“I'm not pessimistic, because poor people tend to bounce back. We've been through worse than this - working people been through worse than this. We've got slavery and Jim Crow. We've got workers with no rights up until `35. We're going to bounce back. We are resilient, resisting people. So, it's not pessimism, but it is blues-like. It's not optimistic. We're just prisoners of hope, that's all.” PeoplePoorRightsSlaveryWorkersOptimisticPessimismPrisonerPoor PeopleCrowPessimisticResistingResilientBounceJim Crow Author:Cornel West
“What I'm slowly realizing is that I believe that most of us felt that we could relax a little bit after November 2, 2008, because of the progress and the spirit that it took to get Barack Obama in The White House. And what we didn't realize, is that was really the beginning. That was really the beginning of the struggle and not the end of a struggle, to come from colonial times through slavery, through the Jim Crowe Laws, through the civil rights period to The White House as, like a point A/point B journey. Point B of course being the end.” BelieveLittlesEndsLawSpiritCoursesHouseI BelieveFeltBitsRealizingWhiteStruggleRightsProgressJourneyPeriodsLittle BitSlaveryCivil RightsBarackRelaxWhite HouseNovemberJim CrowColonial Times Author:Questlove