The Darrell McClain show
Independent media that won't reinforce tribalism. We have one Planet; nobody's leaving so let’s reason together!! Darrell, McClain is a Military veteran with an abnormal interest in politics, economics, religion, philosophy, science, and literature. He was born and raised in Jacksonville FL, and went to Edward H white High School where he wrestled Under Coach Jermy Smith and The Late Brian Gilbert. He was a team wrestling captain, District champion, and an NHSCA All-American in freestyle Wrestling. He received a wrestling scholarship from Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa. After a short period, he decided he no longer wanted to cut weight which effectively ended his college wrestling journey. Darrell Mcclain is an Ordained Pastor under The Universal Life Church and is still in good standing, he's a Believer in The Doctrines of Grace Also Known as Calvinism. He joined the United States Navy in 2008 and was A Master At Arms (military police officer) He was awarded several awards while on active duty including an expeditionary combat medal, a Global War on Terror medal, a National Defense Medal, a Korean defense medal, and multiple Navy achievement medals. While In the Navy he was also the assistant wrestling coach at Robert E Lee High School. He's a Brown Belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under six six-degree black belt Gustavo Machado, Darrell Trains At Gustavo Machado Norfolk under the 3rd-degree black belt, and Former Marine Professor Mark Sausser. He went to school for psychology at American Military University and for criminal justice at ECPI University.
The Darrell McClain show
Transformative Love and Courage: Dr. Cornel West’s Sermon on Justice at Howard University
Do you want to know why courage and self-examination are crucial in the fight for justice? In this episode of the Darrell McClain Show, we transport you back to a stirring 2006 sermon by Dr. Cornel West at Howard University. Dr. West passionately discusses his unwavering commitment to faith and the transformative power of love and justice. He celebrates the integrity and social contributions of figures like Reverend Dr. Bernard L. Richardson and Tavis Smiley, urging us all to embody Christian values by standing against injustice and unfairness. Dr. West’s call for courage and self-reflection challenges us to better understand ourselves to truly contribute to the broader narrative of freedom and dignity.
Reflect on profound legacies with us as we touch on the intersections of death, legacy, and social movements. From the tragic loss of Tupac Shakur to the impactful yet politically overshadowed funeral of Coretta Scott King, we explore historical resilience and the creative expressions of Black communities through spirituals and hip-hop. Highlighting the fight against systemic oppression and celebrating voices like Afrika Bambaataa, KRS-One, and Lauryn Hill, this episode critiques racial biases within the criminal justice system and underscores the importance of maintaining dignity and spiritual integrity amidst adversity.
Can the teachings of Jesus guide us in modern social justice work? Dr. West’s sermon at Howard University suggests they can. By examining the essence of service, love, and sacrifice, we discuss how even those with troubled pasts can transform through love and redemption. With a focus on political courage and accountability, we recount heartfelt dialogues on the challenges of confronting right-wing televangelists and the necessity of maintaining integrity. Drawing from the legacy of leaders like Nelson Mandela and Dr Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. West's message at Howard is a powerful call to arms, urging us to engage with the world's struggles through transformative love, hope, and justice. Tune in for an episode that not only honors the legacy of historical figures but also challenges you to leave a positive mark on the world.
Welcome to the Darrell McLean Show. I'm your host, Darrell McLean. Independent media that won't reinforce tribalism. We have one planet. Nobody is leaving, so let us reason together. It is a pleasure for us to come on another Sunday, and so we're going to continue our spiritual walk in the Sundays. We're going to go to a message preached way back in 2006 by Dr Cornel West. It's a very powerful sermon that he came to Howard University to preach.
Speaker 2:Enjoy our Sunday message. I decided to make Jesus my choice 45 years ago, and I am going to be faithful unto death. Faithful unto death, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:But, you can't love Jesus if you don't love your neighbor, every neighbor not qualified by your finite mind. You know how some Christians are Love thy neighbor, but Negroes, jews, gays, lesbians, catholics and so forth, nobody left but your friends. You and your friends. Love your neighbor as yourself. You can't love your neighbor if you don't hate injustice, have a loathing of unfairness. Concerned about the least of these echo in the 25th chapter of Matthew.
Speaker 2:I want to begin by saluting my dear brother, the Reverend Dr Bernard L Richardson. Nor L Richardson, nobody like him. I'm telling you y'all 13 years of service. 13 years of service. It's a beautiful thing in these days and times, with all the blitz and glitz and bling bling, to see somebody's got quiet, dignity, sterling character, high integrity, very deep humility. I met him when he was a student at Yale Divinity School. That's just a few years ago. What can I say about my dear brother Tavis Smiley? What can I say? I've known him for 21 years. I have to say I've known him before he was Tavis Smiley to the world. He's the same brother I met at the SCLC when he was working as an intern building on the rich legacy of Martin Luther King Jr in Sunshine Lane, california, los Angeles, but he's from Kokomo, indiana, born in Gulfport, mississippi, grew up in a trailer with 13 kids and mama and daddy in three rooms. That's Tavis Smiley y'all. That's Tavis Smiley y'all. That's Tavis Smiley.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, now he's known all around the world and this is a great day, as the choir is saying. In many ways it's a new day because when you were number one in the New York Times bestseller list, you sent a sign to the nation and the world that you're serious about subject matter in that text and the company with Black America is about some very serious subject matter. It's about folk catching hell. It's about folk wrestling with social misery. It's about folk trying to come to terms with their grief and their pain but transfiguring it into a vision. That's what the company with Black America is about. I want to thank Taverns for that and I wish we had enough time, brother, I'd bring you up here and say a word, but you gotta catch the plane. I know Get back to Los Angeles. But he told me on the phone brother Wes, what are you doing on the day that the book appears to be number one on the New York Times? I said, well, I got four activities on Thursday and Friday. I got three on Saturday. I only got one on Sunday. He said, well, I'm flying to the East Coast to be with you to celebrate together at historic Howard University Rankin Chapel.
Speaker 2:Number one New York Times best selling list, brother Tavis Smiley, brother Tavis Smiley. That makes a difference, y'all. Howard is not just any institution of high learning. My own colleague, toni Morrison, nobel Prize winner 1963. I was blessed to go with her when she went to Stockholm Howard University, both undergrad as well as professor Freedom fighters like Stokely Carmichael in the class that's Howard University. Oh yeah, that's not all of Howard University. There's some wonderful things about this grand institution. Like any other institution, it has its challenges. That's why we love it. So we're all incomplete and unfinished Individuals and institutions, but I'd like to salute each and every one of you this morning and I'd like to say a word on the topic.
Speaker 2:Now is the time for courage. Now is the time for courage, and I want to be autobiographical today, precisely because when I reflect on the book being number one Dialogue with Brother Tavis Smiley, the first thing that comes to my mind is how do we keep track of the least of these in such a way that we can keep alive the rich tradition of struggle for freedom and dignity rooted in the blood at the cross? And courage is the first thing that comes to mind. And I love your introduction, my brother. I love your introduction because when I think about the little courage I have been able to muster in the 52 years that the Lord has assigned me so far to be in space and time. I say to myself thank God that the Lord has assigned me so far to be in space and time. I say to myself, thank God, I'm my mama's child. I thank God, I'm my daddy's kid and I want to be a better servant for God's kingdom. Which is to say what? Which is to acknowledge from the very beginning we are who we are because somebody loved us, somebody cared for us, somebody attended to us, somebody kept track of us and all of our finitude and failings and defects and defaults. But we also recognize that we've got to situate ourselves in stories bigger than ourselves, to locate ourselves in narratives grander than ourselves. So one of the first points in talking about courage is a Socratic moment. It's very important that we have a Socratic dimension to our Christian faith. Y'all Very important.
Speaker 2:I'm thinking of line 38a of Plato's Apology that says the unexamined life is not worth living. But you and I know the examined life is painful. It takes courage to examine yourself in an unflinching manner. It takes courage to interrogate yourself. It takes courage to look in the mirror and see not just your phenotype, but who you really are when you take off the mask. Who you really are when you're not just undergoing the same old routine, same old social roles, becoming so well-adjusted to injustice. It takes courage to cut against the grain, become non-conformist rather than conformist. It takes courage to wake up as opposed to engaging in complacent slumbering. It takes courage to shatter cowardice and cowardliness. And one of the wonderful things about the covenant is that it's a sign that something is happening in black America. Something is happening in America and something is happening in the world y'all. It's an awakening of those late great James Cleveland called ordinary people.
Speaker 2:And when ordinary people wake up, elites begin to tremble in their boots. They can't get away with the abuse, they can't get away with subjugation. They can't get away with exploitation, they can't get away with domination. But it takes courage for folk to wake up. Most would rather escape and live a life at the level of superficiality. Howard University is all about Paideia educational system that tries to get you to wake up. So you move from the frivolous to the serious, from the superficial to the substantial, you cultivate yourself and undergo maturation of your soul.
Speaker 2:But that hurts. It hurts why? Because in the end, it's fundamentally about wrestling with forms of death, not simply acknowledging that, yes, we're made in the image of God, but we're also federalist, two-legged, linguistically conscious creatures born between urine and feces. That's us, and one day our bodies will be the culinary delight of terrestrial worms. You know that. Put on your three-piece suit if you want to. That's not an armor against death.
Speaker 2:And when you look death in the face, armor against death? And when you look death in the face, you have to say who am I really? What is the real quality of my service? What's the depth of my love? What price am I really willing to pay for what I believe in? What cost am I willing to bear for a cause bigger than my own egocentric predicament? That's the question. And the foremothers and forefathers who first stepped off the slave ships and were introduced into a whirlwind of white supremacy called the Americas, they had to wrestle with that question. Who am I really? What does it mean to be human? And we know our word, english word, human, comes from Latin humando, which means burying. That's what the earth, that's what the dirt, that's what humanity and humility is all about. Being connected to the ground.
Speaker 2:Black folk call it the funk, keeping it real. That's not just rhetoric. George Clinton's a genius, so is James Brown, so is Dyke and the Blazers. That's too old for y'all, but I like them. Fuck that stinking stench and love push that got us all out of our blessed mama's wombs and all movement to the tomb. Who are you gonna be in the meantime, in the interim? Interim nobody gets out of space and time alive. I did. Brother a was so good to see you. We call our discussions in Italy about this issue and it agreed to which.
Speaker 2:If you don't muster the courage to think critically about your situation, you will end up living a life of conformity and complacency and in fact, you lose a very rich tradition that has been bequeathed to you by your grand, four brothers and four fathers. And what a challenge it is. One of the worst things the older generation told young folk was to be successful after we broke the back of american apartheid. And jim and jane crow be successful, be successful. They begin to think my god, freedom is really about material toys.
Speaker 2:It's really about personal security? No, who told you that lie? It's about self-respect and self-regard and self-determination. It's about service to others. It's about being willing to sacrifice. It's about speaking the truth and recognizing you might be wrong, but you died for it if you had to. Where it happens, to that spirit, what is coming back y'all? For some of y'all, it took Hurricane Katrina to wake you up, and thank God we've got these wonderful students here to wake you up, and thank God we've got these wonderful students here to wake you up. But we knew there's social hurricanes, and Katrina all shot through American empire for the last 40 years, given this ice age and an ice age is nothing but an age in which it's fashionable to be indifferent to other people's suffering.
Speaker 2:Somewhere I've read the great William James said that indifference is the very trait that makes the very angels weep, and if that's the case, then heaven is overflowing with flood of the tears of angels, given the loss of keeping track of the humanity of poor folk, disproportionately black poor folk in New Orleans. But it's not just New Orleans. We can talk about Chocolate City, dc. We can talk about South Side Chicago. We can talk about East Los Angeles. And it's not just black folk. We got white poor brothers and sisters in Appalachia. See, I'm a Christian. I love everybody. I started home. Yes, that's true, I do start at home, no doubt. But all we just lost was Ann.
Speaker 2:Braden y'all know Ann Braden, towering figure in Kentucky, marching with Martin Luther King Jr. Just lost William Sloan Coffin, towering figure in New England, and you say, lord have mercy. We have progressive white brothers and sisters. How wonderful they just have so many cousins who need work. We have the rest of the white brothers and sisters. How wonderful they just have so many cousins who need work, who need deep work. But the point is Ann Graydon, sloan Culp, rosa Parks, ozzie Davis I still haven't gotten over the death of Luther Didn't mean that much to me.
Speaker 2:One of the freest black men who ever walked the earth, richard Pryor you can go on and on. Oh, eugene Reckitt Shy Life means so much. Wilson Pickett I like one song. They say he had 49 hits, but I believe it Still a towering figure. We're losing a whole host of folk. It's a whole wave that we're losing.
Speaker 2:Last time I spoke to you in 1996 in the chapel, talked about the death of a genius Name was Tupac Shakur, in September 1996. Next time I'm at the chapel. The birth of a movement. Death of a genius. Birth of a movement. Death of a genius, birth of a movement. Look at Credit Scott King. My God, what a giant. What a giant. Yet I was so upset at the funeral, couldn't watch it, colonized by powers that be. That's what it was my dear brother here, harry Belafonte. Escort Pay bills for the King family. Penny Martin's funeral. Supported the family when they were down and out, disinvited by the White House. By what authority the powers that be tell folk how to bury their dead with dignity and integrity? Hijack the legacy of Coretta and.
Speaker 2:Marl.
Speaker 2:You see old Brother West. The family was involved. I love the members of the family, but they must be responsible too. Oh yes, there's a connection between your relation between the dead and the quick and those who are still here and those who have gone on on the other side of the Jordan, and how you bury them says something about how you're living now. It says something about the quality of your service to them, and it's so easy to lose the best of what folk have honed over centuries, of what folk have honed over centuries, and one of the distinctive characteristics of black folk is that we have been willing to be Socratic because we've been willing to be on intimate terms with death, without allowing death to have the last word.
Speaker 2:What do you mean, brother West? What do you mean With slavery? 244 years, social death, no public value whatsoever, no social status whatsoever, just commodities to be bought and sold? No-transcript. What was the black response? Let's sing in a ring, shout and sing in such a way that we create the first art form in the history of American civilization called the spiritual, so that the globe and people all around the world will have to take note, have no land or territory, but we can still take back power, because that's what democracy is.
Speaker 2:It's about those slide stones called everyday people taking back power in the face of elite abuse of power, and sometimes the only thing you have is just your voice and your body. So you just take back power in terms of how you sing and how you stylize space and time with your body, and how you stylize facing time with your body and how you walk. That's a form of power. Others want to walk like you, talk like you, sing like you, but you broke as the Ten Commandments. Economically, mind you, hip-hop doesn't have it. Ah, here are these black brothers out here just chatting fodder for this racist criminal justice system that targets them in such a disproportionate way, with mandatory sentences and the differential treatment between crack and powder cocaine, just making sure that in some way they're pushed into a prison industrial complex that has profits on wall street.
Speaker 2:What's the response of africa bombada? What you got to say car ka? What you got to say Kara KRS-One? What you got to say Lauren Hill? What you got to say? We dealing with forms of death on the street, but we've got our voices to raise, even in the studios and we can't play instruments that well.
Speaker 2:So we gonna sample. Yeah, we gotta sample Sly Stone. We gotta sample Dave Brown. We gotta sample George Clinton. You gotta sample James Brown, you gotta sample George Clinton. Critics won't let them sample. Did y'all get the point? Intimate form to death what was Jim and Jane Crow? But civic death, no rights. Folk need respect the form of American terrorism. Every two and a half days, some black child, woman, baby hanging from some tree. It's a half a century, half a century. The response of black people to American terrorism is a little different than the White House. It was the 9-11. Vicious attacks by gangsters on innocent people. It's wrong. I'm against gangsters in all colors. I grew up with some gangsters. I love them, try to transform them and stay out of their way. Truth.
Speaker 2:They'll mow you down. Shoo at night. Keep a little distance from the brother. You know what I mean. Pray for him, love him. Don't come to my house, get yourself together before you wanna to have dinner with me. Leave your peace at the door. You know?
Speaker 2:Y'all know what I'm talking about 9-11, the first time in the history of America, all Americans feel unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence and hated for who they are. To be a nigger for 400 years in America, unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, hated for who you are. So what happens when a nation is?
Speaker 1:in some sense niggerized.
Speaker 2:What's the response? You see, matilda's mother didn't allow death to have the last word. No, she didn't, no, she didn't. She stood there with grace and dignity at Robert's Temple, a church in God, and Christ kept that casket open. His head was five times the size of an ordinary head. Where did she say to the world I don't have a minute to hate, I out pursue justice for the rest of my life. What a statement. What a level of spiritual maturity and moral wisdom. She did say it on her own.
Speaker 2:She was produced by a tradition of people that said we're gonna be so praticamente raising questions. But unlike Socrates, who never shed a tear, he never cries, these particular people fell in love with a Jew named Jesus, who wept for Lazarus. He wept for Jerusalem. He refused to act a gangster even when he was gangsterized, even when they put him on a cross, refused to tell lies, refused to demonize other people. That's real to death. That's what our young folk need, not just success, success, success. They need greatness, greatness, greatness. There's something different about that. I come from a tradition that says he or she is greatest among you will be a servant. But you end up obsessed with success, prosperity rather than magnanimity, security rather than integrity. You end up with a generation of peacocks. Walk around the beautiful for it. Look at me. Look at me. I'm so successful, I'm so accomplished. Look at my breakthroughs. I'm the first X, I'm the first Y, I'm the firstC. Why? I'm the first seed. And I can hear my grandmother saying from the back room peacocks truck because they can't fly.
Speaker 2:I can hear her saying you can't get off the ground. You're just a royal turkey, that's all y'all are. I can hear James Well and Johnson and his brother Rosamond say don't become so drunk with the wine of the world, don't become so intoxicated with the felicities of bourgeois sisters.
Speaker 2:No Bling bling with no end and no aim is nothing but a form of idolatry that leads to a spiritual malnutrition and existential emptiness. You come out of a tradition of service to others. Not just service to others, but, like Jesus, you take joy in serving others. I can't wait to help others. Why? Because you know that you can never repay what your mama did for you and your father and your grandmother and grandfather. And if you're a Christian, you'll never be able to repay the price that Jesus paid on the cross. And all of that blood, all of that love Gushing out at the foot of the cross.
Speaker 2:But oh, look at our churches today, my god. Not all of them, but too many of them. Oh, they turn the blood into kool-aid. You know what I mean? Oh, yes, that thin stuff. So all you do is just dip in so you can just keep moving. When you're up with mobility, you join church with an investment strategy I'll pay x and you give me my lexus, you give me my blessing, you give me my home ownership, you give me my social status, you give me my bourgeois true, true it's true, true, true, true.
Speaker 2:You go to some of these churches today, you can see two ATMs before you see a cross.
Speaker 1:Sad but true.
Speaker 2:sad but true I'll say it in love, but it makes my blood boil, because I'll never forget when I was rocked in the blood and I made my promise I'm going to love my way through the darkness. Oh yes, I don't mind being a little successful, because I got some baby to take care of and I got my mama too. My father's gone, so I'm going to be successful to the degree to which I can take care of my brother. Successful to the degree to which I can take care of others, just like this brother here turned 40 years old and give one million dollars to Texas Southern. One million dollars. He wants to be a servant. And what the covenant with black American tells our dear brother Hachimahibuchi? I will not take one penny.
Speaker 2:Third World Press will publish the text and every dime will go to you, because this is a question of the people empowering themselves. How rare it is among our celebrity brothers and sisters, and we got to love them now. This is very important because one of our problems we can't have a candid discussion with one another and criticize one another without others thinking you're putting them down. It's true, we had that with C-SPAN, with Mr Lewis Faircombe. We just lovingly disagreed with our brother. I love Mr Lewis Faircombe. He's got a deep love for black people. He lives under death threats every day.
Speaker 2:I don't agree with all of his vision. I'm part of the king legacy. I'm going with Jesus. I don't care what others have to say. I've experienced something. I've got a love on the inside. But that doesn't mean I refuse to love him. I embrace him.
Speaker 2:When he stood here in front of this bastion of power, legalized bribery and normalized corruption called the US Congress we got some decent congressmen and women, but not too many. Not too many. He stood there and said white supremacy must die for America to live. He's absolutely right. I would say male supremacy must die for America to live. He right. Anti-jewish hatred must die. Anti-arab hatred must die. Anti-asian hatred must die. Homophobia must die. Hating the physically challenged must die. Hating the elderly must die. Hatred's got to die In us in our society, to death in us in our society. George Bernard Shaw used to say hatred is the coward's revenge against those who intimidate you. Let me say that again Hatred is the coward's revenge against those who intimidate you. So if you're hating, you're nothing but a coward. You're scared. You can't come to terms with your insecurities and your fears and your anguish, your pain is real, but how do you transfigure that pain? Is it one that is transfigured by the love of the? Cross.
Speaker 2:It's a powerful way of doing it. But, as we know, I saw a sticker on a car the other day when I was in. I forgot where I was Indiana Gary, somewhere around there. It said Jesus, save us from your followers. It's true, some of the most dangerous folk in the world Talking about Jesus Christ. Isn't that something? Save us from your followers.
Speaker 2:Some of them confuse the cross and the flag, and that's nothing but an elevation of power, earthly power, over divine sovereignty. A lot of black folk fall for it. A lot of black folk fall for it. Still got the lover. But just point out, you're wrong. You ought to be shaming yourself. Your grandmama's weeping in her grave, your father's thickened. Think what your father would say. Oh, yes, he was a member of the MWATP, but I'm right-wing now. Oh, I see.
Speaker 2:It's so easy to jump on the bandwagon of indifference and complacency and some of them are just downright opportunistic. They're just selling out. You can just see the Negro sellout list. They're just lining up. They're just lining up, can't wait. Can't wait to get paid, it's true. Who wants to be a truth teller and a witness bearer for love and justice? That's what the cross is about. That's what it's about. I can hear the God of the universe saying don't play with me and don't play with my people. And if Christians themselves don't step out, then the rocks are gonna cry out.
Speaker 2:Because it's too many children living in poverty, too many disgraceful school systems in chocolate cities, too many dilapidated housing in the cities, too many unavailable child care and health care folks, not enough jobs with a living wage, unemployment, underemployment and corporate greed at the top running amok. 1% of the population on 51% of the wealth, oligarchic and plutocratic. 51% of the population on 51% of the wealth. It's oligarchic and plutocratic to some degree. Still pigmentocratic People run around.
Speaker 2:What would Jesus do? Roman Empire put him to a cross. How come? Because he's concerned with the least of these. He said all of us will be judged, not how sharp the clothes are, not how long the car is, not which neighborhood you live in, not what ritual you undertook, not what ceremony you try to enact. What is the quality of your service, the depth of your love? What price are you willing to pay? What burden are you willing to bear? And be honest about it. I love brother snoop, doggie snoop, doggie, doggie. But you ask, brother snoop, what you think about quality of service. What takes care of my kids and so forth. But I'm a gangster, you know. That's just who I am at the moment. That's just who I am at the moment. I like that because God can work with gangsters. God can go in the cell and work with you now he can catch you on the corner and work with you.
Speaker 2:There was a gangster called Malcolm in the cell. God worked through Elijah Muhammad in terms of getting him together. Then he had to outgrow. Elijah love can do that, and if you've never been in a gangster like situation in terms of getting him together, then he had to outgrow. Elijah Love can do that, and if you've never been in a gangster-like situation, you're not going to really understand what the blood is all about.
Speaker 2:As folk in bad news situations fully grasp the depth of the good news. You've been in good news situations all your life and you've just been cruising. You ain't had no catastrophes in your life, no traumas in your life, no scandals in your life, no monstrosities in your life. You're just living on the surface, just skating through life. Well, sooner or later a catastrophe is going to hit you and when it hits you, you discover who you are, and it comes in a lot of different forms. I was with my dear brother Jay-Z. I invited Jay-Z to my class. We have Jay-Z and KS1, chuck D come to my class with Tony Mars and a host of other cabins. He's there, brother Ray. I tell him Jay-Z, with Tony Morris and a host of other cabins and their brother Ray. I would tell him JC. I'd say you know, brother, fame can be a catastrophe. I wasn't just talking about Michael Jackson. Now, come on, man, fame will unmask who you really are. You have to raise a Socratic question how deep is my love really? Am.
Speaker 2:I so addicted to the celebrity status? Am I so addicted to the camera? Am I so addicted to fame? Am I so addicted to the stimulation and titillation that I'm no longer about empowerment and ennobling and enabling others Comes a lot of different forms. That's why the blood's for everybody, for the cross, blood is for everybody, for the cross is for everybody. But I am thoroughly convinced that the awakening that is now beginning to take place in this country connected to what's going on in Latin America, where working people and poor people are beginning to wake up in the face of the oligarchs with massive poverty.
Speaker 2:Connections with south africa, as in fact, that fragile democracy, under the great leadership of nelson mandela, begins to become a beacon for others around the world, even as it's wrestling with its own problem. There's a kind of centerification of Mandela taking place in South Africa. Y'all it happens. All the time Martin Luther King underwent the same thing. The most powerful forces against the status quo become like Santa Claus Big smile, domesticated, tame, defamed, with toys in the bag, with a smile. All of a sudden, all that love and that commitment to justice gets flattened out into just accommodation to the powers that be. You see it with Martin every January, every January, the very folk who oppose them. The most clever strategy Now tell me how much they love me. You got to watch that.
Speaker 2:But you have to be truthful about it in terms of acknowledging that for the younger generation, imitation is suicide. I won't say that to young folks. Imitation is suicide. There'll never be another Martin, just like there'll never be another Curtis Mayfield. There'll never be another Martin, just like there'll never be another Curtis Mayfield. There'll never be another Fannie Lou Heyman elevator. There'll never be another Malcolm X Like a jazz musician.
Speaker 2:You've got to find your own voice and for Christians, you find your voice with your own personal relation with your creator, a holy ghost that mediates that. And as you find your voice, do it in humility, do it in self-criticism, do it in the spirit of service to others and more than anything else and this is one of the things I love about my dear brother richardson you've got to have a fundamental commitment to young people. They are 100% of the future. 100% of the future. And why do I say that? Because I was young once and I know if I had not been attended to my gangster, proclivities would have come to the surface. They would have become salient and hegemonic.
Speaker 2:I still have gangster proclivities at 52, given all the love injected in me and given the cross, you can imagine what it would be like without that. And I grew up in a neighborhood, not a hood. It was all black, but neighborhoods played for them Wonderful ties of sympathy and bonds of empathy. People keep track of ya. A hood Survival of the slickest, obsessed with the 11th commandment thou shall not get caught. That's what young folk are up against. That's why I have so much respect for young folk, even when I disagree with them, cause I don't know what it's like to grow up in a hood.
Speaker 2:I don't know what it's like to be unloved, because I don't know what it's like to grow up in a hood. I don't know what it's like to be unloved. I don't know what it's like to have my father drifting. I don't know what it's like to have my mother overworked and underpaid. I don't know what it's like to have to dodge bullets every time I go to class. I don't know what it's like to go to schools that don't even have textbooks but high quality, even if I'm critical of the crack house where too many are men down, even if I'm critical of the levels of disrespect and disregard and self-destruction and self-flagellation that we see too often in their relations with one another. And I say to myself I take some responsibility. Should have taught him better how to be great. Should have taught him better how to love. Should have taught him better how to be great.
Speaker 2:Should have taught them better how to love, should have taught them better how to care and respect themselves. I know we're up against a lot with the mass media and so forth, but we must take responsibility. My dear brother Bill Cosby, who I love deeply, call me genius, but your language of correction must be informed by language of compassion or they won't hear it that way. I know you love them. Didn't make sure you put the love front when you talk about irresponsibility, because yes, there's a lot of irresponsibility on the block, no doubt about that. A lot of your responsibility in corporate America, within around the world, common. I don't find out of your responsibility on the white house, in the white house support line, the White House supporting lying and spying and torturing folk and so forth and so on. Let's talk about irresponsibility across the board. Let's talk about irresponsibility among the black middle class. Where is the moral outrage, given the situation of black children? Where is the moral outrage, given the prison industrial complex with young brothers sucked in? Where is the moral outrage with domestic violence against sisters, dealing with cowardly brothers abusing them? No, we can just float along in our isolated little monadic spaces, running into black folk these days telling me they optimistic. Anytime you hear folk talking about optimistic in this particular nation and empire, you know they're talking about the individual personal project. You're not talking about what's going on outside at all. I'll never forget indigenous people, 42 percent of their children living in poverty in their own land, genocidal attacks over 300 years. Never forget about it. Why? Because, in the name of Jesus, this is a challenge. I believe that the prophetic church can play a fundamental role if we are willing to go back to that cross and make sure that blood is thick so that you get enough armor so that you're not scared.
Speaker 2:I had to talk to my dear brother, td James. Yeah, we had a dialogue. We went out to dinner. Dinner spoke for hours before we ordered salad. I love my dear brother, think he's spiritual genius, no doubt about that. He didn't risk my life he really had.
Speaker 2:But I told my sister that thinking that political courage. No, brother, why would you say something like that to me? Because I think it's true. That's what I tell you, brother, you've got high visibility. Harper's Magazine said you're the most powerful black man in America. That's a major burden. All of us are crack vessels, each and every one of us. So we need to help one another and I said could you try out some evidence that would allow me to infer that you do have significant political courage in your ministry? We had a dialogue, y'all, and I'm going back. I'm going back, oh yes, why? Because people can change. It comes out of a different context. A certain kind of interaction interaction with the right wing televangelists is not a healthy thing for those who love justice, because they silent on the issue of white supremacy, this vicious legacy when it comes to institutions. They're silent when it comes to male supremacy. They're silent when it comes to imperial policy so you're spending a whole lot of time with it.
Speaker 2:That's right. You end up dialogue with Pat Robinson. You not going to find a lot of deep prophetic illumination. Nothing wrong with talking to him, but you're not going to find that he said oh, brother Wes, are you upset because I went into the White House? Are you upset because I have a relationship with George? I said not at all.
Speaker 2:A Christian should be able to go into a white house, crack house, mama's house, any house, and come out with your integrity. Come out with your vision, come out with your compassion, come out with your commitment to Justin. Come out any house you want, any house you want and you're gonna need you won't, and you're going to need help. You can't do it alone. You're going to need the Holy Ghost, you're going to need praying for you and you're going to need a loving family if you're blessed, and that's true right across the board.
Speaker 2:We talk about this Oprah entrepreneurial genius. In fact, on New York Times bestseller list, two texts that Brother Tavis pushed off, both of them driven by Ophry Night, by LA B Zell, our dear Jewish brother wrote the text in 1960. Talking about the Holocaust among Jews, brothers and sisters. Anybody suffering that same value. Every human being has the same value. Every individual made in the image of God. Ophry chose night. I said okay, you got a choice. There's a whole lot of nights in America. Next one was the brother who lied. What's his name? James Frey? Or maybe he didn't lie, he just fabricated it. Old for driven. Brother Tavis' text no appearance on one New York TV show. No appearance on one Chicago TV show. No appearance on one LA TV show. All through the churches, all through Tom Joyner, all through the networks. That kind of convinced folk to highlight night in America, night in America.
Speaker 2:Embrace Oprah's entrepreneurial genius, ask for accountability in terms of political courage. It's true, hip-hop artists, the same way, walk around big and bad, totally imposter and so radical in the studio and can hardly get them at a political demonstration. When it comes to police brutality. I thought you so courageous, I thought you so big and bad. Even Kanye West gets all nervous. Thank God for him. He gets real nervous. Speaking the truth from his soul, kanye, say it, brother. You said it well in the studio.
Speaker 2:George Bush does not put a high priority on poor folks, especially black folks. That's not a highly controversial statement. Go on and say it with conviction. Say it with conviction. We got evidence. Don't hate the man. Don't demonize the man. He's human. Talk about the effects and consequences of his policy. And then here come a brother of infinite value calls himself two quarters, half a dollar, 50 cents. Kanye's wrong about that. Kanye's wrong about that. Kanye's wrong about that. What are you saying, 50 Cent? George Bush is in love with poor people. George Bush's policies highlight black people. Come on, 50 Cent. We know you got nine bullets in you. We're praying for you. Why don't you speak the truth? Tell the truth, brother. Come on now.
Speaker 2:You got a following out here, sold 1.14 million records the first week. People listening to you. Listen to a little Gil. Go back and read Sterling Brown's Southern Road of 1932 and that part one. The road's so rocky.
Speaker 2:Turn to that last poem. Strong men keep a coming. Strong men getting stronger. Strong men loving so much that they're willing to sacrifice and keep their kids with dignity and organize against the bosses and keep the government honest. That's Paul Robeson, that's Ozzie Davis, that's James Baldwin and it's the sisters Ella Baker and Danny Lou. They go hand in hand and it spills over. Let me bring this to a close. Y'all you've been so kind. To a close. Y'all you've been so kind.
Speaker 2:But all I'm saying is now is the time for courage, the courage to think for yourself, the courage to love in such a way that is not some sentimental mamby-pamby sentiment, but it's a dangerous force that led to Jesus on the cross, because that's the kind of love I'm talking about. It's concrete, it's tactile, you can touch it, you can feel it, you know, in fact, that you're empowered by it when you're connected with that kind of love. And last, the courage to hope. Got too much cynicism around here, too easy. Too much cynicism around here too easy. Too much pessimism, pessimism, optimism flips out of the same coin. Reject the whole coin.
Speaker 2:Christian faith is not about optimism, it's about hope. That's the 13th chapter, first corinthian. That's something else, because when you're optimistic you can get some spectatorial distance, distance, stand away and look and see how things are going. But when you're full of hope, you're right in the midst of the muck and the mire and the funk and the stank and the stench, and you're still working it out with that love power that you've got and your commitment to justice and your connection to the story and tradition that helped shape you. So I say to each and every one of you anytime you talk about kingdom.
Speaker 2:God. Keep in mind. What the old folks say is that the kingdom of God is within you and and everywhere you go. You ought to leave a little heaven behind. What kind of heaven are you leaving behind in your commitment to love, justice, sacrifice, service? God bless you, howard University. Stay strong in your work. We got a number one bestseller. It's a new day in America. It's a new day in black America. Younger generations wake working up. Brothers and sisters gonna work it out. Just don't forget Jesus, don't forget the cross, don't forget your grandmother, don't forget those who came before, who loved you enough to sacrifice for you.
Speaker 1:Dr Cornel West has always been a big proponent of love love of yourself and love of those around you, of any other barrier given by the world that can be used as grounds of separation, and in the 50s 60s, they use a term called segregation In this sermon it was preached on the campus of Howard University back in 2016. Docford West encouraged us all to live lives of transformative love, justice and patience. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.