Cornel West - Race Matters (1994)

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As long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive.

Cornel West
Of course, the aim of a constitutional democracy is to safeguard the rights of the minority and avoid the tyranny of the majority.

Cornel West
Without the presence of black people in America, European-Americans would not be "white" — they would be Irish, Italians, Poles, Welsh, and other engaged in class, ethnic, and gender struggles over resources and identity.

Cornel West
Never before has the seductive market way of life held such sway in nearly every sphere of American life. This marketing way of life promotes addictions to stimulation and obsessions with comfort and convenience... centered primarily around bodily pleasures and status rankings.... The common denominator is a rugged and ragged individualism and rapacious hedonism in quest of a perennial "high" in body and mind.

Cornel West
None of us alone can save the nation or the world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so.

Cornel West
As long as black people are viewed as "them," the burden falls on blacks to do all the "cultural" and "moral" work necessary for healthy race relations. The implication is that only certain Americans can define what it means to be American—and the rest must simply "fit in."

Cornel West
Black people have always been in America's wilderness in search of a promised land.

Cornel West
The paradox of race in America is that our common destiny is more pronounced and imperiled precisely when our divisions are deeper.

Cornel West
The major enemy of black survival in America has been and is neither oppression nor exploitation but rather the nihilistic threat—that is, loss of hope and absence of meaning. For as long as hope remains and meaning is preserved, the possibility of overcoming oppression stays alive.... Without hope there can be no future, without meaning there can be no struggle.

Cornel West