Rare Cornel West
My notes from a speech by Dr. West. “Oakland has always been a very special place.” —Cornel West
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On April 9, 2015, Dr. Cornel West gave a speech at the Allen Temple Baptist Church in East Oakland, California.
The following are my notes from his talk that day.
CORNEL WEST in EAST OAKLAND — April 9, 2015:
“To be decent in America is to be countercultural.”
“There’s a difference between making money and fetishizing money.”
“To be committed to integrity in America is to be countercultural, against the mainstream.”
“You’re gonna need a soundtrack for your movement. That’s spiritual warfare.”
“Love is always a form of death.”
“They become so obsessed with being successful that they forget what it is they ought to be faithful to.”
“I don’t condemn the police across the board. They are working class folks. Police have to deal with social problems the way that public school teachers do. But, at the same time, there is a police culture.”
On Malcolm X: “Even when he was wrong, he was sincere.”
“I’m gonna tell the truth about white supremacy, still so deeply entrenched.”
“It doesn’t mean I hate rich people, that’s not true. I love ‘em individually.”
On U.S. politics: “... legalized bribery and normalized corruption...”
“Oakland has always been a very special place.”
“We live in the age of the sellouts.”
On Martin Luther King: “Nothing could turn him into a sellout. And that’s why even the Black Panther Party would speak well of Martin.”
“For Black folk to have thin music is to have thin spirituality. And for us to have thin spirituality is to have weak movements.”
“[When] Black life has less value—that’s what white supremacy is.”
“You keep the moral and spiritual center highlighted. That’s my tradition.”
“The artists give us a foretaste of what it is to be free.“
“One of the greatest, if not the greatest tradition of the modern world—that is, the music created by Black people.”
—Dr. Cornel West
Speaking at Allen Temple Baptist Church in East Oakland, April 9, 2015.
