The 25th Annual Hesburgh Lecture in Ethics and Public Policy, Featuring Dr. Cornel West

good afternoon you're all here to hear me speaking right my name is good afternoon and welcome to the 25th annual Hesburgh lectures in ethics and public policy my name is Asha Kaufman and I'm the director of the Joan B Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies which is part of the Kea school of global affairs at Notre Dame the Kroc Institute established the Hesburgh lectures in 1995 in honor of the Reverend Theodore M Hesburgh CSC educated at Notre Dame and the Gregorian University in Rome Hesburgh better known to all of us as father Ted was ordained a priest of the Congregation of the Holy Cross in Sacred Heart Church in 1943 at the age of 35 in June 1952 he was named the 15th president of Notre Dame and served in that capacity for 35 years until 1987 father Ted built the modern one not with aim overseeing not only the rise to prominence of the University in the ranks of American higher education but also the transfer of the university governance from the founding religious community the congregation of the Holy Cross to a predominantly lay Board of Trustees in 1967 and the admission of women to the undergraduate program in 1972 the commitment to peace and justice and to exploring the ethical dimensions of public policy characterized father Ted's a career as a charter member and chair of the u.s. Commission on civil rights as a member of the presidents Ford Presidential clemency board as a member of the board of the overseas development council as chair of the Select Commission on immigration and Refugee policy and as a leader of the coalition of scientists and world religious leaders in condemning nuclear weapons he was the recipient of the Medal of Freedom the nation's highest civilian honor bestowed on him by President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and the congregational gold medal bestowed upon him by President Clinton and congressional leaders in July 2000 father Hesburgh envisioned the Kroc Institute to be a center of learning and training for peace builders from around the world who would come to not with aim be educated in the field of Peace Studies and returned to their homes to work on advancing peace and justice and formed a strong global network of peace builders his motto peace is the work of justice continues to be at the lightning rod for the Institute's research teaching practice and the outreach as for the network he envisioned the Kroc Institute has now over 1,700 graduates offer three educational programs many of whom work on peace and justice in the four corners of the earth including in the United States and even here in South Bend indeed we at Kroc just like father Ted put the local right at the center of the International that appears in the official name of the Institute this lecture series that honors the father Ted follow this example of open-ended inquiry that takes values seriously and cherishes a wisdom recent speakers of this lecture series included the thinkers authors and activists such as Michael Walter Kenneth Roth Mary caldo Shashi a thorough Shirin Ebadi Amartya Sen Bill McKibben Amati amitaba gosh Amitabh gosh and last year Beatrice fiend executive director of icon near the National Coalition Against nuclear weapons the recipient of the 20 2017 a Nobel Peace Award to this distinguished list we now add dr. Cornel West I've asked the my colleague Jason Springs professor of religion ethics and Peace Studies to introduce dr. West to us professor Springs is not only a student of dr. West but has also published extensively on dr. West's writing and the activism most prominently in his recent book healthy conflict in contemporary American society among crack faculty and beyond I would be hard-pressed to find a better person to introduce the dr. West to us professor Springs the podium is yours [Applause] Cornell west comes to us today from the Divinity School and African American Studies department at Harvard University the man needs no introduction as they say I'm gonna give him one anyway though it's difficult to know where to begin I might start with his more than thirty solo co-authored and edited volumes contemporary classics such as prophesied deliverance the American evasion of philosophy which remains the definitive critical genealogy of the American pragmatist philosophical tradition race matters one of the most widely reaching conversation changers on racial inequality and justice in the u.s. the 25th anniversary edition of which just appeared last year collection upon collection of philosophical essays from prophetic fragments to keeping faith to prophetic thought in postmodern times that powerful intervention in early 21st century US imperialism democracy matters and black prophetic fire to hit just a few of the highlights each of these continues to speak newly to us in present circumstances in his recent writings dr. West continues to train our attention on the ways that the legacies and present day realities of white supremacy in our society do not restrict themselves to explicit instances of alt-right rallies and Klu Klux Klan marches but rather that these legacies also have written themselves subtly across all our bodies and our very souls in the daily details of our common life together and must be persistently struggled against equally distinguished is his work as a public philosopher and scholar activist the likelihood of finding him holding forth in the classrooms of Harvard Princeton and Union Theological Seminary is no greater than finding him throws of non-violent direct action and civil disobedience in places like Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan or in Harlem fighting to challenge and transform the stop-and-frisk policies of the NYPD adding his voice and visibility to the movement for black lives on the streets and in the jail cells of Ferguson Missouri in the fight for indigenous peoples land rights at Standing Rock and North Dakota and of course witnessing against the present day realities of white supremacy on the streets of Charlottesville Virginia in this dr. West follows directly in the vein of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin King Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer his activism bears living testimony to Henry David Thoreau's quipped that under a government which imprisons any unjustly the true place for a just person is also a prison and as Professor Wes will point out it matters not whether that unjust imprisonment occur under the auspices of immigration policies or the new Jim Crow working in his distinctive vision of prophetic pragmatism the scholarship and witness of dr. West fits especially well the very framing of the Hesburgh lectureship challenging us to hold ethics and public policy together as inextricably intertwined but he challenges us in other ways as well for his is a deeply humanistic mastery of philosophical and ethical traditions that work at moments to challenge transgress and subvert those traditions themselves for the sake of allowing suffering to speak and centering the needs and voices of the most vulnerable for years we had Kroc at the Kroc Institute have striven to weave humanistic inquiry and reflection the full breadth of the humanities into our vision of Peace Studies as necessary and equal partners to ethics policy social science and practice it's a precarious and never finished enterprise for these reasons dr. West comes as an especially timely and valuable teacher and dialogue partner as one who has spent his career to this point wrestling with an integrating philosophical religious and Theological literary resources film hip-hop jazz and gutbucket blues for the purposes of effecting change in real-time workaday realities of everyday people politics and yes policy it's a steep challenge do we have the wherewithal for such an encounter dear friends I give you Cornel West [Applause] [Applause] oh that's my dear brother Jason give it up for brother Jason scholar prophetic witness he the Jim he's a Jew he is my brother I love him deeply and I feel his love one of the great joys of being a teacher and you get my age you're able to see students come in already talented but low and behold they get they begin to cultivate even more their capacity for creative imagination and critical intelligence and for him to be a distinguished professor in this area I know him at Saint Mary's so I'm not gonna act as if I'm in Notre Dame space both spaces have been consecrated both spaces are special but to just set eyes on your brother brings back the memories of a brother Jeff styles in the seminars on Hagel and feek day in Canton others and you see you continue to flower and flourish and of course with a your beloved Italia she's in Switzerland now but heart and mind as always with you thank you so so very very much you all can see I'm in no rush today no no the hesterberg lecture it's very very distinctive and specific event nobody liked him what a legacy I want to begin by saluting the captain of the ship and talking about my dear brother father John Jenkins suppose salute his work his witness year after year you all know it's hard for a college president to last five years even at a Catholic institution you know I did brothers still going strong the grace is still operating and his conviction is still very much at work I want to salute my new dear brother Asher Kaufman where's brother Asher where is he where is he Darius give it up for this brother here his beloved wife Cathy we had such a magnificent lunch together and the work that you do and sister Erin where's my dear sister Erin where is she oh that's right thank you so very much sister Erin part of that magnificent lunch we had and sister Lisa who picked me up at the airport that makes the difference when you have the first face so welcome to give it up just the lease of the part of this Center as well I don't know where the professor Shantay mountain canyons a indeed indeed straight from Dartmouth College here now at notre dam and st. Mary's - so good to set eyes on you so good to set eyes on me I know alexis was saying hello I could go on and on I do want to acknowledge though a lot it was a very special brother I went to graduate school and Prince and his name was Erskine Peters it's one of the first black professors and the humanities at Notre Dame he died in 1998 he wrote simply on George Elliot magnificently unnatural poetics magnificently on so many humanistic subjects and I know there's a nurse can Peter's fellow fellows program salute Notre Dame for keeping his name alive when I met him when his first year graduate student there was only five of wheat chocolate folk in that vanilla institution a long time ago but all that made such a difference in each time I think of Notre Dame I think of him and recently one of the finest human beings ever met in my life his name is Joseph Durga I met him in 1979 1979 literary critic humanistic scholar close reader of vehicles new science one of the greatest caretakers of Antonio Gramsci and Antonio Labriola used to go to Italy with brother Joe every summer and that means I remember brother Pete when he was walking around in short pants so I've got the ship he's running for president loopy no I love huh I love the Buddha jizz and I just couldn't believe when I when I heard that he had passed the latter part of January and I want to dedicate my feeble words and weak efforts I could never capture the depth and scope and breadth of who both of them were American PETA's Joseph Buddha judge thank God father day it brings us together Hesburgh of syracuse congregation of the holy cross tied to a french based institution that embrace precious Irish brothers and sisters especially those catching hail under British imperial rule in Europe and coming to the United States and often called the white in igg er SS there's a lot of pressure on a white brother sister coming from Ireland and come to American had to decide which way do I go on the Jim Crow train do I go to the front with the British they've been mistreating me for 800 years do I go to the back with black folk I got to find out what's going on what kind of nation is this we've been the underdogs for so long how will we respond father T we don't overlook his German father his mother played a crucial role but his father did kick in and produce him brother teeth he's one of those rich American hybrids but most importantly he was willing to embark on wrestling with the most fundamental question any one of us will ever have to come to terms with which is what does it mean to be human building on that rich Socratic legacy of Athens that line 38 a of Plato's apology the unexamined life is not worth living for the human we know Latin who mondo is the source of the English word human who mondo means what Berio we conscious primates made in the likeness and image of God on the way to bear real unexamined life not worth living the examined life painful it takes great courage one of the reasons why we come back to the legacy the father did is to keep track of the ways in which he enacted and embodied Socratic courage to examine himself interrogate himself scrutinize himself sacré ties him self I tell the students who enter my classes for 42 years now you have entered this class in order to learn how to die and they say well I'm looking for an a trying to get my diploma wanna graduate May the 19th as will many here let's give it up for the seniors already made in 19th they're gonna March happens to be Malcolm X's birthday keep that in mind and the question will be have you really learned how to die in order to learn how to live because when you interrogate yourself and give up any slice of assumptions of presuppositions any prejudices you have any pre judgments that need to be unsettled that's a form of death and there's no education without deaths there's no Paideia Pai Dei I'm talking about deep education not cheap schooling cheap schooling is about information and skill acquisition but know what goes on at st. Mary's what goes on at Notre Dame is Paideia that transformation at metanoia that fundamental interrogation of self that results in intellectual moral political awakening but always shot through with elements of ignorance Nicolas of kusa taught us well no matter how learn it we become we're still part of the learn it ignorant matter how unlearning our brothers or sisters maybe who don't have access to deep Paideia they've got their forms of ignorance too therefore it's endless it's perennial it must go on and on and on and tell the worms get our bodies so father Ted was preoccupied with a question what does it mean to be a featherless two-legged linguistically conscious creature born between urine and feces and that cuts all the skin pigmentation race ethnicity sexual orientation national identity we're talking about who man endow our common humanity and when our bodies become the culinary delighted terrestrial worms lo and behold we acknowledge our equality I want to thank God for a dear sister Joan Kroc because she had a whole lot of money but she gave so genuinely and freely not just for the peace and justice institution here for hospice studies an alcoholism National Public Radio oh yes and 1.6 billion dollars to her The Salvation Army I don't know too many folks from power elite or ruling class that give one and a half billion dollars to the Salvation Army most oleg arks and plutocrats these days want a building with their name on it with even their middle names sometimes inscribed give me a mortality with that building with my name on it you say well we thank you for the money but it would be nice to maybe name one for Saint Francis maybe Dorothy day that would be a wonderful wonderful wonderful Anna day for me or I put Daniel and I put Philip Berrigan up there I'm just showing you my leanings though I put Cesar Chavez the great Catholic freedom fighter Delores well to another great Catholic freedom fighter and you all know I'm black Baptist so I'm left-wing at a Protestant Reformation but my love flows across the nomination it flows across skin pigmentation it flows across class and national boundaries in fact to be very honest this personal moment I am Who I am because somebody loved me somebody cared for me somebody attended to me and so I begin with note of piety our dear brother Jeff staff talks about this all the time piety is not blind obedience to dogma there's not uncritical difference the doctrine it is the acknowledgment of the sources of good in our existence from mamas womb to tomb so begins with gratitude I'm glad that I came from Irene West and Clifton West I'll never be one half of the human beings both of them whatever the world says about me I know often they're lying keep my feet on the ground you don't you never met my mama never met Irene never saw her smile love I bring be West elementary school that they named after her in Sacramento California you never met Clifton and my brother Clifton I'm a sister Cindy and Cheryl this sense of piety begin to play those Euthyphro and then move the John do his national piety the sources of good in our lives and the fundamental role of family from some of his church for others of us its synagogue for others of us is mosque for others of us it's temple for our secular brothers and sisters it might be the library and the librarian it might be the track coach home Lord I'm in south being the football coach but I'm talking about them not as elements in a machine I'm talking about human beings who are targeting young people to make sure they are shaped in such a way that their character and their virtue allows them to engage in team spirit to get outside of their egos to connect to something bigger than them and we're living in a moment it's such a massive spiritual blackout a whiteout depends on what part of town you live in but what I'm talking about is the relative eclipse of integrity honesty decency generosity courage getting outside of oneself instead of that narrow narcissism and individualism and nihilism in fact the great Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel used to say over and over again he said it at the Second Vatican as the Jewish brothers shaping the policy the major echo medical movement in the world is nihilism what is nihilism it's the triumph of through sim occurs over Socrates in Plato's Republic with racemic ax stands for what might makes right power dictates morality who cares about integrity and honesty who cares about principle it's the survival of the strongest and the slickest it's the obsession with the 11th commandment thou shalt not get caught you have to do is read business pages these days and you see all this wealth front page now with scandals in schools Wall Street oh there's some decent folk on Wall Street but all that's survival of the slickest obsessed with pecuniary gain even when you commit a crime often you don't go to jail but let that happen to the brothers and sister on the poor side of town survival of the slickest young folk our dear father tab and want to say to you Socratic legacy of Athens is about finding your sense of a calling not just a career of vocation not just your profession of trying to make a decision of what kind of human being you're going to be what kind of virtues what kind of vision what kind of values will they say about you when you are in your coffin at your funeral they're not gonna read your curriculum vitae at that moment what was the scope of their courage to think - laughs - love the sacrifice to serve and of course if they're honest they'll have a long list of faults foibles inadequacies moments you fell on your face moments you were regretful because that's what it is to be a human being no self-righteousness here but Socrates great Erasmus one of my favorites used to say Saint Socrates pray for us that's our Catholic brother talking to a pagan brother what did Erasmus have in mind well he knew that the prophetic legacy of Jerusalem cut deeper than the socratic legacy in Athens but that socratic legacy of Athens was a necessary but not sufficient condition for trying to come to terms with what it means to be human at the highest level of what the Greeks tolerate a excellence excellence his close friend Thomas Moore died in the Tower of London the last months of his life wrote a powerful dialogue on tribulation the fundamental question was why is it that Socrates never cries and Jesus never laughs it's one of the most profound queries raised about the history of Western civilization all of the love of wisdom and Socrates do willingness to die given his commitment to wisdom that philosophy a love of wisdom he never shared the tear and brother father Ted understood that if you wrestling with what it means to be human it's not gonna be simply about self interrogation and self scrutiny it's also going to be about vulnerability it's also going to be about tears tears will shatter your numbness tears will define in many ways what you fundamentally care about so that your mama's funeral it's not a compliment if you stand there with a moment of self mastery rather than allow the tears to flow because the love that you had for her is such that it overwhelms you so the question becomes did Socrates ever love human beings deeply as opposed to loving wisdom intensely and we know when he's on his deathbed Xanthippe ecomes in and of course that's one crucial question was he married if he married he probably had tears they just didn't pick up the in the narrative he had kids he certainly shared tears probably but Plato doesn't pick it up Xena phone doesn't pick it up Aristophanes doesn't pick it up there's no literary reference whatsoever to the tears and when sent if he comes in crying he pushes her out I don't want to see her I don't want to see the tears whoa father Tia reminds us Socrates argues and we must take seriously argument evidence reliable conclusions we must be able to enter public space without a milly asian and disagree with one another a cost across political and ideological lines in a respectful way and still revel in each other's humanity given our refusal to deny the structures of domination in place the forms of dogma operating and the forms of death which are in some ways inseparable but there is a difference between Socrates arguing Jeremiah wailing Jesus weeping that prophetic legacy of Jerusalem shot through Hebrew Scripture our precious Jewish brothers and sisters providing a gift to the world these tears signify a profound human response to suffering to persecution to subordination in Egypt and we make a covenant with a higher power that says to be human is the spread yes it's that fast love loving-kindness to the vulnerable to the least of these the orphan the widow the motherless the fatherless the stranger and yes Leviticus 19 love thy neighbor and then here comes Jesus right out of that prophetic Judaism love thy neighbor yes engage in critical reflection yes humble yourself to open yourself in order to give of your self now I come from a people great people with grand tradition at our best black people who after 400 years of being terrorized 244 years of white supremacist slavery and rich slaved dead at 27 unable to worship God without white supervision in the land of religious liberty to steal away at night and hold hands in a ring shout in order to lift their voices and that will become the anthem of black people lift every voice not echo voice you got to find your voice in order to lift it if you're just gonna be part of an echo chamber then acknowledge the degree to which you are complacent with conformity you don't want to think for yourself you don't want to laugh for yourself you don't want to let love for yourself you got to check on somebody else some other point of reference you looking at yourself through the lens of somebody else you could be a woman looking at yourself through patriarchal lens you can be black looking at yourself through white lens you can be gay and lesbian looking at yourself through straight lens who are you what is your voice keep your blues woman you can't be a jazz man if you don't find your voice if you're gonna imitate folk just just stay at the cafe and sing your choreo key you find your boys like a refined your voice like John Coltrane find your voice like Louie Armstrong find your boys like Luther Vandross find your voice like Kendrick Lamar find your voice like Erykah Badu it is so distinctive it's just like your fingerprint nobody in the world like you there never be anybody else like you with all of your wonderfulness and all of your wretchedness we're not tumblr elevating yourself being so big and grand no not at all not at all you shot through the same stuff that some of the very folk that you engage in name-calling and finger pointing I get in a lot of trouble by calling Donald Trump my brother you say brother Wes you better get off the symbolic crack pipe you know down from not your brother I said no no you don't understand where I come from you see you don't understand what goes into me he's made in the likeness and image of God just like me I think he is subject to very strong gangster proclivities no doubt about that you grabbing a woman's private parts that's gangster you see another country has oil and you want to take a death gangster and I say to myself I was a gangster for I've met Jesus and now I'm a redeemed Center with strong gangster proclivities I'm on a human continuum and that nobody's action fundamentally exhausts all of their humanity they have potential they have possibility you don't make a political program on it but they can change Malcolm little was a gangster he's loved by Honorable Elijah Muhammad and he emerges as Malcolm X one of the greatest freedom fighters and fearless speech givers of the 20th century all of us have the capacity to change don't ever freeze anybody in a stationary snake static space even as you keep track of their devilish behavior and allow them to keep track of your devilish behavior the humanizing and anytime you humanize you contextualize and you PluralEyes and you individuate so we're all distinctive persons made in that image of God that's where the Martin Luther King Junior's come from that's why father Ted is seen in the picture with brother Marlon as a legatee of the socratic legacy of Athens and the legacy of the prophetic legacy of Jerusalem in father Ted's case mediated through not just the Catholic Church but the congregation of the Holy Cross that we could have a whole lecture just on that congregation and the sisters that flow there from model of the king standing there similar legacy of Athens and Jerusalem black man dealing with what chronic catastrophe chronic catastrophe and this is part of the challenge because we in the United States we live in such a state of denial when it comes to catastrophe we love to talk about solving problems but we like do we don't like to talk about wrestling with catastrophe in 30 second chapter of Genesis Jacob is not wrestling with the problem he's wrestling with a catastrophe the angel of death in the midnight hour emerges with a new name God wrestler Israel new energy new vision deep wounds catastrophe right as we sit in this magnificent place whose land was at first indigenous brothers and sisters there's never been an indigenous peoples problem in America there's been catastrophes visited upon them don't do dereyes they sit away we're gonna keep it funky this afternoon you're gonna keep it real this afternoon there's never been a Negro problems never been a black problem in America has been catastrophes visited on black people after 244 years of white supremacist slavery 12 years America does something as unprecedented in history of the modern world enslaved people become citizens you had two black senators from Mississippi Chief Justice Supreme Court black man in South Carolina lieutenant governor New Orleans Louisiana multiracial democracy unprecedented 12 years it's over which means what the Union Army wins the war white supremacy wins the peace and for another hundred years here comes another catastrophe is called neo slavery now people do derive to say oh you're segregation and some discrimination now you don't have lynching every two and a half days for 50 years with some black man a woman a child swinging from some tree that strange fruit Billie Holiday's thing about with such power Jewish mother Mary Poe writing the lyrics black bodies swaying in the southern breeze that's not a problem that's a catastrophe to look at the US Constitution was there any reference to the institution of slavery in the US Constitution no will the founding fathers had a dilemma they had a tough situation they had to balance somehow the principles on the one hand in their practices only other so they talked about freedom and liberty but they enslave and these folks so they had a conspiracy of silence that said we're gonna make no reference to it 22% of the inhabitants of the 13 colonies were enslaved their very labor produced the wealth that was the precondition of the democracy in the same way a digitus people's land dispossessed becomes a precondition of the democracy and all of a sudden there's no major reference lo and behold you cannot deny that just the truth but the catastrophe you're gonna end up fighting one of the most barbaric of all of civil wars 750,000 human beings lost each one of them precious I don't care what color they are human beings made in the image of God 750,000 gone you frightened over an institution not in vote in your Constitution Malcolm X said his chickens coming home to roost what you deny what you repress will return and hunt you and then after the 12 years of that rich experience a multiracial democracy in no way perfect like most democracy steel shot there with corruption like most human societies we don't know human society is not time shot there with corruption craft and graft and so forth here comes needle slavery Jim Crow Jane crow up until 1965 so you gonna imagine brother father father tant steps forward with his strong critique of white supremacy on the vanilla side of town and they're saying well we know they're catching hell over there but I'm not really sure that's our business I think we need to keep a distance it's just so sad to be born black but lo and behold I'm white so let me just keep moving brother s burg says the socratic legacy of Athens the prophetic legacy of Jerusalem leads me to define myself as a human being in such a way that I want to be decent I want to have integrity I want some moral consistency and I know if I do that I won't have a lot of popularity among my friends Abraham Joshua Heschel had the same challenge I'm coming from the old country in jew-hating Europe Eastern Europe Russia pogroms attacks unbelievable hatred coming in comes to the new world and says lo and behold I follow the legacy of Esther and Amos which means I'm going to be in critical spiritual moral solidarity with these folk catching hail we can go on and on we could talk about the Middle East today with the Israeli occupation same moral consistency the humanity of our precious of Palestinians the humanity of our precious Jewish brothers and sisters always acknowledging the degree to which a precious Jewish baby has the same value as a precious Palestinian baby in a precious Palestinian may be has the same value as a precious Jewish baby and we can't say that enough we can't say that enough the primacy of the moral the primacy of the spiritual we ought to be as outraged if there were a Palestinian occupation of our precious Jewish brothers and sisters which would be raising our voices making sure that their humanity lifted given 200 years of jew-hating activity but the same moral outrage and righteous indignation ought to be that of an Israeli occupation of Palestinian brothers and sisters both of them having the equal status and that's exactly what brought Martin Luther King together with our dear father dear and let's keep in mind especially for the young folk this is not a matter of trying to check on my identity and seeing whether in fact my identity overlaps with your identity in such a way that our interests are articulated so maybe we can march together no identity politics is empty if you haven't defined the moral content of who you are identity politics as vacuous if you haven't defined what the spiritual and moral content really is because every human being has the capacity to choose Mary Ellen Pleasant whose name ought to be a household name she was the first black woman who had more than a million dollars she gave John Brown eight hundred thousand dollars in 1857 that would be my gut you translate that into 2019 money here she's from the ruling classes she have to be a black woman who married a very very rich vanilla brother the in patriarchy just wanted a few ways in which women can gain access to big cash since they're viewed as property oftentimes in the marriage institution anyway but that's another lecture but what does she used to say she's known as a mother of human rights in California she studied speech I'd rather be a corpse than our our corpse than a cow come on King used to tell his staff SCLC I'd rather be dead than afraid and of course we know fear shot through each and every one of us anxiety insecurity yes deep deep fear shot through what what are we going to do with it courage is not the absence of fear it's to wrestling with an overcoming of fear tied to something bigger than you gratitude looking back and here to the sky looking forward willing to engage in the present this has to do with soul crap we have a lot of discussion of public policy in regard to statecraft there's not enough talk about Soulcraft values virtues service sacrifice and for the precious students here the ways in which that soul craf is so tied to your education the pi day yeah i think that's one of the reason why i did brother Ted put in 35 years and it wasn't just the raising of the money 150 honorary degrees I think he's got the world record for honorary degrees I think John Hope Franklin had about ninety one and I think father ter had about 150 once I know he got real tired around May and June in and out of a airport all here he comes again in the airport I'm going to now Princeton I'm off to Yale I'm off the University of Kansas oh my god yes no that's not what he was about not at all that was the superficial stuff even that Presidential Medal in the end was secondary in penultimate the his commitment to what he understood the kingdom of God to be just here echoing inside of his soul when I was taught in Vacation Bible School in Shiloh Baptist Church on the chocolate side of Sacramento California with Sarah ray used to tell me and my pastor Willie P cook would remind me little Cornell no matter how high you go alone which you find yourself never forget that if the kingdom of God is within you then everywhere you go you ought to leave a little heaven behind that's the measure of your greatness somewhere I read he or she is greatest among you will be a servant it's not about the medals and the prizes it's not about the honorary degrees it's not about the status of the money it's about the quality of your service to others the moral consistency and most importantly what you're willing to give up it was cruciform the congregation of the Holy Cross when you live in denial you can't wait to breakdance Easter morning but you're absent on Good Friday don't really want to learn how to die you just want to be a winner I used to engage in empirical investigations on weekends Holy weekends and I would see Saturday morning he is arisen and hardly been crucified yet because we fear Saturday what God is dead that's the space of Chekhov that's the space of Samuel Beckett try again fail again fail better God is gay father Ted didn't need to read Nietzsche section 125 of the gay science calling for the God is dead in the death of God he already understood you can't talk about the cross without the death of God and then surprised by joy Easter morning so it means something we live in such a highly market-driven commodified commercialized world so it's all about not just winning but it's about the delight in commodities rather than the transformation through struggle when the reason why so many of our young folk so disoriented not just that they haven't been loved enough and cared enough but when they look for the grand role models what do they see superficial market driven celebrities how many moral spiritual exemplars do they see that they want to build on that's why the death of our dear brother nipsey means so much Nipsey Hussle named himself after nipsey Russell you've got to get real archival to understand what's going on there that's like moms Mabley that's like Rudy ray Moore you got to get archival into the depths of the culture to understand what it is to actually want to use your celebrity for a quest for what that cross signifies and for our secular brothers and sisters we don't ever want to act as if you are excluded from a dialogue that we Christians are willing to live and die for but that cross signifies unarmed truth and the condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak and if you shatter your numbness shatter your callousness shatter your indifference maybe you can listen to the voices of the suffering it's an invitation to care an invitation to have a concern an invitation to be in solidarity to express generosity as our Joan Kroc dear gave out every penny all the money brother ray made and I should add as a footnote I've got a sentimental connection because my first job was at McDonald's and I became thoroughly addicted to the French fries but that's just the footnote so glad to get that job was like utopian space but that was coming out of the my ghetto I didn't grow up in the hood I grew up in the ghetto Hathaways thing about get though he's not Thomas Wilder slickers with guns and drugs he's talked about folk who are brokers the 10 commandments financially but full of deep spirit and full of culture and ties of community the Germans called Gemeinschaft that's what we had that's been shattered by the industrialization shattered by markets shattered by commodification and what do we do we end up with an unprecedented black middle class with assets the unbelievable material prosperity in the dreams of those who came before but how many of that black middle class fundamentally committed that their brothers and sisters shot through the prison industrial complex how many of that middle class are fun Mele concerned about the decrepit schools and end decent housing and the underemployment and all an unemployment shot through not just the black community all commuters but you begin with your own community last thing you wanted to have black people loving everybody but black people that's something pathological about that you love everybody but just start with your mama you start with your daddy you start with your grandparents and allow that love to overflow and that's part of our problem you've got such low quality leadership and sportsmanship because so many of them are scared he's so tied to their careers you don't want to be unpopular because that means the market won't be on their side so what don't look at the world through the lens of the stock market look at the world through the lens of the cross look at the lens look at the world through the lens of a quest for unarmed truth and unapologetic love and don't ask anybody its permission as to who you love anybody that's inside of you it's a fire inside of you that won't let you own your piece you allow it to flow but just be accountable be answerable and please don't run around talking about how you are successful in a self-made way so adolescent Lee American I guess you gave birth to yourself too I guess you taught yourself language - I'm self-made I didn't need anybody quit lyin back to piety what are the sources of good in your life all of us acknowledge that dependence on those who came before and sacrifice for us but the benchmark of the tradition that I'm talking about brother Taylor overlapped with with Martin King and Fannie Lou Hamer and Ella Baker it's canosa's canosa's means self-emptying self donating self giving those are the benchmarks of spiritual greatness and moral excellence Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel died at the age of 65 the doctor said he must be at least 75 because he gave everything fighting against the war in Vietnam fighting white supremacy fighting anti-jewish hatred when Martin Luther King jr. died 39 years old in the coffin the doctor said he at least 62 he gave everything it was ie my dear Palestinian brother working 20 hours a day as he had to come to terms with the body guards in his office at Columbia University he gave everything is like the end of a now green concert where he can hardly breathe and walk because he has given everything up James Brown would perform for three hours in a row and at the end of every concert he would always say I'm an expensive you you an extensions of me I wouldn't exist without you did anybody come here to hear a song we did not play some beautiful black sister in the corner would say you didn't play soul power he would say hit it Bootsy because he came to serve he came to gear if he came to donate himself so he could hardly walk when it's over and I'd go to some of these concerts these days and my precious young folk this culture of conspicuous spectacle now I want to see us at one time the Brotherhood was came in like he was in a circus with thing rolling rolling it that's about 30 men said brother pick up the microphone and sing a song man come for no spectacle but that's what the culture is celebrity spectacle image the greatest entertainer of our day the great genius herself from Houston Beyonce oh she's something and I'm not just talking about the way she look I'm Thomas her entertaining unbelievable genius but she's also a symptom of the culture of superficial spectacle that's why she's not a Risa Risa don't need no spectacle she need is a microphone give me the microphone and I'm gonna touch your soul at the deepest level I'm gonna stir your soul away Sam cook did I'm gonna touch you the way Lou Rawls did I'm gonna relate to you the way my hair your Jackson did because it's not about spectacle it's about substance the same is true with our politicians all of these similar citizens simulacrum running around changing their positions every six months as they begin to run for office I want to know what you really stand for we want the real thing we don't want all these copies and imitations no no no III don't want to get going too far on this thing no I put the spirit of brothers father T coming back okay brother Wes not huh would you all get my point you get my point be true to yourself the great Jane Austen used to call it constant C can you be consistent consistent doesn't mean you're right or wrong all the time cuz no one of us is ever right all the time that's why we need each other in dialogue and for the most part no one of us always wrong I know when I confronted the neo-nazi brothers in Charlottesville they right up faced guns ammunition again faced Masson they came to die they were ready to fight I admired their courage they just have to have they happen to have thuggish gangster like causes like a Nazi soldier willing to die or a kamikaze soldier in Japan willing to die for thuggish gangster like causes that it ought to shatter the lukewarmness of so many of us in the middle what you gonna be on fire for will it be filtered through love injustice will it be filtered to hatred and revenge what are you willing to really sacrifice for do you think you can just skate through life with a superficial culture of spectacle when you involve and all these joyless quest for insatiable pleasures will you steal empty where you don't have enduring joys this is a spiritual question but no religious tradition has a monopoly on the answers I happen to be a revolutionary Christian I'm going down with that tradition no doubt about that but I know we Christians oh my god that's another two lectures all the accommodations the hatred and revenge but every institutional religion has that Islam Judaism Buddhist Hinduism would cast what about our Dollard brothers and sisters these are the challenges that we have in as young folk most importantly to enter that dialogue this dialogue with acknowledgement did you have something to say even as you must listen and learn because you can't find your voice without that voice bounced off against other voices especially the voices of the dead and this is one of the great traditions my precious Catholic brothers and sisters Vico the greatest of all early modern philosophers alongside Montaigne both Catholic but the voices of the dead voices that gave everything to try to enable and empower us but when we leave the classroom when we leave a conversation we leave a dialogue we leave a concert do we leave enable and empowered tie to a love and justice that's the challenge in if these traditions that I'm talking about tied to love injustice get more and more weak and more and more feeble we will see more Hungry's and turkeys we will see more xenophobic regimes we will see more structures of domination legitimated and we slide down our slippery slope did not chaos plato was right in the Republic Plato said show me a democracy and I'll show you one headed toward tyranny he was profoundly anti-democratic in his conclusions his genius is in the process of his reflection not in the conclusions and that's something you got to learn you can learn a whole lot from folk who are wrong in their conclusions but they could have insights on the way Plato said show me a democracy that's not leading toward tyranny because the citizenry is too shot through with callousness ignorance unruly passions and when the chaos presents itself here comes a strong man and it is usually a man though there's been Catholic the grapes and some other matriarchs but for the most part it's a patriarchal figure who's imposing the order and if in fact we are at that moment in the United States that means that like our brother Ted we don't need sunshine soldiers we need all season love just as Warriors building on legacies of Socrates and Amos and Esther and Jesus and Muhammad all the way through the father Ted's and the Dorothy days in the Martin Kings and if we meet that challenge we pass the best to the younger generation if we don't meet that challenge then in fact we lost so much of the best on our watch and brother father Ted shed tears let's don't let him down thank you all so very much [Applause] [Music] you'll have a good time for questions inquiry though we have a few minutes for questions so for those of you who would like to ask questions there are mics on both sides you can just line up and we'll take it from from there so kind I'm sorry to go on so long but just raise your head we've got a wonderful magnificent space I must say definitely am I missing so oh oh they have a line there that's good you got a microphone thank you so much sister Lisa good evening oh brother you've got a magnificent voice man the little Barry White Isaac Hayes and a whole lot of that's beautiful man you're gonna take your time unless you want to sing a song you sounded good no I can't see I don't believe that we can see you so loaded but do it together I'm just kidding go right ahead I mean my question was gonna be but I'll take you back can I take a picture with you but absolutely another question [Applause] thank you thank you I'm so Odin forty-two years my brother appreciate that I'm holding I'm so honored I hope everybody understands me I have an accent I come from a great country called Malawi Central Africa mine is more of a comment and you can add on to it I've been living in the United States for twenty years so I've witnessed the greatness of America and I love America but one thing that I see there's a disconnect between for lack of a better term the black Americans and Africans here in the United States yes yes some of the people here will tell you if you look at the best institutions in the United States they're getting run by Africans but there is no African Americans that are also taking those roles I'm not saying they're not but I'm saying you go to the hospitals you're gonna see doctors besides India they're from Africa if you go to Wall Street it's the same thing during the Civil Rights and I know you know I'm not trying to give it like you I'm sorry the brothers here when they were going through that struggle that we're so connected with the Africans right now there's nothing like that in Africa right now is also going through a catastrophe you say it's bad in Africa recent coup that's right that's right what would you say would be the right thing for the brothers here in the United States and including like you said you've got to love your people first then the love overflows but when we said the black Americans what could they do to help the brothers in Africa we don't want no food we don't want the water but we want structure we want to be independent we don't want anybody to end up like me thinking I'm coming here to leave like Will Smith I'm saying stay in Africa and make Africa happen because that's the greatest continent in the world oh no appreciate your words appreciate your words no problem very much so well one thing to keep in mind I mean anytime you're talking about a human beings you're talking about a variety and diversity as a native of human beings in any coming you're gonna find some folk who are doing very well as a whole wave of black folk who are doing very well brown and yellows and other we're gonna make sure we say something about immigration as well in terms of my brothers and sisters trying to gain access given what the catastrophe that they're wrestling with in Central America but when it comes to Africans and and in new world Africans are black foe the white supremacy got so deep brother these deep white supremacy and the souls of black people so you don't you don't have to have white brothers sisters around to see white supremacy you just look at the souls of black focus deposit it there because they grew up in America they've been taught that they're less beautiful and less moral and less intelligent they've been taught not to be too aggressive or too angry in the mainstream to wear a mass and the great poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar but when Africans come to the United States they get Americanized which means that they got deep white supremacy inside of them so what happens is Africans look at black folk too often through white supremacist lens you see so that when a black person in America looks at a African brother let's say like yourself sure ready for battle mine prepared they could see a stereotype of an African that's been circulated in America for a long long long time same is true with an African see the black man like me you'll see a stereotype oh he's just established in the suit it just happens to be three-piece today see what I mean so you got to shatter the white supremacy internal-external it's not just structures and dumb domination which they are but it's also inside and you have to shatter but we've had marvelous solidarity in instances in which black Americans have come together with Africans in Ghana in South Africa in Tanzania in Ethiopian we want to keep track of those deep solidarity's as much as we do that crucial point you make but I know I could say so much more but I we've got some others but I appreciate you and you stay strong you stay strong oh we got we got another side thank you very much thank you very much for being here I wanted to thank you for putting yourself in the spotlight in terms of doing TV shows I really liked you in the matrix and all the other types of lasers that you put I know I know that makes a lot of academics little nervous and I know you've gotten a lot of flack for that so I wanted to thank you for for being a leader and for being someone that people look up to so with that said I wanted to to push you a little bit and just if you could please talk a little bit about the Democratic Party right now in this town people are you know so excited because of people reject but more generally I just want to ask you if you could talk about the Democratic Party there's a lot of hope that this party can be the vehicle for genuine justice not just lip service not just you know yeah yeah lip service and then there's a lot of anxiety that that people that are trying to make the Democratic Party that are actually doing something really bad for this country at this point and obviously Trump comes to mind and everybody's so scared so I know that you're you know buta Jake's spirit is is in the house here but if you could still address something like that I think right now people really need to hear about that I would I would appreciate it no I appreciate that question definitely no I mean good god I got a deep love for brother Pete cuz he's like family you know but family doesn't dictate my politics you know I love my mama but I don't want her to run for things you know so I mean I he's family imma love the brother no matter what but I think in general the Democratic Party again will be tested in my own humble opinion the Republican Party it's just so mean-spirited and cold-hearted especially toward the vulnerable so based on my own biblical criteria I'm highly suspicious of them if you treat the 1% you treat the well-to-do you treat the rich in one way that's why that not one person on Wall Street went to jail given all the crimes committed but let a working-class person or a poor person of any color get in trouble they on the way to jail well you see that's a rule of law that I call into question then is just for us black and brown oftentimes too in that regard so that if you got me spirit and cohorted on the Republican side when I look at the Democratic Party the corporate center and the corporate wing at that party for me is just too spineless and milquetoast you see it just fine as a neutral so we locked in to it and of course as you know I've been with Bernie in 2016 um I'm with Bernie again now Bernie is not perfect not perfect we got to keep pressure on that but you would me like everybody else but he's got an independent streak and most importantly he means what he says and says what he means he doesn't check what the polls say and find out what this deepest convictions are see that's about 80 85 % of politicians these days they tied the big money and when it comes to really being tested they got to do a poll first do any polls in terms of what he believes in I don't agree with everything with him I push him on Empire he and I fight on the on the middle east and he's my precious secular Jewish brother and he's been more progressive on the Middle East than any other politician but I still press him in that regard but it's on moral grounds and I tell brother Bernie I want you to be yourself I don't want you to copy me I'm not running well I am running but in a different way I'm not running for office in that sense so that you the pressure must be put on the Democratic Party and if in fact they reproduce what they did in 2016 that I think they mistreated my brother Bernie they didn't treat him fairly didn't treat him fairly and it was fairly clear that the establishment could not generate the enthusiasm given the newness of Donald Trump because one thing about brother Trump is what he don't care about performing certain roles well for some Americans that's refreshing for their politicians because the politicians are so mechanical they say oh he's for real but is he right well I hadn't thought about that but he's for real he acts like he's for the working class I was born at night but not last night tax cut for the rich hanging out with policies that are in reaching the 1% and so forth and so on but he acts like it's for the working class then he can use race xenophobia as a way of divide so then I I don't think we ought to put tremendous pressure on a Democratic Party I think most of the candidates are for me highly suspicious what I like about brother Peters he is for real he's just not as progressive as Bernie Sanders is you see it on me and I'm so glad we have a gay brother out there being honest being candid using biblical formulations if the issue of gay lesbian sexuality is so fundamental and we can disagree with this especially my precious Catholic brothers and sisters how come Jesus never said a word how computers never said a word thank you very much brother Peters push big military big money and then connected to criminal justice then connected to the Middle East then connected to what's going on in Sami Rayven look what he and ROH Khanna have put forward in terms of the War Powers Act in 1973 to finally get some limitations on the ability of the President to call war any time they want to and who's gonna fight the wars not the sons and daughters of the Harvard faculty they got about two of them but no our pressure is working-class brothers and sisters in lower middle class and poor they're the ones fighting the words of no draft Americans in five Wars whether they know it they don't acknowledge the bodies of the precious soldiers who come back denial again that's catastrophic especially for the families it I mean those are the kind of issues that we need to push that's what a reason why you know I'm Whitburn I'm not advertising for Bernina no no no not at all land where you land just make sure when you land you got some strong arguments and moral vision appreciate your quest thank you very much I'm gonna be shorter go right ahead no brother good afternoon you don't know me thank you for coming here today and it's such an honor to listen to you speak I feel like everything in my brain it just came off fire just listening to you and is such an honor to come in and witness ours I salute you my brother good you may I have a question so my question well I come from a life of service basically I spent 10 years in the United States Marine Corps and after that I got my degree in nursing where you know I currently work at st. Joseph's Hospital in and you know I'm blessed to be able to take care of them in that and that went that way yeah yeah since I moved to South Bend I've been able to be a part of the community meeting a lot of people and up being an influence within certain parts of our community here which has been amazing but what I've been witnessing just as far as across the country in general is the difficulty for young people like myself like you were saving early as far as far as finding our voice and holding on to that identity and being able to speak up when you have people like you know aoc who's come into Congress who's been able to voice a lot of our concerns and opinions but then you have a lot of older people saying now hold on wait you gotta do this you got to do that and you got to be this way and when we're trying to make a voice is heard you know being the new people that are coming up how is it how can we better better serve in a way where our voices are heard how can we how can we go ahead and kind of tell you know the older folks like look we we understand your concerns but we have some brand new ones and this is what we want to do this is how we want to change things and this is how you know we think that you know you should listen to us because the world is changing and we're kind of more up-to-date on certain things not disrespecting or disregarding your experience but at the same time taking that experience in order for you to elevate us to that standard where we can say this is you know give us our chance give us our shot whoo you got it bum you got it no you got it man you got it Cicero and quintillion defined eloquence as wisdom speaking that's just what you did there's wisdom speaking and you don't like when I talk about ask for permission you don't need to ask we old-school folk for permission you raise your voice and you say two older brothers like me appreciate the work that you have done building on the best of what you tried to bequeath to us but we know every generation and every person has the best end the worse so you must never judge the younger generation by the worst and the older generation by the best the older generation had the worse and the younger generation got the best and you say I'm part of the best of the younger generation but I'm going to build on it find my voice and most importantly you can engage an eminent critique you can say okay who are your heroes who are the people you really elevate Oh Martin Luther King let's go wait wait wait wait monolith King had 72 percent disapproval rate when he died and 55 percent disapproval rate among black people so everybody loved him when he's in a great when he's alive FBI say he's the most dangerous man in America but he came out against the Vietnam world he got people in black churches black leadership saying he's sounding like a communist he sounded like a communist we can't be a communist we can't be part of the communist movement why because it's hard enough being black that's enough wait for me right there you know what I mean even the cognacs not gonna help me out on that one that's too much King said I'm not a communist I'm a Christian and what did he say right before he died you never understood me that's called by God to bear witness the truth and justice this is about integrity not popularity no matter what color the people are when I bring critique to bear and what America has done in Latin America when I bring critique to bear and what has been done in a and Africa he was there with when Nkrumah 1950 when I bring critique evanthia Nam I'm trying to be a decent person keeping track of the voices of the suffering I'm critical of the repression in the Soviet Union I'm critical of the repression in North Korea in North Korea and in North Vietnam at that point but he never understood him so you say to the older generation we have the same spirit that your heroes had you the one who's become lukewarm better put it on him for one while the pair came out for nuclear disarmament do you think that made him popular not at oh you came out for peace not at all but he didn't do it in order to be popular now he didn't know that there was Joan Kroc sitting there when he gave that speech in California is that right brother Asher was in California wouldn't winter went when the father Ted gave that speech and sister Joan was there where was it it was in San Diego and she's in their room my god he speaks the truth with such integrity he might need a little help I happened to have cash but he didn't go there looking for cash he seek the kingdom of God and some other things will be added he's trying to live a life of integrity young people must realize integrity honesty decency though we will all fall on our faces they never go out of style love at its deepest level if you cultivate the capacity never goes out of style just as fairness as well and as long as that is the case then we have debates about how we understand it how we interpret it so go right ahead hello there yeah my name is Sarah I'm named after such drama so thank you for mentioning Kim and the Lotus what I thought when you opened thank you my question is so as a as a queer Latin ex individual how do we move beyond the sort of facade of multiculturalism and diversity and inclusion into actual equity and integrity I think you said it and I've tried to accent this point that skin color gender sexual orientation are always subordinate to the kind of human beings we choose to be in terms of whether we're willing to try to be morally consistent and have ethical integrity integrity must be at the center of all talk about identity you can be a black brother in Africa and autocrat and despotic you can be a white brother in America like Myles Horton founder of Highlander Center where Rosa Parks was a student teacher three months before she decided to sit down on a bus in order to stand up for justice Myles Horton was as white in skin color as the stereotypical Norwegian didn't make a difference his his wife white sister co-wrote we shall overcome how come she chose to be a decent human being who fought against white supremacy now he had cousins in the Ku Klux Klan where's my dear sister Monica her sister Monica here where is she where she is give it up a system because she's graduated but I'm thinking about this sister Monica because sister Monica is from East Tennessee and Myles Horton from Tennessee and he had cousins in the Ku Klux Klan so when they burnt down his place that was a family affair but he build it right back up because he wants to be a decent human being trying to engage a more witness in that regardless so the begin multiculturalism is going to be relatively empty if it doesn't begin with serious talk about what kind of human being you're gonna be and that frees everybody up right so that white skin doesn't mean you have one view or one orientation no it means you have to acknowledge the degree to which white supremacy provides certain kind of benefits and privileges but at the same time as a human being you can use benefits and privileges in such a way that you empower others especially those who are less powerful than you that's a choice that's a choice as a man patriarchy shot through me through and through how do I wrestle with it every day how do i conquered and reconquered every day remember the eulogy of dorothy day from all of the King junior come on Luther King junior learned how to die daily that's an echo of the New Testament isn't it Christians must learn how to die daily see that sinful self push back when you fall in love you learn how to die in order to emerge with another usually on the road to bittersweet Sappho's right about that but at least one moment is can be believable but the point is is that the human questions are always the crucial ones multiculturalism at its best raises those issues multiculturalism at its worse ends up just another commodify colorful Glass Menagerie of a predatory capitalism and patriarchy so the folk will get to the top steal preserve the same hierarchies we had this problem with Obama anybody breakdancing a black president I broke dance for one afternoon and I told Barack when I did 65 events for him I said brother what is relation between you and Martin Luther King jr. we're gonna try to push you over the finish line but when you do I'm gonna be your major critic because you get in there and get tired of Wall Street and keep dropping those drones in Somalia and Afghanistan and Pakistan if you don't say a mumbling word about the new Jim Crow if you don't fight for the poor I want you to be an abolitionist we need to abolish poverty no matter what color the child no matter what color those that is you don't want to see if not it's just gonna be symbolic and the symbolic indictment of white supremacy that's wonderful symbols only take you so far and that's exactly what happened when he ended his presidency the child poverty rate was higher especially among black folk you see to me the wealth inequality higher Wall Street free given all the crimes and yet in black and poor communities and brown communities deportation immigration they call him Dee Porter in chief we marched on him over and over again with the Brown Brothers system push tim tuefel for the executive order of daca you all remember this and Trump has yet to catch up now when you're anywhere behind Trump on issues of social justice you need to check yourself check yourself he hadn't got up to the deportation yet to do all kinds of things because people are so enamored of the symbol and we understand this symbol especially black folk all we've been through just give us something okay here's your black president in the White House Thank You Barack Michelle - and it's a beautiful thing to have a black family in that white house white house built by black slaves but the question becomes now what you're gon do what you gon do I'm president of black America I'm president all America that's not the point brother you don't say that the Catholics when we used before Catholic do you think he ever got up and said I'm not president of Catholic America I'm president of all America he did say that at all when he got in front of black folk I'm not the president of black America I'm president all America no you are president you wouldn't be here without us you wouldn't across the line without us and we looking for accountability the symbols are fine for a little while police militarized the department's militarized how many police who shot the young folk actually go to jail you got a black man running Department of Justice oh we got to do an investigation we don't we got enough to investigation let's get some fair trials and let's start making sure if you kill folk whether you're in pulleys or not and you're wrong you go to jail like anybody else you go to jail to anybody else and you're doing that in such a way but you're not dehumanizing the police you're not demonizing the police they're human beings who have responsibility like anybody else that's crucial I'm saying that for my brother right here I want you to know we're not the humanizing you brother we understand sir [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] and contact with the humanity I call it classical Christian hatred where you learn how to hate the sin and still try to love the sinner you hate the injustice but you still try to stay in contact with the humanity of the person who is doing it because sooner or later you will be a perpetrator and you don't want others to lose sight of humanity of you and that's true of your Arab Palestinian Jew Hindu Christian white black red or whatever that's why we had this this moment with security office I appreciate it that was spontaneous we didn't plan that now quick you guys already about the assistant thank you so much my voice is shaking I only had one question when I came up but then you mentioned breakdancing and now I just have to ask if you wouldn't mind just showing us all you ready to rock - no yeah this is not the moment to rock no but breakdancing is part of the rich cultural tradition of black folk who stylized space and time in such a way that they render catastrophe secondary given their creativity and commitment to compassion that sustains their community as Bojangles there's MC Hammer that's Janet Jackson and that's Beyonce but the dancing is not just a mode of entertainment and now we've got Shante who's written magnificently on black and Irish literature here but also on black culture is it true that black dancing is fundamental part of the black cultural armor absolutely absolute you want to say anything else I'm putting you on the spot you don't have to my dear sister I can't do full justice to her eloquence but how black performance has had to counter the white supremacist stereotypes coming at focus that is that in part absolutely you know August Wilson one of the greatest of all artists in America the playwright he used to say that black performance authorizers and alternative reality so given the nightmares realities in which we find ourselves song of a nat King Cole the joke of a Richard Pryor the music of the emotion of the Hutchinson singer sisters are the Delfonics of dramatics they provide you access to a different reality that is one of profound sweetness this is very important I know Notre Dame's motto is what life sweetness and hope is that right didn't buy here know what the motto is oh that's what it is sweetness show soulfulness is a sharing of a soothing sweetness against the backdrop of catastrophe hi my name is Marcel zombie and I'm a Palestinian Christian from the little town of Bethlehem and I would like to start by thanking you for bringing Palestinian voices into this space [Applause] I have noticed an absence of people of color in the nuclear disarmament movement and I was wondering why this might be and how to remedy it so that the Solidarity is stronger across the racial lines no it's going to be examples just like yourself and others that to the degree to which we have people who are willing to be a part of movements that are beyond what people think they would be associated with that's how you shatter the narrow perceptions and I gave you an example even if for example when we talk about Palestinians and you read it in the newspapers when it's okay Palestinians catching hail and there's some Palestinians who are saying this because they're concerned and you say now see this is the newspapers reproducing the narrowness human beings who want to be decent are saying this you got many Jewish mothers and sisters we were talking about our Israeli brothers and sisters their voices saying this it's a human thing it's not confining it to just the group that's affected because if forecloses the issues of moral integrity in the same as to a nuclear nuclear disarmament decent people ought to be concerned about the degree to which nuclear catastrophe taiji a logical catastrophe driven by corporate power especially need to be resistant that's a human thing when field and Daniel Berrigan were doing that they weren't doing that because they're white and Catholic they were doing that because as decent human beings they're rooted in a rich prophetic Catholic tradition that leads them to put their bodies and souls on the line what a grand example you're doing the same thing given your rich Palestinian heritage in history but you meet with the berrigan's any others given your commitment to moral integrity it's a beautiful thing beautiful things salute you brother Wesley yeah we got one more go right ahead brother brother Wes my name is Richard Aguirre I'm from Elkhart County Indiana Elkhart County is the first Trump voting County that came together and in two months rejected a proposed immigration detention center that was supported by the Department security as the grandchild of immigrants and fortunate enough to grow up aware of who I was and my background and honoring respecting the contributions of all people who have come to this country absolutely our community came together and I helped found a coalition of 3,600 people that defeated that what troubles me is the remaining people who are call themselves Christians who don't understand what's at stake and you don't even have to talk about the faith expect you can talk about the financial aspect the fact we're not producing enough people to replace our population much less innovate in the future or even work in our factories but could you just talk for just a few minutes on what is at stake spiritually emotionally financially for this country if it doesn't get right and especially the Christians getting right with Jesus on the issue of immigration yes yes Oh indeed yes yes well one is is that you end up losing your democracy that the curtain falls on having a healthy public life a healthy sense of citizenship where people feel as if instead of having to define themselves over against somebody and a demonizing and degrading way they can define themselves as citizens in a positive elevating way that embraces people across the board of racial ethnic gender socialization religious in ideology and so on you see and so I think one of the one of the ways in which our right-wing Republican brothers and sisters use this in some ways as a distraction because they want to scapegoat the most vulnerable rather than confront the most powerful so so many of the folk who are involved in the scapegoating they're in deep pain to deep paint economically insecure highly anxiety ridden but think that somehow if they can get a scapegoat they will be elevated we saw the same thing with poor whites in the south visa be black people they were exploited across the board but they're holding on the whiteness for dear life now what was saying agustin say about that idolatry what happens when your worship idols great ever Abraham Joshua Heschel used to say if you look at life as a gold rush you end up worshiping the golden can Idol and especially when you lose and if your view in life solely through the lens of what hurts you and how you can benefit solely you in a rat race and even the winner of a rat race is still a rat that's the last thing we want that's the last thing father Ted won't I know we got to run no you all take it care stay strong and what you're doing st. Mary's Notre Dame our dear brother Fedor Martin Hesburgh [Applause]

Channel: krocinstitute

Views: 22,127

Rating: 4.7248678 out of 5

Keywords: Cornel West, Kroc Institute, Theodore M. Hesburgh

Id: UJxK6cmVwaA

Length: 104min 44sec (6284 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019