*Retired Harvard professor Dr. Cornel West announced his run for the 2024 presidential race earlier this month, saying in a video statement he is “Fighting to end poverty, mass incarceration,” as well as “wars and ecological collapse” and providing “housing, health care, education and living wages for all!”
So where does the political activist stand on lineage-based reparations?
As Moguldom reports, in a speech in February, West said, “So the question is can we really see what the suffering has been for indigenous peoples Black Folk and others? Then can we feel it, or are we just distant from it and indifferent? And then what we’re going to do about it? To see, the feel, the act all three…so when I think about reparations, my fundamental question is who is interested in a quest for the truth about the history of this country?”
In an interview with The Intercept in 2019, West noted that he has been pushing for reparations for “over 40 years.”
Speaking to Roland Martin in July 2020, West mentioned the difficulty of calculating the exact amount of monetary reparations.
“Brother, I mean, part of it is people always want to reduce these kinds of such crimes against humanity to just monetary matters because America is a business culture, a market-driven culture,” he stated, Moguldom.com reports.
West added, “It’s a money-obsessed culture, but you are absolutely right to resist it…I would agree that there’s got to be some kind of repair, so some form of reparations is required, and so we’re going to have a dialogue and the dialogue has got to be a robust dialogue. We got…to bring it on the force, you got to bring us the event and tone and all the other voices that are talking about reparations.”
He continued, “But at the same time, you see, I want to talk about redistribution of wealth right into reparations and slavery Jim Crow, Jane Crow, that’s just as an American citizen.”
Meanwhile, in his video announcement about his presidential run, West said “I come from a tradition where I care about you. I care about the quality of your life. I care about whether you have access to a job or a living wage, decent housing, women having control over their bodies, healthcare for all, the escalating destruction of the planet, the destruction of American democracy.”
He added, “Democracy creates disruption, it creates and eruption, it creates and interruption. Why? From below, the energies of everyday people is manifest, and I know there are precious people in your life who you care for. That’s why it is important for you to be involved, important for you to participate.”
READ MORE: Social Media Reacts to Dr. Cornel West’s Presidential Bid
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