The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Dr. Cornel West Talks Presidential Run, Truth & Justice, Reparations, Student Loans, DEI + More

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

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Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. colleague oh i love this guy what's your name you know what i love a ride when it's time to head out if you see a buzzed warning sign call for a ride when it's time to go home buzz driving is drunk driving a message from nizza and the ad council i love your car is this real leather hey i'm jack

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Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning, everybody. It's DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne Tha Guy. We are The Breakfast Club. We got some special guests joining us this morning. That's right. We got the good brother, Dr. Cornel West.

Yes, indeed. And also his running mate, Malina Abdullah. Welcome. It's a blessing to be here. My brother said he'd bring me back. He's a man of his word. Good to see you, my brother, DJ Envy. And I'm so blessed to be with Sister Malina. She is one of the great freedom fighters of her generation. And we are running together for truth, justice and love. And we want people to see what it's like to have two black folk who have no fear, no lies, tell the truth, seek justice and love the people. Sister Melina, let's let's start with you. When Dr. Cornel West approached you to be his running mate, what was your thought process behind it all, behind even receiving that message and then deciding to do it? Well, before thinking, my soul jumped out of myself and said, absolutely. I told

him yesterday that I haven't felt this kind of spirit soaring since I had my last child, and that was 14 years ago. So my spirit spoke before my mind spoke. But then when I thought about it, I never planned to run for office, but it made all the sense in the world. I, like many people, have been deeply inspired by Dr. West, both as a scholar but also as a freedom fighter and one who marches and moves on behalf of our people. What made you want to choose Melina, Dr. Kona? You know, brother, I wanted to choose the best. I believe that excellence in the form of vision, courage, willingness to put your body on the line.

She's a scholar. She's an intellectual. She's been to jail many, many, many times. They have attacked her in vicious ways. She's still standing with a tremendous sense of determination. And in that sense, it's just a matter of always acknowledging what we always do. And that's true for everybody around here. We come from a great

black people who have the highest standards of excellence within our tradition. And I wanted to put a smile on the face of Fannie Lou Hamer and Martin Luther King Jr., Curtis Mayfield and Nina Simone. That's high standards because

those are the folk who are free. My brother Clifton always says, I want to see whether you're on a plantation or not. But this sister ain't never been on nobody's plantation. That's hard to find these days for black folks. And so to be able to work with her, work alongside her, learn from her, be instructed and inspired, it's a beautiful thing. And let the record show, Melina's been to jail for good trouble.

Donald Trump has been to jail many times too, so I just want to put that out there. He's been to jail for good trouble. That's right. I was going to ask you, what keeps you in the fight you know because it's it's a lot of money it's a lot of time it's stressful they attack you they attack every part of your life they dive deep into your finances your taxes and both of you guys you know you you both have families so they're gonna dive into your family so what makes you still want to to put that fight

on brother i got so much love poured into me from Irene and Clifton West and Grandma and Granddad from Shiloh Baptist Church, Reverend Willie P. Cook and Deacon Hinton and others, that I would have to live three lifetimes to begin to pay that back. And then by the time you connected with the Black Panther Party,

connected with those folk I didn't know, the Malcolms and the Fannie Lou Hamers and others, all that love they poured in, all that courage, all that integrity, the least thing I could do is tell the truth and seek justice before I meet my end and meet my maker. You know what I mean? So I get up with joy, and I got the joy the world didn't give me the world can't take away. And it's a deep joy tied to the struggle and trying to make the world a better place for oppressed people, poor people, working people

trying to deal with all this organized greed and institutionalized hatred and routinized indifference to the vulnerable. It's a beautiful thing to be in struggle with. There's a whole host of folk who are concerned about making the world a better place with a smile and also

with a style too because we come out of people that got style and soul though brother melina i mean for me i i couldn't say it better than dr west it is what we owe our ancestors it is what we owe our god it is what we owe our people and i'll also offer that i'm a mother of three children. And my three children, two of the three of them had police called on them in schools when they were six years old for the first time. And I cannot leave a world as it is for Tandiwe, Amar, and Amen. We have to do the work to make the world better for them. That's what we owe our ancestors. That's what we owe our ancestors. That's what we owe our people. That's what we owe our children. And that's what we owe generations to come.

That's what we owe ourselves as well. I was going to ask what they told me. I was going to ask, you know, you guys are running independently and people when they question the Democrats or they question Biden or they question Kamala Harris, they say people are going against their race and people are going against what they, quote unquote, should be doing. What's your thoughts on that? Because on all acts rally, people would say that you guys are questioning them as well. That's true. That's true. Fannie Lou Hamer said, I'm questioning America. I'm questioning capitalism. I'm questioning patriarchy. And I'm questioning white supremacy. The folk who want to defend Biden and can't say a mumbling word about the genocide

and ethnic cleansing and apartheid state of Israel, it means they're turning their backs. But no, we don't come out of tradition like that. We committed to Jamal Leticia in the hood. We committed to Juan and Juanita in the barrio. We committed to poor whites. We committed to Palestinians. We committed to Jamal Leticia in the hood. We committed to Juan and Juanita in the barrio. We committed to poor whites.

We committed to Palestinians. We committed to any folk. We committed to Jews when they catch in hell. We around in 1930, we consolidated with the Jews against Hitler. Right now, you got genocide taking place in Gaza. We take a stand, not out of self-righteousness, but because we want to be moral and spiritual. That's who we are as a people, man.

At our best. I'm not talking about our worst. At our best. And therefore, you got Trump, dead-up gangster, leading the country towards Civil War II. Biden, war criminal, leading the world toward World War III. Now you're going to choose

between Civil War II and World War III. What you going to do? That's the history of black folk. For us, Pharaoh has always been on both sides of the bloody Red Seas. What you going to do? Sing a song. What you going to do? Crack a smile. Crack a joke. Hug. Organize.

Mobilize. And then make a way out of no way. That's the history of black folk. How have we made a way out of no way that's the history of black folk how have we made a way out of no way i sit here and look at you young brothers i know what's in you i know your grandparents i know what they've been through they made a way out of no way look at you sitting there with all this dignity couldn't do it by yourself that's that rich tradition inside of you that's all we're trying to do and that's the truth of my dear sister going back to Louisiana we both got

Louisiana roots deep Louisiana even though she come out of East Oakland so I mean you know she got jump started like East Oakland is like Detroit and Chicago and Mississippi is even deeper than all of them but we won't get into that right now South Carolina was it Monk's Corner?

Yes, sir. Oh, Lord have mercy. You know, you brought up the Civil War thing, and this happened to me this Friday. This happened on, I think, Tuesday or Wednesday. I walked downstairs, and it was just a white guy had on some khakis and nice shoes and sweater, glasses, looked like a Wall Street type.

And he was just like, man, you Charlemagne, right? He goes, man, he said, man, I want you to tell people that it's going to be a civil war regardless of who wins. And I was like, because he didn't even look like the type. He wasn't a wild conspiracy theorist type. He just was like, you tell people that it don't matter if Biden won or Trump won, there's going to be a civil war in this country. And I was like, yikes. So what makes you feel that way?

Well, we certainly had it that way that's what civil wars are about when you get organized greed and institutionalized hatred running amok especially at the top manipulating everyday people people feeling frustrated impotent powerless and then you scapegoat the most vulnerable rather than confront the most powerful and what sits at the center of it white supremacy now it's undergirded by capitalism and all the greed that that generates profit and so forth. But does that make sense, my dear sister? It does make sense, and it makes sense when we talk about why we have to get involved and why we have to do something different, why we can't just go along to get along. So the question about why we're not just saying, you know, let's let's duck Trump. Let's make sure Trump doesn't get in. Of course, Trump is the embodiment of evil. Of course, Trump is the he's the devil incarnate. Absolutely. Right. But we also have to remember that, you know, my children and all their friends recognize Joe Biden as Genocide Joe. And so we

can't just go along to get along. We can't just say, let's take the lesser of two evils. The lesser of two evils is still evil. And so how do we pull ourselves into our highest selves? How do we say, you know, it's always been true that white supremacist patriarchal capitalism will try to get us to celebrate the individual advancement of a few at the expense of the many. And so we refuse to do that. We say we all must be free. If we're not all free, nobody's free. I got a question for both of y'all. When you talk about this civil war, I don't think the civil war is going to be between Republicans and Democrats. I think it's going to be between the haves and the have nots. What do you think? deep in the country that even well-to-do black folk could be viciously attacked by some of the poor white folk. So that race is going to be crucial, but the class dimension that you talk about will be crucial, too.

There's no doubt about it. And we know how ugly the gender question is. But you got, what, 30% of now black brothers saying they're going to vote for gangster Trump. Hey, where is that coming from? Well, that's a complicated situation. That's just at the moment. We don't know what it's going to be like in November.

But once the vicious conflict sets in, we don't know what response would be. We just have to make sure that we have a moral and spiritual witness. We're going to be a witness. We're going to bear witness to the best of the traditions of our people that has preserved our dignity and our sanity, regardless of what the circumstances is. Because you've got to keep in mind, there's been a war against indigenous peoples for about 600 years. There's been a war against black folk for 400 years.

We're at war right now. So we're just talking about the hot war versus the cold war. You go to mass incarceration and the jails and so forth. I want to salute Brother Mumia because he got his birthday coming up 7-0. But he's been in a war. So the war is always ongoing. But the question is

what form it will take. And we have to decide personally and collectively are we going to hold on to some sense of morality and spirituality given all this barbarity what do you think melina who do you think the war will be between yeah i i think you're right on about the haves and the have-nots and it's those who also identify with the haves and the have-nots right so you have plenty of poor people um plenty of poor white people especially who identify with the haves even though they themselves are the have-nots. And so it's really important that we awaken people to what their real interests are, right? That we awaken poor people, working class people, regardless of race, to what their interests are. And so as we awaken folks, we can lock arms and engage in

whatever struggle needs to take place for the liberation of beginning with black people and extending to all oppressed people. How do we get people to get out of the mind frame where I only can vote for Democrat or Republican, right? I say it all the time. A lot of people are from years and years and years of grandparents voting Democrat and great-grandparents and then parents and then yourselves. How do we get them out to think outside of the box, right? Because automatically when somebody sees somebody running as an independent, they think, well, he is or she is, there's no way that they can possibly win. They're just somebody in there to start trouble and to to mess up the the democrats so how do we get people to change that view yeah

i think part of it is you know curtis mayfield got this song no thing on me i'm so glad i got my own so glad that i can see my life is a natural high the man can't put no thing on me. It depends on what you see. When we see, we have to see a system. You can't just look at two parties. You got to see how both of them are tied to Wall Street and Pentagon. Both of them tied to war. Both of them tied to greed. And so you have to have an

understanding of how the system operates and then say, ah, I want to be critical of the system i'm not just critical of trump's gangsterism i can see how trump's gangsterism is inseparable from biden's genocidal policies facilitating genocide in gaza so you begin to see how the system operates and connects what's happening with the palestinians in gaza but what's happening in black folk in harlem what's happening with poor whites in kentucky what's happening with the Palestinians in Gaza, what's happening in black folk in Harlem, what's happening with poor whites in Kentucky, what's happening with poor Latinos

in East L.A. And that is a different way of seeing the world. That's why our artists at their height, Nina Simone and others, they help us to see things we didn't see. Then the question becomes how do you implement? How do you execute? Usually, when you see and you raise

your voice, you get incarcerated or assassinated. That's what the system does to free black people. So you have to be willing to pay that cost. And that's exactly what the cost we're willing to pay. How come? Because we love the people. And the only thing that breaks the back of fear is love. And if you don't love the people, then get out of the way and go on and sell out. Go on and sell your soul for a mess of and tell people lies. Tell them how great Biden is. Tell them

Biden has always been concerned with no, he's our architect of mass incarceration. That's a crime against humanity. I've taught in prison for 41 years. I've seen it go from 200,000 to 2.3 million right before my very eyes. That's a crime against humanity. That's my brothers and sisters

in there. Don't lie. Don't be lying on Biden in that sense. So it's that kind of truth telling that we need, and it's rooted in love. Why do they act like as a black person, you can't speak that kind of truth but still know what's in your

best interest to do come November? Why do they act like those two things can't happen that kind of truth, but still know what's in your best interest to do come November. Why do they act like why they act like those two things can't happen at the same time? Melina, I think that there you know, when we talk about this duopoly of Democrats and Republicans, they want to lock us into these very narrow choices. Black people are the most critical people, the most discerning people, the most creative people on this planet, right? And they want to block us from that creativity because that kind of creativity gives birth to new ideas, but also new worlds, right? So I want to lock in and be clear about what this campaign is about, that we're advancing alternative visions as Harriet Tubman abolitionists.

We absolutely want to topple systems of harm. We want to topple systems of prisons that descend from plantations and policing that descend from slave catchers. And as Harriet Tubman abolitionists, we also know that as we tear down systems of harm, we want to build new systems of care that we can have if we make different choices. Imagine what would happen if we had the hundred and something billion dollars that Joe Biden just sent to fuel genocide in Gaza. What if we had that for housing?

What if we had those resources that are poured into police? In major cities, it's about half of the unrestricted funds that go to policing, even though police don't make us more safe. What if we had those dollars instead for health care? What if we had those dollars instead for education? These are simple and easy choices. And so that duopoly that's owned by corporations wants to lock us out so that they can keep the vision and the possibilities narrow. We're saying no more of that. Our possibilities are expansive

and beautiful and creative. And we have to shake off this world that really sucks the life out of our people and puts targets on the backs of our children you know melina you founded uh you were the co-founder of the la chapter of the black lives matter movement um and in 2022 you got police took you out of a mayoral debate well i'm not gonna say took you out that'd be kind they dragged you out you know what was the reasoning behind it they carried me out by all fours so that means on each limb i had a different cop pulling me from each limb on the last day of ramadan with my legs sprawled open it was not only brutal it wasating, it was dehumanizing. There is no justifiable reason for them doing that. I don't know the reason that they did that. I can

surmise that they thought I was there to do something that I wasn't there to do. I was simply there to watch a mayoral debate by training. My PhD is in political science, Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep keep going that's what my podcast post run high is all about it's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories their journeys and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together you know that rush of endorphins you feel after a great workout? Well, that's when the real magic happens. So if

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I'm Jack Peace Thomas, and I'm inviting you to join me in a vibrant community of literary enthusiasts dedicated to protecting and celebrating our stories. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while commuting or running errands, for those who find themselves seeking solace, wisdom, and refuge between the chapters.

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For Mayor, who's now our Mayor, Karen Bass, my research is on Black Women's Leadership our mayor, Karen Bass, my research is on black women's leadership. So, of course, I want it to be on my own campus. I want it to be on my own campus watching that debate. And so I think that that's absolutely despicable. Still haven't gotten a real apology or any remedy from the school. The school still continues to harass me, sending police into

my office, searching my office and telling me they'll be back for me. And this is the reason why we want to advance policies like removing police from our campuses. Our campuses don't have enough counselors. They don't have enough scholars. They don't have enough staff to clean up. But we have police that we're spending millions and millions of dollars on. I'm sorry you had to go through all of that. Is it true that you sued BLM?

I sued and I should be very clear. Black Lives Matter grassroots which is the side of Black Lives Matter that I represent where the boots on the ground were 33 chapters around the country of Black Lives Matter that I represent. We're the boots on the ground. We're 33 chapters around the country. Black Lives Matter grassroots is the real BLM.

When you think of Black Lives Matter being in the streets, organizing alongside families, that's who we are. In 2022, our resources and platforms were stolen by a group of highly paid consultants. And we know we have a right to those things back. And so we sued them after trying to convince them to do the right thing. And that wasn't going to happen. They refused to listen to the voices of the people.

We did file a lawsuit in September of 2022. Okay. But let me just add this, though. You see, when they attacked our dear sister, and they do it over and over again, and that's true for so many of us who go to jail and so on, that we're threats. You see, that's a compliment. That means that we're true to our calling. And you can have a calling as a secular person. You can have a calling as a secular person you can have a calling as a religious person

I'm a Jesus loving free black man who wants to be true to the call so if I'm not constituting a threat then how am I a follower of Jesus who went into the temple and ran out the money and put him on the cross my dear sister is Muslim she's a law loving free black woman mercy, justice, Quran, and you constitute a threat.

So when she's willing to pay that kind of cost, that's a sign of courage, integrity, and it's connected to a calling. You got to have some calling. If all you got is your career, then you want somebody's plantation and and any carrots that they dangle in front of you, you're going to opt for. But when you have a calling and a professor, distinguished scholar and so forth, that my dear sister is, she's true to something bigger than her and her career. What is it? Well, it's the people, but it's also her God. Now, people get upset sometimes we talk about God in politics.

I say, no, we're not saying anybody got to follow us but we got to be true to where we coming from we got to be true to what keeps us going preserves our sanity and our dignity and it's just not God we talk about Curtis Mayfield you talking about Curtis Mayfield and John Coltrane all the time I'm talking about folk

who keep me sane and therefore I won't be stopped from that, but I won't allow others to feel as if I'm imposing God on them or Christianity on them or Islam on them or Buddhism with bell hooks and others. We're being candid about what's inside of us, and we're being open in terms of people being candid. What's inside of them? What policies would you would you implement that you feel that Biden is not doing for black people?

Biden and Trump and Trump. Well, first thing is reparations. Second thing is abolition of poverty, abolition of unhousedness, supporting militant wing of the trade union movement that's fighting for wages for workers across the board. And what my dear sister was talking about, disinvestment for military, 800 military units around the world, special operations, 130 countries. That's an empire. We're anti-imperialist. America doesn't need to be an empire. We've got to be a nation among other nations. We don't need to dominate every nook and cranny of the world. So all of those resources, the trillions of dollars going into military, 62 cents for every one dollar in the

discretionary budget, that's going to housing. We can stop this gentrification taking place, this power grab and land grab, pushing out poor and working people, pushing up the prices, the greed of Wall Street, the greed of corporations and oligopolies and monopolies, and dealing with the ecological crisis with the fossil fuel companies. So that that is a way of going back to Curtis Mayfield. What we see, the lens through which you view the world, and we view the world through the lens of those friends for known called the wretched of the earth. I don't view the world through stock market.

I don't view the world through how many black faces are in high places when their cousins getting crushed it's a different way of engaging politics this is what my brother calls a paradigm shift we are not politicians she's been running for justice all of her adult life i've been running for justice all of my adult life we need people to get in politics who've been running for justice all of my adult life. We need people to get in politics who already been running for justice, running for truth and into politics. Don't enter politics and think all of a sudden you're going to be a truth teller. That ain't going to happen. Are y'all getting

blackballed? Dr. Cornel West from media, from the MSNBCs, the CNNs. Are they having you on? Well, I've never been on MSNBC that much because they were titled Obama, and we've got a history there. But CNN has been kind.

We were on Sister Abby last night, right? Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay. Yes. Okay. Biden, Trump, the rematch is coming in November. What do you think the Democrats have done well? We know who the Republicans are, but what do you think the Democrats have done well? We know who the Republicans are, but what do you think the Democrats

have done well, if anything? The one thing they did was cut child poverty in half because we put a lot of pressure on them. And what happened? It expired and it's doubled again. So they did something well for

a little bit and then fell back. And, of course, we got a long thing of what they're not doing well. But my dear sister, you jump right in. Right. I mean, I think that there are individual Democrats who are doing really beautiful things, who are stepping forward in courage. So Cori Bush is an inspiration to me. Absolutely. Jamal Bowman is doing phenomenal work.

Ayanna Pressley is carrying a bill for us right now called the Ending Qualified Immunity Act. And so I think that there are some courageous Democrats. Unfortunately, there are too few and far between. So overall, as a political party, they are cowering to corporate interests. They are abiding by what corporations want, what the few want, as you put it, what the haves want,ris smalls and the amazon labor chris absolutely yeah chris is my folks and you know that's the kind of labor union we want and we're not seeing the kind of support for real labor for radical labor unions like we need like we should be expecting from the democratic party although there are some individual courageous Democrats. What do you think about the student loan forgiveness? Oh, shoot.

That should have been in place a long time ago. My God, I crossed the board. And not only that, but we ought to have free education, free health care, and we ought to have a right to housing. I was just with the Reclaim Movement there in the Eastside Cafe in Los Angeles, and they got all these homes empty and got hundreds and hundreds of folks nowhere to go and of course we know Pastor Q in Skid Row right? The church without a wall. Pastor Q we know Los Angeles Community

Action Network again our policies and if you look at our platform at Cornell West 2024 before I was invited onto this ticket, I was inspired by the platform. I was inspired by Dr. West. I was inspired by a visionary plan to build what we can have when we make different choices. When we refuse to, again, fuel genocide at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars, right? We can't have housing for all. When you ask about student debt, you know, there's a cancellation of a limited amount of student debt, but there shouldn't be student debt in the first place because education should be free. From birth

through doctorate, education should be free. And so these are the kinds of choices that we make. We know that budgets are some of the most serious moral and ethical documents, and they are zero-sum games. So if you're spending on a military industrial complex, you're not housing your folks. And we want to make the choice to house our folks, to feed our folks, to provide quality health care for all. Those are the things that you'll get. And those are the things that we're proposing to the world to make different choices with this campaign. How would you handle the DEI situation if you were president, Dr. Cornelius? Well, one, I would never use the language DEI. What is diversity?

No, we're talking about truth and justice. You see, we've got a vicious legacy of white supremacy. You exclude black folk for over 100 and some years, and then you're going to say, well, we've got a diversity program for y'all. No, no, we want truth. We want justice. It's reparations. And therefore, the language was wrong. The language was a deodorized, sanitized language that concealed the funk. We come out of a funk master-oriented people.

We want to get beneath this deodorized language. We want to ensure that black folk gain access to whatever opportunities they can, given the fact they've been excluded. So diversity and equity and inclusion became this strategy for those who had power and resources to think that somehow we were getting something that we hardly deserved. So already you got the wrong lens with your viewing thing. But we had to go with it because we fight. And as my dear sister says, you put it so well yesterday, right?

You fight for the crumbs. Fight for the crumbs. But, you put it so well yesterday, right? You fight for the crumbs, fight for the crumbs. But, you know, they're still crumbs. And you know that in the end, we've got to make sure that those who benefit are not just the black middle class, the black bourgeoisie. We support them in becoming inclusive, usually when they get in there to sell out, but not always. Not always, but usually they do. You know, that's a human thing. Black folk ain't the only one doing it. But we got to always view the litmus test.

And here I get biblical, 25th chapter of Matthew. What you do unto the least of these you do unto me, the prisoners, the poor, the widow, the orphan, the fatherless, the motherless. What's happening with precious Jamal and Letitia on the block? That's the litmus test. No matter how much success we have, and it's a beautiful thing, if we lose sight of them, we have already violated our calling. And, of course, part of it is all of us, just generations back, sometimes a few years back, we were right there.

That's who we are, you see. And so for me, the DEI issue is one in which it never should have been DEI. It should have been true justice. But now it's DEI. You support it, and you know it's a vicious attack on black folk. You see it at Harvard. That's right. It's a vicious attack on black folk you see it at harvard that's right it's a sad thing it's

sister claudine becomes a poster child for anti-semitism ain't got a anti-semitic bone in her haitian body that's sick that's ridiculous what do you think melina i'll just add you know it was already said brilliantly but i've been thinking also about it overnight. The I, the inclusion part. I actually don't want to be included in a fundamentally oppressive system. Right. So the inclusion, the I is reminding us that they're not willing to transform an oppressive system into a liberatory one. They're only willing to say a few of y'all can come in the door. And what we want is the transformation of these systems so that we can all use them for our liberation and freedom, right? We do want quality education. We do want

accessible education. We do want liberatory models of education where ethnic studies, where pan-African studies, which is what I teach, is part, it's foundational. Because it's as important for you to take a class from me as it is to take a math class. I don't know a bit of algebra, right? I don't know a bit of algebra anymore, right? But I do need to know my history, my background, my power, how systems work. And so we want liberatory models of education, not just an inclusion into a system that's fundamentally oppressive. Dr. Cornelius, did you see Avion Crockett's impression of you in the movie, A Hip Hop Story? No. Yeah. He did his thing.

Yes, he did. Is that right? You got to check it out, man. I got to check that out. I'm glad you mentioned that. I mean, it wasn't a disrespectful impersonation at all. He had his fro and everything in play. He had his fro and everything.

He's probably so much more handsome than I am, but that's all right. That's all right. I'll work with it. I'll work with it. How can people donate and make sure they support and follow the cause? Yeah, as my dear sister said, it's CornelWest2024.com. CornelWest2024.com. We are turning the

corner, and the fact that Malina Abdullah said yes takes us to a different level, because we got new vision, new intellect, new energy energy new courage coming together and when brother tab was smiling formally that we always want to start with tablets we like to

support black folk in media and so forth we with tim black and so on that when he said the historic ticket of two black folk and you said well it's not just two black folk it's two visionary courageous people loving black folk you see what I mean Tammy Terrell is very and Marvin Gaye is very different than just any duet

that's what Barry Gordy understood so yes it's about skin pigmentation but the deeper level is people who love the people. That's right. Sacrifice, serve the people. No, you could be wrong. Listen to the people.

Revel in the people's humanity and creativity and music and culture. But then love them enough to correct them. Respect them. Protect them. Correct them. And be corrected too and that's what we have with this twosome and we

on the move as Mumia Abu-Jabbar would say on the move we appreciate you guys for joining us and as I always tell you Dr. Cornel West don't be a stranger you're so kind you said that last time I want you to go Dr. Cornel West That's right. You said that.

That's right. Dr. Cornel West. Melina Abdullah. Thank you for joining us. It's the breakfast club. Good morning. Wake that ass up in the morning.

The breakfast club. Hey guys, I'm Kate Max. You might know me from my popular online series, The Running Interview Show, where I run with celebrities, athletes, entrepreneurs, and more. After those runs, the conversations keep going. That's what my podcast, Post Run High, is all about. It's a chance to sit down with my guests and dive even deeper into their stories, their journeys, and the thoughts that arise once we've hit the pavement together. Listen to Post Run High on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. colleague oh i love this guy what's your name you know what i love a ride when it's time to head out if you see a buzzed warning sign call for a ride when it's time to go home buzz driving is drunk driving a message from nizza and the ad council i love your car is this real leather hey i'm jack

b thomas the host of a brand new Black Effect original series, Black Lit, the podcast for diving deep into the rich world of Black literature. Black Lit is for the page turners, for those who listen to audiobooks while running errands or at the end of a busy day. From thought-provoking novels to powerful poetry, we'll explore the stories that shape our culture. Listen to Black Lit on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Gracias Come Again,

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