The New Jim Crow -- with Cornel West

hi I'm ed bacon director of All Saints Church Pasadena whoever you are and wherever you find yourself on the journey of faith I hope that you'll find something here that speaks to you welcome okay everybody we're going to begin thank you very much for being here we have read welcome bags for those of you who are visiting we'd love for you to have these bags they contain current information we'd love for you to know that we have a special small group going on about one of Professor West's books you can sign up for this at the table we have an action table here so you can take a stand against incarceration private incarceration against juveniles and also for comprehensive immigration reform we would love for you to stop by the action table we also would love for you to pick up books today our guest preacher serene Jones the president of Union Theological Seminary her book really a knockout book trauma and grace one of the most transformative books I've ever read is for sale please avail yourself of that and we have four of Professor West's five professor West's books for sale the rich and the rest of us brother West living and loving out loud Cornel West democracy matters race matters and we have one that he didn't author but we he's probably going to reference today the new Jim Crow about mass incarceration by Michelle Alexander we have two groups ongoing now studying this book and we want mass incarceration and the new Jim Crow to be a part of the household vocabulary of people who worship and come to All Saints Church if you would like to be on a mailing list for knowing what comes in to this room into this well please we have we have clipboard Birds over at the table read the welcome table so you can sign up and get an email blast from me every Thursday about what's coming up our speaker this morning is a prominent provocative Democratic intellectual to be sure one of the most important public intellectuals of the world today he is professor of philosophy and Christian practice at Union Theological Seminary and professor emeritus at Princeton University he's also taught at Yale Harvard the University of Paris and All Saints Church Pasadena which is just as important as those other places graduating from magnet graduated magna laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his MA and PhD in philosophy at Princeton he's written 20 books has edited 13 I've just shown you four of them very important ones he made his film debut in the matrix and was the commentator with Ken Wilber on the official trilogy released in 2004 by the way I had my first up music video that we've been watching up here and I hope that you'll go and enjoy it at YouTube and also at also the 1 billion rising website also our speaker has made three spoken word albums including never forget collaborating with Prince Jill Scott Andre 3000 to lead Kweli K rs1 and the late gerald levert his spoken word interludes were featured on Terrance Blanchard's choices which won the Grand Prix in France for the best jazz album of the year in 2009 the Cornel West Theory 2nd Rome Raheem DeVaughn Grammy nominated love and war and on and on but you want to listen to him so I do need to say that unfortunately his flight itinerary demands that he leave this room right at 11:00 he will not be able to sign books but we are going to be bringing him back every year as long as we possibly can will you now please warmly welcome professor Cornel West would have listened to be back All Saints Church all same choice by DuBose this is living well brother head vacant Junior James Edwin bacon jr. he is my brother he's got a sweet soul he's got a sharp mind and he puts his body on the line give it up for brother Baker oh yeah oh you doing dude each time we come back to All Saints Church it really is like a homecoming getting that true though dear sister serene generals who's the president Union Theological Seminary she gave such an amazing sermon how many were there how many heard a sermon God is not ugly cover cover cover cover come innocent and sisters in the shell who works at Union as well giving him where your hand really has us in the shell one of our magnificent Dean's there and I know system Alyssa's around and brother Bob is around as well we got a union crew this time and we have given our word that we plan to return every year because when we return primarily to learn and listen when I come to All Saints my soul is touched by the Eucharist and the ritual and I need soul nourishment because the battlefield is intense and despair and despondency and wrestling with the edge of life's abyss is very real full of Jesus love and free black man like me in America and I need to stay close to the cross oh yeah I'm old-school gutbucket kind of Christian I'm ecumenical in practice but in the end our Jesus keep me near the cross given what's coming I see brother Joseph dare one of the great scholars of our day and both comparative religion as well as critical theory it's so good to see and there's so many others I'm gonna be very brief in brother McGuire sister McGuire oh these are two special ones Union Theological Seminary would not be what it is without your leadership but I'm gonna be very brief because I'm here primarily for calling response I'm here for critical exchange and dialogue we need to pull from each other keep each other accountable accountable answerable and responsible no one of us have a monopoly on the truth and you can look at me and you know I don't have an OP Nayyar own beauty that's all right I'm still my mama's child and my dad is Kia and I made in the image of God that's why I always have a smile on my face because if you all knew the love that went into me through Irene and Clifton and Shiloh Baptist Church and Glen elder the chocolate side a Sacramento you'd understand what my smile is all about I got so much deep love injection that it can never be suffocated and that's why I was moved by the 13th chapter first Corinthians because I decided a long time ago to stay on the Love Train to Curtis Mayfield talked about when he's saying people get ready oh yes the Love Train of the Isley Brothers that caravan of love Love Train of The O'Jays those are not just songs those are essential declarations of a certain way of being in the world and I come from a people people who've been Jim Crow and enslaved and despised and the value who dished out to the world a love supreme of John Coltrane and dished out to the world the loveth essays of a James ball one how is it that these particular people so hated mustered the courage and the imagination distilled dish out of figures like Martin King and Toni Morrison and a whole host of others and of course we black folk have no monopoly on it but I always begin on the chocolate side of town did I begin with my mom and my grandmother and my grandfather and that love spills over to vanilla suburbs my precious white brothers and sisters it spills over to reservations and our indigenous brothers and sisters don't have to be in the room for us to be hypersensitive to their suffering and what they have undergone in the dignity of their resistance it spills over to Latino brothers and sisters in Barrios and other places it spills over the Asian brothers it's a human thing it spills over to what's going on on the West Bank a Palestine it spills over in Tel Aviv with my Jewish brothers and sisters both Palestinians and Jews button social precious and priceless all the way down it spills over to Ethiopia spills over to Guatemala it spills over the El Salvador on the China that's the kind of practices that I've tried to fab imperfectly enact based on what took place this morning the legacy that flows out of that Eucharist and at first Richard Palestinian Jew named Jesus of Nazareth and we all fall short but we all try to raise our voices and I want to highlight my dear sister Michelle that exact by this book first year the text can be tertiary I want you to buy this text she was kind enough to ask me to write the introduction he's one of the great public intellectuals but she is a witness bear and a truth teller and she begins by talking about a crime against humanity now I wanted express my solidarity with my sisters dealing with 1 billion rising violence against women's a crime against humanity a coward Lib brother's engaging in that kind of wounding and scarring and bruising of women of whatever what color but the same is true when you talk about the new Jim Crow it is in fact Jim Crow jr. in the same with Martin Luther King jr. Fannie Lou Hamer and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and so many other break the back of Jim Crow senior but we still got Jim Crow junior round don't get seduced by the relative progress don't get seduced by the parade of successful Negroes at the top that's a beautiful thing they wouldn't be where they are if folks do blood sweat and tears had not sacrifice but there's so many still stuck in the basement and if you look at the world through the vantage point of the least of these through the vantage point of those stuck in the basement whatever society we're talking about then the new Jim Crow ought to be viewed as what it is it's a criminal system that in some way steel to criminal we talked about solitary confinement this moment as a form of torture I don't want to hear from me leech the torture is over just because you're eliminated water boat notice that's not true it's not true at all there's other forms of torture still at work one potable and in prisons in the United States I'm Tory Belafonte threw down the other night he's a truth teller got a lot of Paul Robeson in him and a whole lot of other voices he never forgets he remembers the scars but he doesn't allow the scars I have the last word the last word is always love oh yes the last one has to be love because it was all just about analysis if it's all just about appearance that is filled sounding brass and tinkling cymbal it's got to have beat love in it is not just about justice the great Reinhold Niebuhr used to remind us what any justice that is only justice soon degenerates into something less than justice justice must be rescued by something deeper than justice that's the love and justice is what love looks like in public but justice is not identical with love the love is that irreducible stuff that keeps spurting out no matter what circumstances you could find it in the concentration camps of our Jewish brothers and sisters against thugs call Nazis the love was still spurting out you could completely suffocated even given the indescribable evil that's true on the plantations - it's true with our immigrant brothers and sisters wrestling with low-wage jobs it's true my sister's dealing with male violence it's true that I gained as bein brothers and sisters dealing with oftentimes insecure straight brothers or sisters it's true with our precious elderly who often time to cast the net of invisibility is there no longer as productive economically as they once were but all of their wisdom and sagacity oftentimes push to the margins given our obsession with youth fullness oftentimes too often identical with childishness and not Chow like Ness sense of all sense of wonder you talk about a new industrial complex you're talking about two generations nearly destroy in black and brown poor communities because it's not just mass incarceration in many ways this class incarceration - and everybody knows if it were happening at the same level among our middle class whites it would be a major crisis in the culture if it was happening among middle class black brothers and sisters we'd have a different kind of black leadership it wouldn't be invisible even our politicians would be leading away but that's not the case when it comes to our poor brothers and sisters or whatever color but disproportionately chocolate and the same is true in terms of our drones oh you can't talk about the criminalization of a younger generation you can't talk about torture the form of militaristic responds to behavior punitive disposition toward behavior without talking about the militarism abroad and if as a nation you think that you can bomb your way out of a crisis dropping bombs on innocent people every bomb dropped is a scar on the soul that's left in America and the bonds that are dropped in Pakistan and Somalia in Yemen they land in East Los Angeles they land in South Central Los Angeles and yes they land in Pasadena - may not be as direct as you think but sooner or later we're gonna reap what we sow Ozuna leather chickens will come home to roost sooner or later what's in the Wasco come out in the rinse don't think that somehow you can just live a life of evasion and holding at arm's limbs the evil and the merrily ugliness that sister was talking about that we was talking about you see no we got a view the world turned upside down when all of us passed in the light of a dignity hungry to be treated with a decency no matter what color what culture what civilization what sexual orientation whether you are religious non-religious agnostic or atheistic like my dear brother Bill Maher who I love deeply cuz he's owned the Love Train he just doesn't have a cognitive commitment to God talk I think he's wrong about that but that's alright I got much to learn from the brother we got our brother written classic going Richard Pryor where's our Richard Pryor brother Darius there you can't wait to read your book it's our Arliss who oftentimes are the ones we have to be attentive to at last line of Percy Shelley's great revolutionary pamphlet of 1821 a defense of poetry poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world and he's not talking about verse' fires he's talking about all human beings who have the courage to muster the imagination and compare to conceive of a different world an alternative world given the nightmarish world that we live in you could do it through architecture you could do it do painting you could do it through music but most importantly you can make your life a work of art you can make your life poetic you can make your life prophetic and you can make your life pietistic understanding piety not simple in a narrow dogmatic religious sense piety is the acknowledgement of your death to those who came before and the way in which their love helped constitute you in the way in which their support and care for you constitutes a foundation for your move from your mama's wound to the tomb so anybody who lacks piety is already falling into this narrow American lie about being self-made oh I did it all by myself just me my independent ego my nomadic self do you birth yourself - I guess - yeah I worked it out nine months I won't tell you the secret all of us dependent on antecedent mothers and fathers and grandparents and teachers and friends and even when you're old as I am when you have grand sons I'm dependent on the younger generation I need Lupe Fiasco to help preserve my sanity I need Erykah Badu I need forces from the dead like Janis Joplin and Carmen McCrae and Sarah Vaughn I said on many occasions I was a gangster before I met Jesus and now I'm just a redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities I need help and in talking about these crimes against humanity could be against women could be with our prisoners it'd be with our brothers and sisters in Pakistan and Somalia in Yemen and it can especially be with our poor and working people be with my trade Union as dealing with being demonized especially teachers unions given the privatization of education standing with Bill Maher that what is so necessary for the kind of love Renaissance justice Renaissance the shattering of the sleepwalking V Awakening deep Democratic awakening those Sly Stone call everyday people mustering the courage to stand and straighten that backs up and be willing to organize and mobilize and yes some of us going to jail and yes some of us giving our lives now martyrdom is not normative for the movement but some must die that is the depth of both the commitment but also the threat to the status quo no matter what color the elite are and I know that's part of the controversy people think I'm too hard on brother Barack Obama you know let the word go forth I have a deep love for that brother the love for me and brace is not just respect and protect but also correct when you love folk you respect them you're protecting but you also correct him if you come in you're lean toward Wall Street correction is necessary if you got a new prison industrial complex poor folk get caught drugs on the corner but not one executive of a Wall Street bank goes to jail all that Wall Street criminality market manipulation insider trading fraudulent accounting predatory lending and that one goes to jail you say to yourself who do you think we are boy that night but not last night do you think we don't see the hypocrisy in the men Gasset in the criminality that is going unaccountable not one tortures going to jail not one wire temple goes to jail but when it comes to whistleblowers oh my god bradley manning you got to go you in solitary confinement with no clothes on john terry aku you got to stay in jail the only CIA brother connected with corruption and torture that exposed the corruption and torture he's the one in jail something wrong that's the key sweating moments something something just ain't right we got to tell the truth you got to have fearless speech frank speech plain speech the president does something that's progressive and prophetic you support him and celebrate him and when he does something that warrants criticism you raise your voice and say in the name of something bigger than me in the name of something bigger than you in the name of something bigger than america it's called unarmed truth and unconditional love which means every flag for me as a christian is under the cross people come running to me all west where's your flag waving i'm a cross bare before i'm a flag wave huh oh let's get that clear let's get that clear that's true in every nation where I am I respect a flag when it tilts toward that rich legacy of Hebrew Scripture do justly love mercy walk humbly with thy God then I'm with you yes but if you're refusing that high standard then I will critically speak against you not to bring you down but to try to make you stronger in the eyes especially those who is rendered invisible that's why the new Jim Crow is one of the crucial catalytic catalytic cultural realities that constitute a catalyst for the kind of love renascence the kind of justice relations that we need let me stop now cuz we're gonna have good 20 minutes a morgue I might not be late for my plane giving a spirit in this room Shh absolutely so let's stop now jump right in the question yes my dear brother oh oh yes we got mics because we got the that's right we got ya and I appreciate the the radio and thing and what's the name of the radio we should mention the force but what's name your radio session ba KPFK yes and you give can't be up there get can't get KK BBK a brother let's think again for coming again I've always appreciate you coming to our church but let me ask you this you mentioned the whole part about people not going to jail and bankers not going to jail yeah and you just described what must be the rationality for those folks to help launder money for the Mexican Mafia who the New York Times expose not going to jail I mean III still don't understand it and I'd like maybe you just to expound on that please was a very good question of one we've got bastard Justice Department we see the brother Lenny Brower just resigned after that magnificent frontline television show The Untouchables he was head of the criminal division that was supposed to engage in enforcement at least investigation of our Wall Street brothers primarily brothers not sisters and they still brothers cuz they human being they just have agreed that's out of control sometimes and we all do it's not like we just pointing fingers we all got greedy proclivities but we need accountability and when you at the top being treated like a king or queen and a oligarch and a plutocrat with no accountability whatsoever that becomes the new norm that becomes a new norm so the obsession is the 11th commandment thou shalt not get caught and when you do get caught just pay off the money pardon they pay a little small settlement a small slice of the money they made and then never have to apologize you see these are the same folks when they talked about poor people have poor puny personal responsibility and when you fail you got to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps our America functions you either succeed or fail based on what capacities of choices and judgments you have but when they fail 700 billion dollars a welfare and seven point seven trillion dollars of relatively free interests relatively free interest-free loans yet our students have to pay loans big big big big loans would fuse amounts of interest but our Baker's the oligarchs and plutocrats of our day like the kings and queens of 200 years ago can get away with the immunity you're next to me requires serious attention with love I don't know I've got to be with love now we're not so much rationalize mama not so much tragedy by humanity become of their deeds their actions that generate consequences that are lethal for the weak and the vulnerable in our society but I wanted to see what you thought about the immigration reform talks especially in light of the increase in deportations under the Obama administration and the mass incarceration of immigrants and for-profit detention centers yeah appreciate that question very very much so I'm just so glad we have a discussion about it many of us were in Arizona years ago on a de banner legalized Arizona that was that was my banner you know what happy used to be Mexico didn't it ulysses s grant called the most wicked of any war of a great nation against a weak nation that was a mexican war of the 1840s it was land grab power grab gangster activity all the way down we got to realize remember that history but I'm glad we're talking about it just for me is two things one is that it's important that for me we don't engage in this dialogue with our precious Latino brothers and sisters simply because their numbers are increasing I can't stand that kind of talk it's a question of justice and fairness I don't care how many numbers they have whether the numbers are going up whether the numbers are going down we talk about fairness we told my justice butts in our minds everybody got a little interest group oh you got two blacks over here Browns over here yellow over here Jews here Catholics here no that's politics and is most truncated Machiavellian form but we're talking about what is more what is just what is right and for me it has a spirituality to it so I tell my brother my Latino brothers and sisters we're not concerned about you just because it's fashionable and fetish at the moment we've been concerned all the way through and my major question so far about the debate is what do they mean by saying the whole thing is predicated by border security especially with the use of drones how do you achieve border security what's the process what's the end result how do you measure it how do you know you got enough border security for the comprehensive that's the kind of questions we need to raise but I'm so glad that we're talking about it but it has to be cast not because a Latino vote supported so-and-so and the Republicans are in trouble because they lost the Latino vote that's precisely the wrong kind of language in talking about any issue of public policy even though I'm not naive I know there's a political dimension to it but we have to have countervailing voices that go deeper than just the interest group articulation that's the crucial thing thank you for being here - is it me thank you for being here today I I for one need this infusion of hope and spirit and intellect one of the places that I work is in the city of San Bernardino which as you may know is bankrupt and it has one of the worst home foreclosure rates in the nation of course in the state ooh so as you talk about new Jim Crow laws and as I think about social justice to me one of the most eminent things for us to be working on is how do we remedy this foreclosure crisis particularly in the city of San Bernardino and in the state of California and I was wondering what your thoughts were about the proposition that some have wrought forth with an eminent domain and taken over the mortgages and giving them back to the people at reduced rates is that ethical is that social justice is that the right way to attack this problem which I feel is just it's really hitting the urban poor it's hitting the poor the disenfranchised very very much so thank you absolutely now I appreciate the question and the 20% of our citizens wrestling with being underwater when it comes to this foreclosure crisis in this housing crisis I mean one is that from the very beginning I had a wholeheartedly supported the bailing out of home owned homeowners over the bailing out of banks that should have been a prior and the same way that you've been a priority for jobs with a living wage rather than the billing out of banks because our banks need to be decentralized downsized and do something what they used to do which is lend they do be nice if the Big Bang should start lending again rather than speculating and trading and only on the casino like market and so forth so that but but secondly I don't have the answer because I'm not an expert when it comes to the details it's a matter of priorities if we make it a priority to target the plight of our fellow citizens wrestling with foreclosure crises in the housing crisis in addition to massive public and including private investment my hunch is given all the creativity and imagination and intelligence in the United States far beyond myself including yourself that we have a whole host of ways in which we can ensure that folk are not going under and could once again be able to stand up tall and say this is a space that I and have some control over so that it's a matter for me it's a matter of the priorities but in terms of all the details though I don't want to stand here and act as if I'm some expert on the inside but these budgetary crisis in San Bernardino and other cities have so much to do of course with the money hemorrhage at the top I mean banks sitting on how much now three point four trillion dollars two point two two trillion dollars offshore they're waiting for the next crisis you know what I mean how do you explain there's so many Christian churches and Christian leaders interpret God's Word that government has a role in regulating the nation's bedrooms deciding who gets married yet Matthew 25 about the least of these including the imprison this is one of the most known passage that's that and the Bible yet it seems like there's no role for government in that area it has a wonderful question no brother no we're human beings with something else we are really something else I mean this is why the Becket's and the check-offs and the Harold Pinter's and the Lorraine Hansberry means so much to us we need our artists to remind us of the traffic the tragic comic character which we find ourselves it's just so difficult for us to love our crooked neighbor with our crooked hearts it's just Arden is right WH Arden is right and so you had to continually point out the hypocrisy you know even our fundamentalist Christian it won't be fun demoulas about everything other than love thy neighbor as thyself once we fundamental by that one focus on that one focus on that one cuz I am a from the Middle's Christian I'm a fundamentals Christian to the core when it comes to the love thing you see when it comes to the love thing the Word of God versus the words of God the Word of God was in Jesus Jesus all about the love and they tried to crush him they tried to suffocate him but the love kept coming through it just couldn't completely be eliminated and erased and I come from the people who people gave up all ain't no way these black folk gonna keep producing love folk giving the levels of hatred coming at them to hate their bodies hey who look like them hate who they are here come this love train strong and didn't ever even strong on the chocolate side oftentimes in the vanilla and the vanilla brothers sisters understood what was going on over there said oh I want to get in on that that's some deep human stuff we like that funk we tired of this deodorized stuff over here oh yes and so the hypocrisy that your torment needs to be pointed out over and over and over again every generation every generation new challenges we've got there yes I teach middle school and I teach middle school to the richest of the rich and the poorest to the poor how do I bring this to the richest of the rich to the poorest of the poor to the Jews to the Christians to the atheist I got to bring it to all of them how do I bring it to all of them beautiful question no can every child no matter what color is precious and priceless the problem now is that we're in a situation where you all know that the children the precious children without 1% of number one in the world go in which Finland has a nation's number one of the world's only when you introduce poverty and race we drop to 21 you see so rich children get taught and poor children get tested see oh no that's the truth that's what we're talking about you see look at Chicago 684 schools right 202 nurses for 684 schools only one of four schools have arts so what is it like to be a precious young black brother brown sister living in a hood guns drugs bullets go to school you got metal detectors didn't he get trained you don't have music you don't have arts you don't have your imagination cultivate it you don't have your intelligence affirmed you just tested tested tested because the private is the privatising of our public schools is all about test test test test the teachers can't even engage in forms of teaching and yet the well-to-do children 14 in a class toll every day whether it's true or not you're brilliant you're brilliant you're brave you say soonerlater I got do something brilliant everybody else telling me I'm burying people believe in you got self-confidence generate self-respect so yes our rich children precious they are just as precious as poor children but the poor children are just as precious as a rich children and they deserve so much better attention treatment especially birth to six years old birth to 6 years old very early and we need to target those years sorry going so long already hit up a good estate ok I'm up I'm also a history instructor at a college and I'm interested in knowing your take off what's wrong with the society when the vast majority of those be incarcerated are african-american and Latino males men dead Trey because what's wrong with the society when this is actually happening what is real one of course we know that then just Michelle makes it clear that we've got 13% of our black and brown brothers and sisters who fly high and friendly skies frequently old rugged involved in drug activity 13% of white youth fly - this guy 65% of the convictions black and brown that's what I mean when I talk about a criminal justice system that is in some ways criminal it's deeply racist now it's targeting the male's even though females growing very quickly and this also includes our four white brothers and sisters as well that's been what was just an appellation with brother Tavis Smiley on our poverty or just last week and he's - and Johnson City I mean with the poor white youth and they're escalating but intention has been poor black brown red many ways - but less urban spaces meant males absolutely right and they're it's a matter of a sense of machismo the posing and posturing thinking that to be human is to be an urban outlaw because you've been treated as an outcast you treated as an outcast you think in fact they don't know where you can make it is it be tough and yet all they really want is what all of us want a little TLC they just want to tender loving care that's what the brothers the young brothers need what's all know mean is true that you know we live inside away everything's for sale and everybody's for sale and therefore the rule of money especially big money and therefore the definition of being Merrill is to have big money but also to be big and bad without being loving caring nurturing their conception of greatness is Alexander rather than Jesus Alexander the great Alexander what did you do we are more people than anybody in the world I conquer more people in anybody in the world oh that's your definition of greatness huh let me introduce you to a great one who was obsessed with just landed territory and mansion and trophies spouses and status and well in position but was concerned about the quality of his service to the least of these and the depth of his love to everybody he is greatness he is my father cliff where is my mother Irene West that's greatness y'all don't know but I could talk for hours we ain't got to Jesus yet but we could go to Hillel if we want it to and the Judaic tradition we could go to Buddha and go to Confucius you know you all know all the greatest examples in your own lives of what greatness really is on the ground in terms of love and service you see and that's precisely what our young brothers need access test to that's why I spend so much time with a hip-hop artist the brother I'll leave the Lupe Fiasco's Erykah Badu's and others trying to keep this alive but in the culture superficial spectacle it's all about glitz and blitz we're gonna say a prayer for Beyonce today right because she's talented but when a reefer sang the song it was on the real side running oh yeah yes Cornell thanks so much for being with us a couple of weeks ago you were on a very provocative panel on ending poverty in America that was moderated by Tavis Smiley Newt Gingrich was on the panel among others and some of the takeaways included newts promise to engage Republicans in reaching across the aisle to Democrats and kind of walking a mile in each other's shoes in their respective districts another follow-on was Tavis working with you to coalesce national opinion around the upcoming budget negotiations and the fiscal cliff that continues to be postponed but will certainly become active in a couple of months it's can you share with us what the status is that those efforts that you're involved in and ways that we can help support a more intelligent thinking around the financial decisions that are going to significantly impact the poor and significantly impact social programs so appreciate just just you're absolutely very very briefly to appreciate the question I mean brother Tavis is always bearing witness television radio and so on that was our third iteration of the of the poverty tour that was the end of it what actually was in the middle of it the I don't know where sister fudge the the new leader of black Congressional Caucus whether she's been able to follow up with brother knew but my hunch is both of them are going to continue to see whether they can work together you you saw my addition I said when they get together it would be nice if they come up with some strategies of trying to sever both parties from big money into Wall Street oligarchs and corporate plutocrats because both parties are tie in that way very much so you know Democrats better than Republicans but that's not saying a whole lot she's just not saying a whole lot you know yes I work with high-risk youth and lately I've been watching young adults and juveniles get horrendous sentences in the court system with gang allegations you can't fight and I'm talking lots of years so I'm sort of looking for hope or policy leverage on sentencing and then the rights that they don't have once they come out as a felon that is truly the new Jim Crow they have they can't vote they can't get a job any hope or a direction to send us on sentencing well I mean you constitute a living example of hope to the degree to which you refuse to give up and sell out and get in cave in you continue to fight you fight along with others always keep in mind is never a question of quantity it's a question of quality right when Martin King called for the boycott in Montgomery to almost a hundred black churches how many black churches join sixteen I'll come to rest I was scared people get scared and you understand why they scared and at that time you end up Lynch from a tree but you say no I refuse to be scared you're not scared I can look in your eyes I feel your spirit you're not scared I'm not scared either but we need to hold onto one another because we can get crushed but not be defeated as we got bounced back and you know folk who are bouncing back just with you but in in in one of the chapters oh and sister Michelle Alexander's book where she goes through various organizations that are doing things that you can connect on a national level as well as your local level because things are beginning to turn we've been struggle against the advocates laws for the last 30 years and they have begun to change now over time we've been struggling against the death penalty for 30 years look at the shift has taken place the problem is we need revolutionary patience you know what to me because it takes it takes a while just like the film you saw with Lincoln right they showed you 1865 they didn't go back to 1837 when the abolitionists first came together and they burnt down the building in Philadelphia and they kept bouncing back anyway they didn't tell you about Frederick Douglass had a bounty on his head and had to go to England they didn't tell you about Lydia Maria child it didn't tell you about Angelita Grimke they didn't tell you about Sarah Grimke didn't tell you about Sarah Douglas all of those folks on the ground organizing and then lo and behold the elites finally say we've got to respond after 30 years because we have a crucial issue we have to debate will read slaves remain slaves is like ever a debate on child torture so we need a big convention to debate whether Cal torture is a good thing or not that's what happened in 1865 we got to have a big debate on whether these people remain enslaved or not please please what are we talking about no we got to run no offense let's go go see you sis go go let's go to church

Channel: All Saints Church Pasadena

Views: 152,711

Keywords: Cornel West, New Jim Crow, Poverty, Economic Justice, Union Seminary

Id: _dd16ZyGQLo

Length: 47min 21sec (2841 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 05 2013