King's response to our crisis can be put in one word: revolution. A revolution in our priorities, a reevaluation of our values, a reinvigoration of our public life and a fundamental transformation of our way of thinking and living that promotes a transfer of power from oligarchs and plutocrats to everyday people and ordinary citizens.
Racism is a moral catastrophe, most graphically seen in the prison industrial complex and targeted police surveillance in black and brown ghettos rendered invisible in public discourse.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Racism is a serious moral issue that is often overlooked, particularly in the context of systemic oppression affecting marginalized communities.
In this quote, Cornel West addresses the deep-seated moral failing of racism, particularly as it manifests through systemic structures like the prison industrial complex and targeted policing in predominantly black and brown neighborhoods. He highlights how these critical issues are frequently ignored in mainstream discussions, emphasizing the urgent need to confront and address the implications of racism in society.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
To enrich discussions on social justice, one can use this quote at a community meeting focused on racial inequality.
More from Cornel West
All quotes βYou've got to love yourself enough, not only so that others will be able to love you, but that you'll be able to love others.
Profound music leads us beyond language...to the dark roots of our scream and the celestial heights of our silence.
And when I talk about love, I'm talking about something that's great, though, brother. I'm talking about something that will sustain you.
Clever gimmicks of mass distraction yield a cheap soulcraft of addicted and self-medicated narcissists.
I feel as if I have been blessed to undergo a transformation from 'gangster' to 'redeemed sinner with gangster proclivities.'
Similar quotes
Anarcho-syndic alism took for granted that working people ought to control their own work, its conditions, the enterprises in which they work, along with communities, so they should be associated with one another in free associations, and democracy of that kind should be the foundational elements of a more general free society.
Whether on'e special emphasis is global warming or child welfare, the cause is the same cause. And justice comes from the same place being human comes from: compassion.
With the passage of time, as well as the social evolution and genetic exchange, we ended up putting our conscience in the color of our blood and the salt of our tears.
The poet Melvin B. Tolson once said "A civilization is judged only in its decline." That made sense to me. I would imagine the same is true for poets and tennis players.
Our thoughts are clay, they are moulded with the changes of the days;--when we are resting they are good; under fire, they are dead. Fields of craters within and without.
There is massive propaganda for everyone to consume. Consumption is good for profits and consumption is good for the political establishment.