“I wished the president [Barack Obama] were more "Martin Luther King-like."” PresidentKingsBarackLutherPresident Barack Obama Author:Cornel West
“We have a market-driven society so obsessed with buying and selling and obsessed with power and pleasure and property, it doesn't leave a whole lot of time for non-market values and non-market activity so that love and trust and justice, concern for the poor, that's being pushed to the margins, and you can see it.” WholeValuesJusticePleasurePoorActivityConcernPropertyDrivenSellingObsessedBuyingMarginsLove And TrustBuying And Selling Author:Cornel West
“You can see it in terms of the obsession on Wall Street with not just profits but greed, more profit, more profit.” TermStreetsWallGreedProfitObsession Author:Cornel West
“You see it even in our educational systems, where the market model becomes central. It's a matter of just gaining a skill or gaining access to a job to live in some vanilla suburb, as opposed to becoming a critical citizen concerned with public interest and common good.” MatterJobsInterestCommonBecomingCitizensSkillsModelsConcernedEducationalCriticalAccessSuburbsCommon GoodEducational SystemPublic InterestVanilla Author:Cornel West
“It's a spiritual malnutrition tied to a moral constipation, where people have a sense of what's right and what's good. It's just stuck, and they can't get it out because there's too much greed. There's too much obsession with reputation and addiction to narrow conceptions of success.” PeopleSpiritualMoralToo MuchAddictionGreedStuckObsessionReputationConceptionTiedMalnutritionConstipation Author:Cornel West
“We look at the legacy of Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells and Ella Baker, Malcolm X and Martin King. We have, and part of the struggle now in the age of [Barack] Obama is how do we keep alive the legacy of Martin King?” WellsLooksAgeStruggleAliveKingsBarackLegacyBakers Author:Cornel West
“I know my dear brother, President [Barack] Obama, has a bust of Martin King right there in the Oval Office, but the question is are is he going to be true to who that Martin Luther King, Jr., actually is? King was concerned about what? The poor. He was concerned about working people. He was concerned about quality jobs. He was concerned about quality housing. He was concerned about precious babies in Vietnam, the way we ought to be concerned about precious babies in Afghanistan and precious babies in Tel Aviv and precious babies in Gaza.” PeopleKnowsWayJobsPresidentPoorQualityBrotherBabyOughtKingsOfficeConcernedDearBeing TrueBarackAfghanistanVietnamHousingLutherPresident Barack ObamaGazaOvalDear Brother Author:Cornel West
“Martin King was fundamentally committed to the least of these [poor, working people]. Of course, he was a Christian soldier for justice from the 25th chapter of Matthew.” PeopleChristianCoursesJusticePoorKingsSoldierCommittedChaptersMatthew Author:Cornel West
“So more and more black folk tend to be well-adjusted to [Barack] Obama's presidency, but does that mean they're well-adjusted to injustice? Because we don't hear our president talking about the new Jim Crow, the prison-industrial complex.” WellsMeanDoeBlackPresidentTalkingPrisonComplexesInjusticeFolksBarackPresidencyCrowJim Crow Author:Cornel West
“We don't hear our president [Barack Obama] talking about the need for high-quality jobs for everybody, giving it priority, not just giving a speech in Detroit. That's fine, but speaking to Tim Geithner, speaking to Larry Summers. When are you going to make jobs, jobs, jobs a priority rather than Wall Street, Wall Street, Wall Street a priority? That's what I'm concerned about.” NeedsGivingJobsPresidentQualityTalkingStreetsWallFineSpeechSummerConcernedPrioritiesBarackDetroitLarryPresident Barack ObamaHigh Quality Author:Cornel West