Speech by Cornel West, B.A. ’74, addressed to pro-Palestine activists at a rally in protest of the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. Any words unintelligible are a reflection on the recording quality of our reporter, not the eloquence of the speaker.
00:00:05
I appreciate you.
00:00:09 Cornel West
You know, I’m just very blessed to be here. I just want to let the world know our status, solidarity with my precious Palestinian brothers and sisters.
00:00:20 Cornel West
Through we have a magnificent gathering for the Roma people. You all know the Roma people been going through hell and high water for 800 years. Still, sister Magda, And then with Brother Rameen and Sister Thanh said we’re having a rally.
00:00:36 Cornel West
I said, you’re having a rally Once again, for the Palestinians? Oh I love your courage!!
00:00:41
Give it up again for the struggle in Gaza, genocide will never have the last word! At ALL!!
00:00:48
Apartheid conditions will never have the last word… Ethnic cleansing will never have the last word.
00:00:58 Kojo Achampeong
COME On!! Come on
00:01:03 Cornel West
Like my brother Prince
00:01:05 Cornel West
Yeah, I come from a great people.
00:01:10 Cornel West
Is that brother Elom right there too? Yes, it is, yes, it is.
00:01:10 Cornel West
See I come from a great people that put a strong imprint on my heart, mind and soul as the black folk who’ve been hated for four hundred years, dishing out love, warriors. Every generation we’ve been terrorized for four hundred years
00:01:30 Cornel West
But we produce freedom fighters every generation. We’ve been traumatized for 400 years. We produce wounded healers every generation, and that means I’m gonna be a small part in that way. And that means I’m in solidarity with anybody who suffering, any oppressed people.
00:01:49 Cornel West
It could be predatory capitalist policies coming at them. Crushing them with working people, it could be white supremacy, trying to tell them they less beautiful and less moral and less intelligent. It could be male supremacy. It could be homophobia, transphobia, It can be losing, fight, losing sight of humanity of anybody..
00:02:06 Cornel West
Be they Arabs, Turks, Jews, whatever it is. It’s a human thing at the deepest level, and that’s why we stand against occupation and domination. It is a love thing. It’s the love supreme of John Coltrane.
00:02:19 Kojo Achempeong
Come on!! (Audience shouts in background)
00:02:25 Cornel West
We need anti-imperialism! [unclear]
00:02:25 Cornel West
The American Empire is the 68th empire in the history of the species. It will come. It will go. It is now undergoing spiritual decay and unbelievable more decadence because of organized greed at the top and indifference at the top
00:02:39 Cornel West
that trying to convince folk, everyday folk, to scapegoat the most vulnerable, rather than confront the most powerful
00:02:46 Cornel West
We won’t fall for that trap. We won’t fall for that narrow projection of what it means to be human.
00:02:54 Cornel West
Nooo, no no no (through applause)
00:02:58 Cornel West
And we knew at Harvard University, like any other institution in the American Empire, is shot through with commodification.
00:03:06 Cornel West
Is shot through with corporatization is shot through with marketization and it has legacies of white supremacy and male supremacy, shot through it too, and we want to be be countervailing forces against it.
00:03:10
Come on.
00:03:21 Cornel West
Fifty-four years ago, I was in that room right there. (pointing at dorm in Harvard Yard)
00:03:23 Cornel West
At home worth.
00:03:26 Cornel West
54 years ago, when my father dropped me off. He’s gone now, God bless him.
00:03:30 Cornel West
And the first thing he told me was..
00:03:33 Cornel West
He said little corn.
00:03:37 Cornel West
We never seen Harvard, not from the truck outside of Sacramento, California. he said. You just make sure you be true to the love and integrity we poured into you
00:03:53 Cornel West
and that love and integrity had to do with Irene (his mother) and Clifton West (his grandfather), it had to do with Shiloh Baptist Church, where Revered Willie P. Cook who baptized me there.
00:04:00 Cornel West
It had to do with the Black Panther Party that was right next door. Working, there’s my dear sister! (acknowledges someone in the crowd) It’s so good to see you!
00:04:05 Cornel West
It had to do with the Black Panther Party yes indeed, feeding the poor.
00:04:09 Cornel West
Tied to the incarcerated.
00:04:12 Cornel West
That is a moral it’s a spiritual greatness and a witness, and we all have to say, even in this vicious mood, that this is just a moment in a movement.
00:04:23 Cornel West
We got to be faithful unto death. This is not no short term affair. We got to be in solidarity with our Palestinian Brothers and sister (applause) and all other oppressed people (unclear)
00:04:36 Cornel West
The generation after generation until total, full liberation.
00:04:47
(rest unclear)