jr., he died knowing the three crimes against humanity he was wrestling with. Jim Crow traumatizing, terrorizing, stigmatizing black people, lynching, insultful not just segregation the way the press wants to talk about.
Second, carpet bombing in Vietnam, killing innocent people especially innocent children. Those are war crimes Martin Luther King, Jr. was willing to die for. And thirdly, was poverty of all colors. He said its a crime against humanity for the richest nation in the history of the world to have so many of its precious children of all colors living in poverty, and especially on the chocolate side of the nation, in Indian reservations, in brown barrios, in yellow slices, and black ghettos, then. We call them hoods now, but ghettos then.
So I said to myself, ok nothing wrong with putting your hand on the Bible. Even though the bible talks about justice and Jesus is talking bout the least of these. But when you put in Martins bible? I said, this is personal for me. This is the tradition I came out of. This is the tradition that is connected to my grandmothers prayers, and my grandfathers sermons, and my mothers tears, and my fathers smile, and its over against all of those in power who refuse to follow decent policies.
So I say to myself, Brother Martin Luther King, Jr., what would you say about the new Jim Crow? What would you say about the prison industrial complex? What would you say about the invisibility of so many of our prisoners? So many of our incarcerated, especially when 62% of them are there for soft drugs, but not one executive of a Wall Street bank gone to jail? Not one! Martin doesnt like that. Not one wiretapper. Not one torturer under the Bush administration, at all.
Then, what you say about the drones bring dropped on our precious brothers and sisters in Pakistan and Somalia and Yemen? Those are war crimes, just like war crimes in Vietnam. Martin Luther King, Jr., what would you say? My voice hollers out, and dont tame it with your hand on his bible. Allow his prophetic voice to be heard. Martin, what would you say about the poverty in America now, beginning with the children, then the elderly, then our working folk, and all colors not just here, around the world. Dont hide and conceal his challenge. Dont tame his prophetic fire.
So, that as much as Im glad that Barack Obama won I think that brother Mitt Romney would have been a catastrophe, and I understand my brother Newt told the truth about fat vampire capitalism but thats true for the system as a whole not just Mitt Romney in that regard but when Barack Obama attempts to use that rich tradition of Frederick Douglas and Ida B. Wells-Barnett? Use the tradition of A. Phillip Randolph? Use the tradition of Rabbi Joshua Heschel? Use the tradition of Tom Hayden and so many others struggling to produce that voice that pushed Martin in the direction that it did? I get upset.
People say, Oh brother West, theres Smiley and West, hating Obama. No, no. We just loving the tradition that produced Martin Luther King, Jr. and were not going to allow it to be in any way sanitized, deodorized and sterilized, we want the subversive power to be heard. Thats what made me think, when you said he was gonna put in his hand on that bible. And Im praying or him. Im praying for him. As is Newt both of us Christians, you Catholic, Im Holy Ghost funkygut gutbucket Baptist but were praying for him. Putting pressure on.
This is not hate on President Obama, its caring about the things that truly matter.
If he supported ALL that Obama does simply because Obama is also black, that would be racist. And hypocritical.
So West shows not only caring about what truly matters, but he's also incredibly brave as he speaks truth.
Also see~
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Great song but now you got all these train songs running through my head! n/t
Catherina
Sep 2015
#48
"If he supported ALL that Obama does simply because Obama is also black, that would be racist."
mmonk
Sep 2015
#6
Bernice King has been a virulent opponent of LGBT rights, rights supported by her Mother.
Bluenorthwest
Sep 2015
#12
Well, at least Miss Bernice is better than her cheesy auntie (cousin?), Alveda
Chitown Kev
Sep 2015
#22
Amen. The other MLK words that West says Obama abandoned were, "...the fierce urgency of now."
ancianita
Sep 2015
#32
You wouldn't have liked the black panthers much and would have had a very hard time in the 60's.
haikugal
Sep 2015
#46
Help DUers...my feed doesn't show half the posts in this thread, including my own!
haikugal
Sep 2015
#42