The State of the Black Union

Have I ever told anyone that I love C-SPAN? I mean, I think that I am addicted to it. Nobody should like something so much. My favorite thing on C-SPAN is the yearly symposium done by Tavis Smiley called “The State of the Black Union”. He gets Black leadership from clergy, academia, government, and the private sector together to talk about the struggles facing Black America today.

My favorite part is Cornel West, who always brings his A game. First of all, I like the guys sense of style, both in his look and his speech. I mean the Afro and the crazy beard seems to work for him. I like how he talks about the struggles in America, not just Black America, from a historical perspective. I love how he respects the intellectual process and the need for dialogue, because finding people who do respect both of these things in our society is like trying to find someone who wasn’t stoned at a Dead concert. I think that brother West says it all here, all errors and emotions mine:

And we‘ve got to be clear about where the starting point is. The starting point is there is too much Black social misery in the world and in the country. Too many folks suffering ought not be suffering, so we have to keep the focus there. Then the question becomes, how do we get clarity of vision, quality of service, but preserve our sense of history? Because the present is history, and you are looking at history.
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But the issue is bigger than us. And the question is, how do we bring together the political leadership that is courageous, the spiritual leadership that knows how to speak each of death and dread and despair, and the economic leadership that knows how to engage in entrepreneurial creativity, and then the ordinary folk with all of their riches and their unbelievable creativity and their music and what have you? So we need a division of labor. We need to respect each other enough that we answer to different geniuses and contributions that we make so our egos do not get in the way of the struggles of the people.