Civil rights leader Cornel West urges progress in battle for equality

Civil rights activist Cornel West entered the IU Auditorium to filled seats and left to a standing ovation after discussing how even the election of America’s first black president wasn’t an indication of a post-racial world.

The lecture took place Monday in the IU Auditorium. It was presented by the Union Board in celebration of Black History Month.   

West said the present was history and warned that there is still progress to be made for racial equality.

A black president is not post-racial, West said. It just means the black man was the best candidate.

However, West said this era is less racist, and choosing the best candidate should be expected.

West added it was the social movement of abolitionists who put pressure on Abraham Lincoln to change his mind and allowed the death of the idea that black and white couldn’t live together.   

He also said the black community was not the only community in need, and the hypocrisy concerning the poor is overwhelming.

“We should never allow black suffering to stand in way of other people’s suffering,”
West said. “Indifference is the one trait that makes the angels weep.”

West said human beings should come to terms with wounds and scars, but shouldn’t let them have the last word.

“Anybody who has never cried has never loved, and anyone who has never loved has never lived.” West said.

He said this is because racial identity is linked to humanity and love.

“Martin Luther King wanted people to be love-struck, not color-blind. How are you going to love somebody if you can’t see their bodies?” West said.

Love is a gift to suppressed people, he said, and for Martin Luther King Jr., justice was love for all people.

Obama’s election was progress, West said, but so was the amount of black students he saw in the crowd.  

He added that education is learning how to “die.” He explained that “there is no maturity, no development without something dying.”

By graduation, he said, students should allow their focus on superficial issues to diminish and start to focus on issues of life and death.

He encouraged the audience to think of the legacy they will leave behind and muster the courage to think for themselves.

“The most crucial question at the center of black history is ‘What does it mean to be human?’” West said, adding that in the end everyone becomes nothing more than “worm food.”

West told the audience that many people just want to make it and not make it right.

“My brothers and sisters, you were taught over and over again to be successful, not great,”  West said.

He said sooner or later everyone must come to terms with who they are.

Freshman JaLeesa Buggs said she came to hear West speak because she saw him speak before on television.

“He’s real,” she said. “He has this opinion, and he chose to speak about it.”

West ended the lecture by discussing his hope that people can become more honest and identify issues so they can be dealt with. Instead of fear, West said the public needs to talk about hope.

However, West said hope and optimism are two different things. Optimism is only interest in yourself, while hope is neither optimism or pessimism – it is creating new evidence under the grain.

“No matter what circumstances, you have to decide to be a certain type of person before you die,” West said.