Tag: Cornel West

Has Democratic socialism ever worked? DSA honorary chair Cornel West weighs in on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.' #Tucker FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The…

Cornel West, a Harvard philosophy professor and author of 20 books, speaks at Brown University on Tuesday. PROVIDENCE, R.I. — President Donald Trump is as American as cherry pie. He is an expression of “something deep in the history of this nation” and he “represents the worst,” too, but he “doesn’t have a monopoly on that role,” Cornel West told Brown University students Tuesday night, warning them that “the worst thing you can do is fetishize an individual like Trump.” “He just happens to be running the empire as a know-nothing narcissist,” said the author, political activist and philosopher. There’s a narcissism inside of us. No matter how learned you are.” West’s sizing up of Donald Trump came toward the middle of a lecture that challenged his Ivy League listeners to pay attention to their own faults and to resist “identity politics.” The Harvard philosophy professor and author of 20 books, including the well-known “Race Matters” published in 1993, lectured at Brown as part of the university’s “Politics in the Humanities” lecture series. Identity politics is supporting a politician based on the politician’s race or gender or sexual orientation. Some black supporters of former President Barack Obama, said West, were unwilling to criticize the Obama administration for a weak response to Wall Street entities culpable in the financial crisis of 2008. Some proud supporters, he said, opted to focus on Obama’s peace prize, but were not willing to criticize him for carrying out far more drone attacks overseas than President George W. Bush. “Where is the delicate, difficult discussion that keeps track of the humanity of each and every one of us?” asked West. Look what Europeans did in Australia or New Zealand or the United States.” “How do we keep track of those kind of difficult truths that radically unsettle us but at the same time not push us toward drinking from the cup of hatred and bitterness as opposed to a compassion that tries to connect the humanity of Palestinians and Israelis together.