We discuss the killing of three police officers in Baton Rouge and the recent nationwide protests against police brutality with Cornel West. Cornel West is a professor at Union Theological Seminary. “When I hear the authorities call for peace,” West says, “I say, yes, but itās not the absence of tension. Itās got to be the presence of that justice and accountability.”
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Iām Amy Goodman. We are “Breaking with Convention: Power, Politics and the Presidency.” Every day, weāre broadcasting for two hours, this week from Cleveland during the Republican National Convention, which opens later this afternoon, and next week from Philadelphia.
To talk more about the killing of the three police officers in Baton Rouge and the recent nationwide protests against police brutality and why heās here in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention for the week, weāre joined by professor Cornel West. Dr. West is a professor at Union Theological Seminary. He endorsed Bernie Sanders for president last summer, was appointed by Sanders to serve on the Democratic platform committee, author of numerous books, including Black Prophetic Fire.
Welcome to Democracy Now! Itās great to have you with us right here in Cleveland.
CORNEL WEST: In the midst of the madness here, my dear sister.
AMY GOODMAN: The killingsāthe killings of the police officers in Baton Rouge, before that, in Dallas, the killing of the African-American residents Alton Sterling as well as Philando Castile?
CORNEL WEST: Yeah, yeah. Well, there will never, ever be peace without justice. There will never be calmness without accountability. There will never be order without fairness. So when I hear the authorities call for peace and call for calmness and call for order, I say, yes, but itās not the absence of tension. Itās got to be the presence of that justice and accountability and that fairness. When I hear the authoritiesāeven President Obama says, well, the attack on the police is an attack on all of us. I said, OK, but an attack on black people, especially black youth, is also attack on all of us. If, in fact, the attack on the police is an assault on all of us, then when the police unfairly maims and murders civilians, the police is killing on behalf of all of us. Well, I donāt want the police killing on behalf of me. I want the police to be treated with respect and fairly, and I want black youth and brown youth, black men and black women to be treated fairly.
And thatās why I came here to Cleveland. Iāve come here. Weāve already marched with Brother Malik Zulu Shabazz, with my precious black nationalist brothers and sisters. We marched Ninth Avenue all the way toāfrom 12th Avenue all the way to 71st Avenue, Second Ebenezer Baptist Church, Reverend A.L. Owens. Iām here with Reverend Jawanza Colvin at the great historic Mount Olivet Institutional Baptist Church. Weāre going to have a gathering with Sister Nina, our dear sister Nina, whoās here, whoās just magnificent in terms of her presence, you know, here in Cleveland.
AMY GOODMAN: Nina Turner?
CORNEL WEST: Yeah, the great Nina Turner. And then the AIDS Healthcare Foundation last night, with Raheem DeVaughn and Mary Mary and The Roots. You know, and, see, 49 years ago yesterday was the death of John Coltrane. And for me, thatās crucial, because itās really about a love supreme, itās really about the giant steps that we have to take. But we have to hit the streets. Weāve got to preserve the resistance and let the young folk know, see the tears of our dear sister, the aunt. You know, stop the killing. Stop killing black people. Stop killing working people. Because itās not just a racial thing. Theyāre killing a lot of white brothers and sisters, too, but itās disproportionately chocolate. And, yes, youāve got to stop killing the police, but weāre in this together. We got social neglect. Youāve got economic abandonment. Every day, youāve got poor black people who are wrestling with unbelievably oppressive conditions. And weāve got to be able to speak candidly and honestly about that and come up with some ways of rechanneling a lot of this rage and anger.
Dr. Cornel West, affectionately known to many as Brother West, is the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary. Dr. West teaches on the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as courses in Philosophy of Religion, African American Critical Thought, and a wide range of subjects -- including but by no means limited to, the classics, philosophy, politics, cultural theory, literature, and music. He has a passion to communicate to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. ā a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice. He has written 20 books and has edited 13. He is best known for his classics, Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and for his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud. His most recent book, Black Prophetic Fire, offers an unflinching look at nineteenth and twentieth-century African American leaders and their visionary legacies.
Amy Goodman (born April 13, 1957) is an American broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter, and author. Perhaps most well known as the main host of Democracy Now! since 1996. She is the author of six books, including The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope, and Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America.
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