On Friday, April 1 I attended the Cornel West lecture at the University of Arizona. The U of A student body president was the first to speak and thanked various ethnic, sexuality/gender, etc. groups on campus who promote diversity, with a lot of engagement and support from the audience. The indigenous man introducing Cornel West talked a bit about the current political climate in Arizona and how a small group of powerful individuals use fear to intimidate those who are different (such as with bills like SB 1070).
Cornel West himself was fun, enthusiastic, engaging and engaged, and funny. He started out discussing male/white supremacy and privilege, issues we have delved into deeply throughout the semester, particularly in Jeff McWhorter’s Identity, Privilege, and Social Change class. One of the first quotes from West that evening was “the unexamined life is not worth living.” He went on to talk about humanity and humility and how we are tied to the earth, on the same human level, and that the one thing we all share is humanity.
He then delved into the negatives: weapons of mass distraction, overstimulation, superficial connectivity, the age of Reaganism, greed and indifference to poor, polarization, I instead of we – all of which are taking away from this humanity. He said indifference to evil is more evil than evil itself, which is something I discussed myself in our first paper for Jeff’s class about Martin Luther King Jr. and social change. Apathy and inaction, which is perpetuating evil, are often so much more frustrating and harmful than simply the evil actively being executed.
West talked about education. He argued that real education teaches you how to live critically and compassionately and causes the fear and intimidation inside you to die. He said people want convenience and comfort, but it is more important to be unsettled. Courage is essential for democracy, as are misfits. However, he also acknowledged that these misfits are told from birth that they are “less than” and “less moral.” He called it “internalized self-devaluation” – a topic we have definitely touched on when discussing privilege and oppression.
West talked about oppression. He said World War I really began in 1492. He gave statistics about the high proportions of nonwhite babies in poverty, especially the indigenous. He criticized the prison industrial complex and the fact that the United States holds 2.4 million people in prison – more than South Africa under Apartheid. He told us how many hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the Marshall Plan since the 1970s and the injustice of the budgetary deficit. He brought up domestic violence and homophobia. More specifically referring to the issues in Arizona, he said the business class wants labor and is favored over the laborers themselves, who are dehumanized – something we have explored a great deal this semester. He explained the predominant culture of the colorblind, encouraging us to open our eyes. He referenced the three most important things Martin Luther King Jr. wanted the world to be rid of: poverty, militarism, and materialism. After that, he started talking about Obama. Rather than delving into all his criticisms of the president, he admitted that one “can’t be free in politics.” Unlike West, Obama has a lot of limitations. What West was and is hoping for is that Obama can at least re-prioritize.
West talked about religion. While he referenced the Bible once or twice, he also acknowledged that we have so much to learn from the indigenous people. He said that love for wisdom and justice is something we do share. Encouraging us to share religion reminded me of some of the people we learned about in Guatemala and Mexico who managed to combine their indigenous spirituality with Catholicism.
West talked about hypocrisy and moral inconsistency, including in regards to immigration. Our forefathers claimed to be anti-imperialist but clearly weren’t. The statue of liberty said “Give me your poor” while simultaneously the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed.
West talked about the powerful market forces on this new generation, saying “Facebook is gangster activity far beyond anything I’ve seen in the Hood!” And finally, he reminded us that no culture has a monopoly on truth, telling us “find your voice; I see too many echoes.”
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