Dr. Cornel West: "The Profound Desire for Justice" (Excellence Through Diversity Series)

good afternoon I guess it's good evening now it's a little bit after 6:00 what a fantastic audience what a great group standing room only feel the energy in this room wonderful I'm Craig Benson of demon of engineering here at UVA and on behalf the university in this school I'm really pleased to kick off this series this year we started the excellence titute a diversity distinguished learning series last year as a way to talk about diversity on grounds and in the School of Engineering we've made this a strategic priority to build diversity because we believe that builds excellence this is the first event for this year and I couldn't think of a better opportunity we have a fantastic speaker here today Cornel West an activist social critic and professor of the practice of public philosophy at Harvard Divinity School I he's written 20 books I've been in this business like 30 years I got one done 20 books Wow - in particular race matters and democracy matters so to kick things off I'm actually gonna ask John gates to come up John can truly speak to this with passion he's the associate dean for diversity and engagement in the School of Engineering John [Applause] Thank You Craig it is our great pleasure to welcome you tonight to be inaugural event for the excellence through diversity distinguished learning series as Craig said we began this series last year and we had a phenomenal lineup of speakers and I'll tell you about this year's speakers at the end of the program but for now let me introduce a couple of people that I think you're gonna want to hear from Dana Kristina joy Morgan is a successful concert pianist Dana has performed for the gold Congressional Medal Award held at the Capitol building and the Supreme Court in 2014 Dana placed as a finalist in the Washington International piano artists competition she is phenomenal and I first came to know Dana her work at least in 2012 in 2012 at the ebony xur Baptist Church and Atlanta Georgia for the MLK celebration Cornel West spoke and Dana played as we would say where I come from she played her face off right and I had to recreate that moment Cornel West was here last about 20 years ago in this room to a packed house co-sponsored then by the Z Society tonight I'm proud of all of our sponsors but I'm really proud of a few the biggest sponsor for this series is the office of facilities management at UVA Terrence tarver Terrence is from Chicago a native residing now in New York he is passionate about music and began that passion at the age of five and has since developed a musical repertoire with extraordinary breath not only has he mastered operatic music but also jazz gospel soul spiritual new school Broadway and the Blues ladies and gentlemen please welcome Dana Morgan and Terence Tauber [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and the way we chose justice [Music] and tell the story to your daughters and your sons [Music] and tell them in roster of all you were not the only ones [Music] can be your sermon the power of the people [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] good evening everyone my name is our abode Ennis I have both the pleasure of working with dr. John gates and the pleasure of introducing tonight's speaker one of America's most provocative and democratic public intellectuals dr. Cornel West has been a champion for racial justice since childhood his writing speaking and teaching weave together the traditions of the black Baptist Church progressive politics and jazz the New York Times has praised his ferocious moral vision currently dr. West is professor of the practice of Public philosophy at Harvard University and holds the title of professor emeritus at Princeton University he has also taught at Union Theological Seminary Yale Harvard and the University of Paris Cornel West graduated magna laude from heart Harvard in three years and obtained his MA and PhD in philosophy at Princeton he has written 20 books and has edited 13 though he is best known for his classics race matters and democracy matters and his memoir brother West living and loving out loud his most recent book black prophetic fire has received critical acclaim dr. West is a frequent guest on the Bill Maher show Colbert Report CNN c-span and Democracy Now dr. West has made three spoken word albums including never forget collaborating with Prince Jill Scott Andre 3000 Talib Kweli PRS won and the late gerald levert his spoken word interludes were featured on Terence Blanchard spices which won the Grand Prix in France for the best jazz album of the year of 2009 the Cornel West Theory's second Rome Raheem DeVaughn Grammy nominated love and war masterpiece and on Bootsy Collins is the funk capital of the world his latest spoken word feature reunited with him with Tim Terence Blanchard for breathless a tribute to the I can't breathe movement in short dr. Cornel West has a passion to invite a variety people from all walks of life into his world of ideas to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King jr. a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice ladies and what gentlemen please welcome dr. Cornel West [Applause] what a blessing to be back what an honor what a privilege University of Virginia Charlottesville my god my god I didn't know I would be back so soon but I do want to begin by saluting those who were kind enough to invite me back my dear brothers going back to those historic years and more houses in weiu in Harvard my associate dean john fitzgerald gates give it up for this absolutely working so closely with him of courses Dean Craig Benson we salute you as well no brother an engineering very very much so indeed and then there's the associate dean our dear sister cool and she is cool give it up to her give it up for her oh yeah and she's working on the Dean Dory Fontaine and we salute you as we salute you it's actually very rare that you see a School of Nursing in the School of Engineering working together it's a beautiful beautiful combination probably the greatest philosopher of twentieth century Europe trained as an engineer his name was Ludwig Wittgenstein and he was full of unbelievable caring and nurturing like the best of our nurses bringing together technical training with the overflow of love from heart mind soul and body quite unique head University of Virginia you got something special going on going on indeed what can I say about the artist the Dana Kristina joy Morgan [Music] how do you do it if she did it in Atlanta five years ago and she's still doing it and did you notice the combination of the best of Europe and the best of American and the best of black folk all it reminds you of those epigraphs RWD voices souls of black folk he could bring together also Simmons and Elizabeth Barrett Browning and let's link it with those Negro spirituals and then in would all love them on high moral and spiritual ground that's the tradition that I want to talk about tonight but I also want to acknowledge brother Terrence by the Terrence Tahoe oh yes indeed yes indeed and of course we're here very much because of our young brothers and sisters of all colors those undergoing education undergoing deep forms of Pi they are represented by our above Dennis we salute [Music] I do return with a deep sense of nostalgia when I think of the University of Virginia I think of my teacher Richard Rorty who would invite me to speak in his classes meant so much to me and I would see towering literary critic professor door Deborah McDowell was there in the class and she's still going strong give it up for her give it up brother mark professor mark Edmondson he was there too he still going strong give it up for him to Nathan Scott the founder of theology and literature he taught for many years Merce Chicago but he decided to come here to end his career is one of the finest that RA critics in the 20th century James Childress who I met when I was 22 years old as an exemplary moral philosopher here University forge India one can go on and on and on this place means much to me in fact I had God son and Bryant Gerard who decided among all the various colleges to come to the University of Virginia studying with Michael Smith and a host of up so this place has a very special role in my heart I was wondering which word to use after 2 weeks ago but the important thing is to hold up the blood-stained banner hold up the tear-soaked banner of the love for truth and beauty and holy I am Who I am because somebody loved me somebody cared for me somebody attended to me the highest honor I ever receive has nothing to do with universities colleges political marches rallies that of being the second son of the late Clifton West would have celebrated his 89th birthday yesterday if he had not passed 1994 I will never ever be one half of the human being my father was so I'm not overwhelmed by high visibility I know how fickle it is ephemeral it is its sounding brass and tinkling cymbal if you don't have the courage and vision humility to try to tell the truth in your fallible way and bear witness in your imperfect way before the worms get you and I'm a product that loves supreme and language the John Coltrane that I found in the West family on the chocolate side of Sacramento California there's a brother here and Don Galvin his beloved wife where's brother who gather where's brother gather there you stand both of y'all stand up stand up both of y'all stand up salute you salute your brother yes brother and this sister they come out of the same tradition that I do the precious memories of those who came before that's manifest in the music that we heard especially that last song tell your story make them hear you lift your voice in the anthem of a particular people who've been wrestling with forms of care and trauma and stigma for 400 years what I learned on that chocolate side of Sacramento West family and Shiloh Baptist Church with my pastor Willie P cook we had pastors in those days they got too many CEOs today running these churches oh we had pastors who loved who had the courage to tell the truth had the courage to be there with the people when they was sick in the hospital when their children were in trouble in school I was hanging out with the Little League and the sisters trying to deal with the insecure male egos with them cast as objects of sexual conquest how do you generate conditions for the possibility of a people to respect themselves and have confidence in themselves and feel as if they can make a difference in the world a sense of self-worth that's my tradition I can take no credit for it that's why I begin on a note of piety acknowledge dependence on those who came before piety has nothing to do with blind deference to Dogma on critical obedience to doctrine has to do it recognizing that no one of us are self-made somebody gave birth to you somebody loves you somebody shaped you somebody molded you as imperfect as they were and are and we need to start at that deep spiritual level in this present moment of spiritual blackout with the great Portuguese revolutionary name I I'm a car Cabral car returned to the source what I'm Tonio Gramsci called a critical self inventory who are you really how do you situate yourself within the traditions in institutions that have shaped you how do you locate yourself within the stories and narratives and discourses that provide some way of convincing you not to commit suicide tomorrow morning but all of the absurdity coming at us all of the mendacity and criminality bombarding us every day what does it take to straighten up our spines and try to be truth tellers and witness bears so that we could pass on great traditions to those who come after in this moment of multiple catastrophes not just Harvey and not just her mom let us never forget our brothers and sisters of all colors undergoing unbelievable attack it has to do not just with nature ecological catastrophe owing to its various actions of human beings disproportionately powerful ones that are have been raping Mother Nature it when such a waited now nature strikes back nature speaks back meet yourselves I'm not just an object to be dominated I'm allow I'm not just in it in the language of the great Martin Buber issue of diversity and equity the institution that you all are keeping afloat here to the most fundamental and terrifying questions of what does it mean to be human what kind of human beings are we what kinds of persons are we what are we willing to give up what cost are we willing to pay how much courage and not just courage but fortitude are we willing to exemplify anybody before we pass it on to the next generation I from a people who have been chronically hated for 400 years that's why the neo-fascist brothers and sisters who were trying to crush us like cockroaches don't surprise me oh my god this is the end of America the neo-nazis are on the March please [Applause] [Music] some of us have been on intimate terms with forms of catastrophe for a long time our indigenous brothers and sisters 1492 war began in a steel going on women of all colors dealing with patriarchal attacking violence and devaluation and demeaning and dishonouring everyday life public life still going on losing sight of the precious Humanity of our gay brothers and lesbian sisters and bisexuals and trans folk the transphobia and homophobia this is not cheap PC kitchen these are structures and institutions and various insults and injuries that have impact on precious human beings and I'm an old-style revolutionary Christian I believe that all of us are made in the image of God I don't care what color what gender what sexual orientation what nation I'm old school I'm real old school and I tell my right-wing Christian brothers and sisters oh you so fundamentalist how come you're not fundamentalist or loving that neighbor as thyself no matter who they are no matter what color they are no matter what sexual orientation doesn't make any one of us better words when it comes to these kinds of times you have to separate the sunshine soldiers with the all-season love warriors and for me as a black man in America for 64 years trying to stay in my right mind at least four days of the week [Applause] am i honest now Kenny wasn't for the Holy Ghost in Cognac and let's not be in vitro but I come from a people who after being hated for forty four hundred years and taught the world so much about love and how to love how to cultivate the capacity to love truth the condition of truth is always to allow suffering to speak the love beauty professor Wallace knows what I'm talking about a character on the American stage was as much love as mama in the Raisin in the Sun written by a genius at 27 years old a South Side of Chicago with Lorraine Hansberry John Coltrane's Love Supreme Marvin Gaye's what's going on Toni Morrison's be the loves so dare says if James Baldwin love forces us to take off the mass we fear we should not live within but no we cannot live without that's not just a plaything for I hated people to dish out those kind of love warriors some kind of spiritual and moral work has to go into them only baby on the south side of Chicago in August in nineteen and fifty five and say oh how do I speak about my baby in it he was my only child his father fought against Hitler a gangster thug in a Jim Crow army and what did she say she looked at all the cameras I'm all around the world all of the major political authorities are told her to keep that casket closed but she kept it open didn't she in John Johnson's evident magazine and Jet magazine put those pictures out so the whole world could see something that was as American as apple pie hating and having contempt of black people I don't have a minute to hate our pursuit justice for the rest of my life oh she's spoken up they have up not just the best of black people not just the best of America but the best of the species the best of what it means to be human and you don't do that on your own you have to be shaping molded by traditions and institutions you have to know what love is know how to give and receive you have to aspire to maturity you have to aspire to what the Greeks karta and excellence a spiritual excellence a moral excellence in our moment of spiritual black out we are losing access to that tradition and those sets of traditions of other people's Trump is not to be fetishize as if he's some kind of isolated individual who dropped from the sky and therefore is wrecking havoc on the American experiment oh no Donald Trump is as American as apple pie I shot through each and every one of us as part of the civil war taking place on our own Souls the egoism the narcissism the indifference the callousness the refusal to connect with others especially the vulnerable and the weak the obsession with smartin is the worst thing that could ever happen to undergraduates here at this institution is to think that they be all and end all of your life is to be the smartest person in the room how empty house spiritually how long gurbles worse Martin in a gangster working with Hitler who are very smart [Music] [Applause] realistic rigid material materially not culturally and the result is what an imperial meltdown we are experiencing what is the Imperial meltdown Magisterial decline followed the Roman Empire 1776 what was it about that Roman Empire military overreach today 53 cents every dollar spent on the military four thousand and eight hundred and fifty five military bases 587 in other special-operations in over 140 countries the only 192 countries in the world more than the next nine combined no democratic experiment can survive and thrive with that kind of imperial albatross around its neck when it comes to schools we don't have money when it comes to jobs with a living wage we don't have money oh yes when it comes a decent housing we don't have money when it comes to urban renewal that's poor folk removal what is vinegar driven calculation we have to make sure that gentrification has a roll in place because people now want to have access to what we're black folks used to be black folk therefore just manipulate but you can just move and poor folk can just be moved here and there because they have no power they don't have any collectively to bring pressure to bear oh really sounds like the way you treat a third-world country doesn't within a decade and not say a mumbling word on corporate media and then you get a gangster like crypto-fascist response to those deaths with isis and al-qaeda and all you can do is keep track of the gangsters and not understand that a Muslim life has exactly the same value as a Christian life and a Buddhist life and a secular life and I'm Hindu life can you imagine somebody killing half a million white Christians the Ku Klux Klan would be a mass movement that's the reason why my tradition the prophetic black tradition says when you murder us what you got to say Frederick Douglass I'm against terrorism I'm against slavery but I don't want to enslave anybody I want everybody to be free what you got to say either be whales against lynching I'm against lynching put a bounty on my head I got to go to England in order to live but I don't want anybody to Lynch I want freedom and liberty for everybody Martin Luther King what you got to say you can try to kill me if you want to but I'm not gonna kill I'd rather be relatively defeated with my moral integrity than win and be a gangster like those who against them against the rising the people I love that's the tradition I'm talking about that's a rich tradition black people have no monopoly on it look at Rabbi Abraham Joshua look at Gandhi and Becca gone to himself Hindu darling so untouchable in India prophetic to the core courageous oppositional with her spirit Grace Lee Boggs secular atheistic Marxist to the core but she was one of those Marxist will of overflowing not just analysis that was ie secular agnostic Palestinian always concerned about the Canaanite reading of the Exodus story what does it look like through the lens of the Canaanites when you talk about your promised land that's a moral question that's the spiritual question and he could have invoked Amos because you was prophets it already got fair they're not concerned just about the precious Jewish folk this is worth for the nation that justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream that's why every nation amos says and I say these voices spiritual blackout and imperial 1% of the population our owning 42% of the wealth and yet 22 of our precious children of all colors live in utter poverty in the richest nation of the history of the world that's a moral disgrace and no serious talk about one out of two one out of two black and brown children under six years old live in utter poverty that's 50 percent in this nation this very moment no serious discussion about it and it's not just a matter of the reactionary xenophobic misogynist truck administration it's true on there Obama too didn't have any serious talk about poverty under Obama not at all it was the unprecedented up with mobility of the black middle classes everybody knows that if black middle class children were going to the prison industrial complex we're going to jail with the same level as poor black children precious Jamal and pressure latisha they've been a different response regard to the plight and predicament of black people same is true for black leadership brother gather as much as we love up upper middle class black youth if the brothers and sisters didn't Jack in jail they were going to jail dealing with police brutality and police attack and police murder the same level as our poor black brothers and sisters our black middle-class would be on the move we got indifference and callousness setting in even among the petty boudoir Negroes because more and more as a matter of position spectacle image [Music] I can hear Malcolm X saying peacock strut because they can't fly don't confuse the foilage with the fruit don't confuse feature of our present moment that the grotesques wealth inequalities hard to focus on thank God for our dear brother Bernie Sanders a year he's true thank God thank God for brother Bernie thank God for the Occupy movement trying to keep track of the wealthy inequality it's a matter of highlighting what is real thank God for the black lives matter movement trying to keep track of wealth inequality thank God for the March 8th women's movement that was more than just balls feminism it but feminism from below tell me how much you love women if the only women you love look like you and your neighborhood don't say a word this is a moral and a spiritual question we're not talking about ideology in politics yet description phenomenology what it looks like it's no accident given the massive criminality on Wall Street in 2008 not one Wall Street executive went to jail not one both parties insider trading market manipulation fraudulent activity predatory lending even under Reagan eleven hundred folks went to jail with Al Christ and my dear brother Ronald Reagan he's my fellow Californian he wasn't known for being on the cutting edge of social justice for poor people but he sent him to jail mr. Eric Holder committee you were strong on voting rights wonderful voting repression is real how come you didn't send any of your friends to jail your golf with him you have coffee with them your drink used to be con yack now they got a higher brandy when you have more money I understand that but not one of them with wellfest OS we appreciate you asking that tough question we expect that kind of thing more and more out of you we understand I said I appreciate it - what is your answer brother we just couldn't deal with intense entertaining so very difficult is a complicated legal notion and has to do with trying to discern the intention of those and when you have large institutions like that you can it's hard to really pill burrow through and find the intention and because they're so big if too many of them went to jail the whole economy would collapse oh that sounds like rationalization of corporate power that means that we don't have accountability of some of the most powerful elites who are shaping and molding our country and world we know we live in a moment of highly financialized capitalism we know that 42 percent of the profits go to banks it used to be corporations who produce things now with just banks that produce deals so when they're doing very very very very well working people in the real world still catching hell dealing with stagnating wages dealing with deteriorating infrastructure dealing with schools that more and more collapsing because teachers have such low status when it comes to shaping and molding the hearts minds and souls of our young people but when it comes to money needed in order to go to war we can find billions and billions and billions of extra money in addition to the 800 billion we already spent on it or when Wall Street needs a bailout they do not only get a bailout they get quantitative easing Bay Colony to get old it I grew up into Donny Hathaway saying about we call it corporate welfare bank welfare they get the bailout but the homeowners don't get hardly anything that's a reflection of your priorities if you think that you can sustain this fragile experiment and democracy would grotesque wealth inequality with Imperial overreach with spiritual blackout are you surprised at neo-fascist sensibility you don't catch on because people find themselves feeling so helpless and worthless and powerless they begin to grab for straws and the Anna visting the ugly xenophobic elements begin to surface and they have dreams of greatness in the past that's what neo-fascism is all about the rule of big money big military distract the citizens and such a weighted your scapegoat the most vulnerable be the immigrants from Mexico or other places be they women be they Jews be the Aryans be they Palestinians and especially if they are black see just how they felt human beings they just gangsters when I call them gangsters that's for me that's not name-calling and finger-pointing because I was a gangster fool I met Jesus and now I'm a redeemed center with gangster proclivities [Applause] I know what it is to be a gangster I have the capacity to hate - I have the capacity to trash the weak I have the capacity to no longer muster the courage to confront the most powerful but rather wanna trash the most vulnerable in order to have some illusion of power that's a human thing what kind of spiritual and moral stuff goes into you such as you do not succumb to it and end up on the Love Train - Justice Train rather than the hate train of the weak and the vulnerable 22 million fellow citizens now say they have some connection with some of the claims of the so called all right and I don't like that language alright be the right wing your quays our right wing on your liberal or your centrist or your progressive or your revolutionary that's true for every generation the Ku Klux Klan is not alright the Klan understand his intellectual genealogy his relation to Mussolini's friends and those intellectuals in Gentilly and the others in his conception of the right wing populist element of what constitutes a neo-fascist way of looking at the world don't allow the corporate media to obscure and escape the corporate media thrives on generating massive massive modes of distraction and Paideia at his deepest sense deep education that just cheap schooling follows what Simone very calls the formation of attention each other and especially our young brothers and sisters of all colors to attend to what matters rather than attend to the distractions that make it difficult to become mature critical compassion that human being is connected to communities and civic institutions and movements the attention merchants the ways in which you can make sure that people's are on the languages TS Eliot distracted by distractions and they never get a chance to come to terms with wrestling with the most fundamental questions of what it means to be human of life and death and sadness and sorrow and heartache and heartbreak so when trauma hits catastrophe hits very little to fall back on I tell my young brothers and sisters and the black lives movement so what is the soundtrack of your movement I noticed you play a lot of Dinah Hathaway and Curtis but the music has become sofiane hollow titillation and stimulation rather than so transformation I'm so glad that I come from a tradition of soul stirrers like Sam Cooke good Johnnie tailing you wrong they're not in the titillating they wasn't trying to titillate anybody Sam Cooke didn't sing in order to stimulate enemy came out of a choir of a church that knew that people's lives and souls sometimes depended on them hitting the right note and making sure it was a soulful canosa's by soulful canosa's I mean a self giving and a self-emptying that is so deep and so for real to put a smile on Ashford and Simpson face when they talk about a nothing but the real thing so Ginuwine that it went sold sold person to person human to human we would just listen to usage usage letís Eastern what are you hear you hear precisely the raw stuff of what is required for truth-telling and witness banging you hear something tender tenderness is being pushed to the margins you hear something sweet is a sharing of a soothing sweetness against the backdrop of catastrophe that's what you hear in the voice of a David Rufford from why not Mississippi who's saying Lee for the temptations are you hear it in the falsetto of a Eddie Kendricks from bombing ham Birmingham Alabama that tenderness that sweetness that gentleness those are not playthings they're a part and parcel was a shaping of hearts and minds and souls ready to tell the truth and bear witness to engage in a desire for life in the face of death physical death psychic there's social death spiritual death of willingness to dialogue engage in polyphonic voices in the face of dog muscle you could shake that dog might be unsettled and unnerved like what happens in classrooms here at the University of Virginia had its best you read Shakespeare Dante when you reach there Vantage when you listen to Schubert sonatas Odo's opus 131 of Beethoven's string quartet you're unsettled whatever's ossified and petrified and dogmatic you have to go back and re-examine it is to learn how to die in order to learn how to live because when you give up a certain dog more assumption you are a different person you actually have died in order to live that's what the great Montaigne meant when he said to philosophize is to learn how to die to learn how to live in even silicon we don't expect too much profanity from the Romans he said he or she who learns how to die unlearn slavery intellectual bondage tied to prevailing paradigms that blind get out of your bubble get out of your silo grow mature broaden your horizons and no one of us have a monopoly on the ultimate horizons we try again fail again fail better in the language of the great Samuel Beckett try again fail again fail better then die it's the president moment at the moment of bleakness but there's always tradition of prophetic fight back and for me it has nothing to do with optimism so optimistic no listen to what I'm saying oh no I'm a blues man in the life of the mind baby king says nobody loves me but my mama and she might be jiving - that's not out to miss more good morning heartache keep that for your mainstream American juvenile Sensibility I'm an adult black man no reasons to be in this nation and the world too much suffering in the world there's already me as the body's at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean we can never recover because of the slave trade how can we talk about optimism I'm a prisoner of hope I'm not an optimist and even hope needs to be interrogated look at that million dialogue of two facilities where it talks about hope dangerous comfort that leaves you open the self destruction because you have no protection even hope can be colonized and pimped by too many folks I'm a certain kind of prisoner of hope the kind of hope the Curtis Nation was singing about when he said keep on pushing keep on pushing doesn't mean you have a discourse of hope it means you want to be a hope you want anybody hope you want to enact I hope you don't even want to talk about it so just by sheer example you might be able to exude some kind of energy and inspiration that folk want to keep on pushing anyway and when they look up they say oh my god the plant is about to go under the corporate elites are still in control the white supremacist and male supremacist the xeno folks and trans folks are increasing looks like the schools are collapsing the young folk dealing with trauma self-medicating themselves tied to drug and alcohol and sexual addiction what what kind of empirical evidence do we have for home didn't listen to a Negro spiritual nobody knows the trouble I've seen nobody knows but Jesus nobody knows the trouble I see what's there last line glory hallelujah follow what the evidence doesn't follow by means of logic something else goes into it a tradition a love of Mama and Daddy and grandparents a love of teacher an example of an intellectual who's willing to tell the truth it could be CLR James it could be Muriel Rukeyser it could be a whole host of folk who in the face of such bleakness steal by means of example young folk would rather see a sermon than hear one by example you might be able to exude a push that's all we've got it may be the case that we are witnessing the unraveling of the American Empire so that the grand Democratic sensibilities that used to constitute counter forces against the worst become so weak that so many of us feel powerless that is a possibility that has always been a possibility a organized attempt to violently overthrow the US government in order to keep black people in slavery in perpetuity that's what the constitution of the Confederacy said my white brother says come with me brother Wes that's my heritage they were so courageous they work so hard they sacrifice so much I know they get a little damage here and there but can you imagine the white brothers and sisters having any doubts there were highly successful black people to try to overthrow the US government in order to put white people in slavery in perpetuity how many statues you think they'd have a black brothers oh there goes brother Johnson there's brother Johnson he wants to make sure every white person was in slavery fair you got to understand he was courageous he was just a little off in his in the name let's be honest let's be real but let's be able to laugh in such a way that it's not only connected with the tears that flow from sensitivity but also be able to laugh in order to fortify us to be prisoners of hope it could be child poverty workers pushed through the margins but corporate elite so many forms of structural domination so many individual forms of people being spit on and rebuked and scorned so much work to do no one of us saviors no organization salvific just keep pushing on bearing witness telling a truth willing to be oppositional and always committed to being mile adjusted to injustice mile adjust Utley injustice do we have what it takes is always an open question the question becomes what kind of responds your life constitutes is like the conclusion of a practical Aristotelian syllogism it's not a proposition it's a life lived it's not words said it's example enacted that means week the question has to do with us catastrophe and we deal with the escalating nuclear catastrophe can we deal with the spiritual catastro the moral catastrophe the economic catastrophe well catastrophe is always inescapable in the human condition the question is will you respond the way so many of the great lovers of the past and we leave that question this country's incomplete and unfinished don't look good at the moment you know who we are what we do and I simply say to you all in my own fallible way I'm not gonna forget my father swinging with love of truth love goodness lover beauty and lover Poli and then we're gonna see what we do thank you all so very much [Applause] university of virginia strong universe virginia strong [Applause] we got good time for questions good time for questions and queries you want to be dialogical and antiphonal call-and-response I like your shirt - brother listen let's change the world I love it though but your name is would say they'd sell out Bellamy no we've got questions inquiries please don't hesitate I'm in no rush at all brother in the back do we have a microphone or just going what's best what's best brother gates what do you think it's up to you I think he's got a voice that can be heard but I'm worried about something own slaves and practice slavery what are we to make of historical figures such as Thomas Jefferson thank you dr. West I think there's a number I think the first thing is tried to tell the full-fledged truth about who they were what went into them how they were shaped and how they changed over time no one of us can be frozen in one moment at t1 it's up to 22 23 and t4 and so all of us are changing and so forth like Malcolm X you freeze him as my outcome little he was a gangster freeze him with Malcolm X a certain moment he's loving black folk but he hadn't got on the love train with white brothers and sisters yeah they were Devils he said no that's not wrong he said he got devilish behavior yeah you got a point there so he got to make the difference but the difference between ontology and behavior so it is what Thomas Jefferson see as a human being to keep track heroic in the face of the British Empire I'm anti imperialist I like to critiques of British Empire I like to break with British Empire no doubt about that but it's still on somebody else's land you got to remember that you see digitus peoples are not somehow invisible in our story yeah a lot of people wonder about them slavery was America's original Slim's baby that's a lie that's not true the original sin was the treatment of indigenous brothers and sisters you missed it we got a lot of black folk oh yeah that's right which originally no no no you were second you were second white supremecy shift from them to you and it's just a matter of telling the truth so we asked brother Jefferson attitude to indigenous peoples black folk attitudes for the British Empire writing words that would reverberate down through the corridors of time words or may have the Black Panther Party in the Declaration of Independence accenting the quest for freedom that's how words travel those words are part of unbelievable impact but at the same time written by someone its relation to Sally for so long people denied it we found out is the truth but then the question becomes when you find out the truth of somebody's underside it doesn't make them the devil or a demon it makes them a human being with the gangster it's true for most of us I know we got some things in the room but don't but then the question becomes how do we receive the legacy of Thomas Jefferson if we're in denial and avoidance then that's not going to lead toward a mature and healthy conversation about the past in our relation of that past to the present and how many in that past have grown and developed and so forth what in his art well it's time to come back to life he still got white supremacist sensibilities but you read that last chapter sound and fury on Delsea oh my god he's blowing this music he's so sweet when he's getting home he's beating on Obama humans how do we keep their complexity without rationalizing what they did or without elevating the good things they did as if those good things displace the ugly things see what I mean that's the kind of conversation I would like to kind of have [Applause] when I talked about the spiritual stuff required for trying to be true telling witness bear it has to do with a certain kind of fell ability humility a certain kind of respect for others even when you disagree with them but being honest and candid to bring the force to bear of argument and vision in the public conversation it's a wonderful moment in the great Walt Whitman's classic Democratic vistas when he talks about an America in deep crisis as it was in that time in the 1870s and he talked about creating a public space in which people could enter without feeling humiliated and once you lose that public space you no longer have context in which moral and spiritual witness can take place all you have is polarization by organization name-calling finger pointing which is very much what we have today but again it's only by example I think Midas is it that you do that it's only buying so I don't in part of the problem is there's so many cliches in shibboleths now and it's not bureaucrats and others who specialize you know I mean they give the best speech in the world written by somebody else politicians the same way and so forth then ones time for action it's not just that they fall short but they weren't really committed to what they were saying see that's lack of integrity what the great Jane Austen constancy the lack of money dictating what kind of coupling in a patriarchal context you all know and in persuasion pride constancy integrity so again my answer to you really is it by example how do you do it we have to do it in practice and do it in such a way that those who are committed to it may become contagious to others who think that it's in their best interest short-term interest long-term short-term interest it's very much like what the CEO wasn't CEO of NBC said when he said we know covering every word every Twitter every speech of Donald Trump for 11 months is bad for America but it's good for NBC the short-term profit short-term revenue short-term money that is the benchmark of the neoliberal Soulcraft which is smartness dollars and bombs and the bombs drop nobody talks about was it a plane the other day in Chicago America does like we haven't been at war we've been at war every day American soldiers let alone Afghanistan so how do you bring that to light you've got to bring that to light for the respect there are crews to those who are part of a dialogue but without the vulnerability the acknowledgement that you could be wrong the willingness to listen to others as well as speak we won't have the kind of public conversation let alone the public high quality public action that we need so I appreciate your question and that's just my fallible attempt to answer I'm doctor once I'm sorry I have the mic yes my question is I just wanna know do you feel supremacy would have been limited history been blended so after segregation and after Brown versus Board of Education if history would have been blended do you believe that we would have gained more respect for one another as black and whites if the education would have been blended and we would have learned about more high profile scholars such as yourself and other high profile black people that were very educated that broke barriers because you know black history is limited in today's school system and we still don't know half of what we need to know about the people that have paved the way for us so what blend in history what effect do you think that will have on the world moving forward the truth there cuts across race and color in class and so forth right exactly no I think the truth-telling on the one hand because the reality is even when we're segregated we still blend it because under conditions of segregation as the social misery intensifies and the rage expands when in fact you have moments of reckoning all of us have to recognize oh my god our distant destinies are intertwined here comes a rebellion here comes the next riot here comes the next social abruption and so forth and so on that's an acknowledgment that it's really blended we think that we could hold the mass incarceration regime at arm's length and hide them away one out of two of Manila young black youth 12% of em flying high into friendly skies every weekend precious white youth 12% of them flying high in the skies every weekend black and brown 65% of the convictions it's a racist criminal justice system but thinking that somehow you just put them away and we not blend in you got a short-term mentality chickens come on you gonna reap what you sow and a spiritual blackout is a kind of Malcolm X moment of chickens coming home to roost acting like somehow you to paradigm of virtue chickens coming home to roost but of course the reality isn't brother Martin reminded Malcolm when the chickens come home to roost the roosters are gonna start on the chocolate side it down it's gonna start against the weak it's gonna start against the vulnerable in the same way you could kill millions of folk and create concentration camps in the Congo experience concentration camps in the heart of civilized Europe and people say oh lo and behold Europe for the first time or one of the few times has become thoroughly barbaric no no just look at the way you treated these non Europeans and then look how you treated your Europeans barbaric across the board that Congolese life and that Jewish life and that are many in life all of them have equal value you see to me that's the kind of blending that we're talking about that we need and I'll say this de Menezes I don't think we can put it all on formal education or institution we got to have stronger families from a civic institutions we need artists we need those who are willing to be in the nooks and crannies of our society Curtis Mayfield dropped out at 9th grade but he was a better truth teller than many the professor's I know in university in the only plate on the black notes of the piano on his guitar Kurtis hide you undergo that kind of Paideia what kind of education did you get he said come to the west side of Chicago and I'll tell you not just a matter going to college James Baldwin never went to college with to colleges went to him to drop out brother what said James Baldwin didn't go I'm not going even know that's not my point that's not my point doesn't mother because the odds are what we know you're not change the ball and in terms of an individual but you're not James Baldwin in terms of high level either but I don't want to I don't want to Trump your possibilities or I should say that for close your possibility but I agree with your question let it out oh brother don't hurt yourself run it down like that man don't have any insurance city's not paying for this he was good he's loving he jumped out six steps go to go arrest go go right ahead so my name is Wes Bellamy I'm the vice mayor here in the city I got a question for First Church First Baptist Church to get where my brother yeah but I got a serious question absolutely it's twofold one how do we defeat white supremacy while dealing with white fragility that's the first one and then secondly is it possible for quote unquote elected officials to be able to defeat white supremacy through policy [Applause] because I know what we're trying to do the best that we can in terms of fighting for justice I think it's very difficult for elected officials because most elected officials are tied to money raising and therefore they have to gain access to sponsors or benefactors and it makes it very difficult to be a free man or woman as a politician when you tie that those kind of sponsors and benefactors as part of the dominating and colonizing colonizing of the electoral political system by big money that's what I mean by the rule of big money we see it the black Congressional Caucus you see if the Progressive Caucus you see Republican pockets and so forth what is it now you got 15,000 lobbyists you only got 435 congressmen no matter what color they are so it takes tremendous courage as an elected official to be a truth teller but that doesn't mean that you give up on intellectual politics there has to be spaces for people of integrity and honesty concern with poor people who were involved in the electrical political system even though they have to cut radically against the grain and policy does make a difference absolutely there's no doubt about it there's no doubt about it the attack on Obama's Obama care that makes a difference for those individuals who don't have it I wanted single-payer I wish he had gone further but we have to also be able to defend what you have you see what I mean that's policy that's policy but at the same time we have to have elected officials like Harold Washington I respect you enough to tell you the truth that what I'm up against here in the permanent government of Chicago and the permanent government of every city is the corporate elite because the politicians rotate they come and gone and the corporate elite the politicians often have to come to them so here Washington would say I'm temporary government permanent government downtown Chicago big business if you don't help me with your social movements motion and momentum if you don't help me with your mobilizing I'm gonna get caught up in the mainstream protocol of electoral officials which is the money-making and the giving of speeches but when it comes they're seriously attacking the issues they figure what poor folk don't have the money they don't have the pressure working people to marginalize they don't have the money they don't have pressure how can I run in the next election without somehow not having the money from the corporate elite and that's a serious challenge that was part of the challenge the black politicians regard to Bernie Sanders oh we love Bernie but if we get we are not part of the Clinton Patriots the Clinton machine we're not gonna have any cash but that's precisely the market calculation versus moral spiritual witness it's always one of tension of course you know the story better than I could do right there but I mean you're at the local level can you can imagine that the local and the regional and the state and so forth so policy is very important but you have to have people on the outside bringing power and pressure to bear to help you out on the inside now you your first question had to do with fighting white supremacy or what white fragility now what do you mean by white fragility my brother Tracy I got there's a wonderful book by one of the great freedom fighters of the 20th century as white as a stereotypical Norwegian his wife was a co-writer of we shall overcome the song that I did brother Saint you just sing and she was his wife as a stereotypical Danish I know they got black folk there that's why I said stereotypical but the point is our white brothers and sisters need to know that there's a tradition among white brothers and sisters that call into question you use the word fertility I call it insecurity and sometimes downright cowardice they just scared they're scared they're intimidated they're not used to being in context in which they have difficulty finding their footing they're used to being in the driver's seat well no when you're dealing with a struggle of white supremacy you're not in the driver's seat I see my dear brother from Union seminary he understands what I'm talking about he's in the tradition of Myles Horton himself Myles Horton went to Union seminary just like him but you gotta let white brother sisters know you're not the first white brothers sisters to feel fragile and secure scared complacent dealt with it better than you do take this book you see you can learn you can learn right I like how you're calling for solidarity that's deepening coalition in the end we're doing it not just to win even though of course we want to win but we're also doing it because this right is just and it's moral and we don't do it the rocks are gonna cry out that's the choice we make as human beings so you're appealing in a sense of being a person a human being if you want integrity fine integrity is not purity but if you want to integrity fine if you want to come up with a rationalization well robert e lee is just art isn't it fascinating art look how they shape that's shoulder oh that i looks fascinating there is a role for art the language the sculpture can sing like but at the same time when it is used in public space then it's elicits a public conversation about its role and function in addition to its artistic see to me but saluting if they don't know [Applause] ladies and gentlemen did you have a good night did you enjoy this this is how we roll I want to say thank you to all of those thousands of people who have watched us on livestream via Facebook the UVA engineering the website as well as the Cavalier daily website I want to thank dr. Cornel West Dana Christina joy Morgan and Terrence Harbor for a magnificent evening the excellence through diversity distinguished learning series is brought to you by great partners from all over grounds and with wonderful thanks to the School of Engineering and Applied Science facilities management the office of the executive vice president and provost the School of Nursing the School of Law the University of Virginia Health System the curry School of Education the Frank batten school of leadership and public policy and the MacIntyre school of Commerce following dr. West over the course of this academic year will be the following speakers ronald sullivan professor of law at Harvard University who's also from the Justice Project Ronald is the single person who has had through his advocacy more people over 6,000 people wronged who were wrongly incarcerated released from jail Shankar vedantam from NPR and the podcast the hidden brain Anna Navarro Republican strategist from CNN artist Saul Williams from Broadway author of the new Jim Crow Michelle Alexander the incomparable Angela Davis the person who established the theory of intersectionality kimberlé crenshaw and former NFL defensive end and LGBT advocate Michael Sam this is just the beginning of a wonderful wonderful year thank you for coming and have a good night you

Channel: UVA Engineering

Views: 23,411

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Keywords: diversity, engineering, cornel west, civil rights, justice

Id: WHPNS-5hBUE

Length: 96min 45sec (5805 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 13 2017