And phd in philosophy at princeton. He has written more than 20 books and has edited 13. He is best known for his classics race matters and democracy matters and his memoir brother west, living and loving out loud. He appears frequently on the colbert report, cnn and cspan, and he also made his film debut in the matrix, and he was a commentator on the official trilogy released in 2004. Dr. Ck prophetic fire, with christa book, buschendorf presents a perspective on six africanamerican leaders dubois, martin. Luther king jr. , ellen baker, malcolm x and otto barnett. Examine the impact of these men and women within these passionate advocates but also their fault lines, providing new insights that humanize all of these wellknown actors, west ines an important step rekindling the black prophetic fire so essential in the age of obama. Helene atwan has been director of the beacon press since october of 1995. She holds a masters degree in English Literature from the university of virginia. She began her career in publishing at random house in 1976. Her acquisitions at beacon include dale jones, a National Book finalist, the iron cage number richard longos for all of us, cornel wests black prophetic fire and anita hills reimagining equality. She served eight years on the board of penn, new england, and is administrator of the Hemingway Foundation pen award. Thank you for being you today. [applause] [applause and cheers] helene thank you for the very warm miami welcome. It is a great pleasure to be here today with all of you and i have the greater honor of being in dialog with professor west. So in addition to the introduction you just heard, i want to say that cornel west is working on two other books with us, and one coming up soon is his addition of the writings of Martin Luther king, jr. Which will be called appropriately the radical king. That will be published on dr. Kings birthday, and i think you should all look out for that and his next book after that will be a very important one, justice matters. We are very much looking forward to that as well. I am going to ask cornel to talk briefly about each of the six figures he discusses in the new book and then to reflect on how their legacy impacts us today. And then i am going to turn the floor over for the questions. Michele alexander said of black prophetic fire this was a fascinating exploration of the black prophetic genius and fire. I would like to start by asking you how you define black prophetic fire and then we can talk about each of the figures. Cornel thank you for that question. I would like to just begin briefly by saluting personnel, my publisher, very blessed to work with James Baldwin. The same press not old enough to work with baldwin, but same press James Baldwin did write for, so many other towering figures, and i would like to sit salute the president jorge. Those are the two leaders. 31 years. 31 years. Odds thata lay kind of alliance, i like to see that collaboration and coordination. Coagulation. Black prophetic fire. I want to begin by saying i am who i am because somebody, somebody cared for me. Somebody attended to me. I am trying to keep track of my own fire i got from my brother, from Shiloh Baptist church, the beacon providede people who and lived experience and answer to the voices for questions. Does an integrity face does integrity face oppression . How does honesty face deception . How does decency face insult . And how does virtue meet force . Integrity, honesty, decency and a sense of virtue in the face of what . Terror trauma, stigma, i come , from people who have been terrorized for 400 years in the united states, so when we talk about Frederick Douglass, we talk about w. E. B. Du bois and ella baker, barnett or malcolm or martin, talk about folks who belong to integrity, honesty, decency, a sense of virtue, being willing to tell the truth, expose lies and do it with love in their heart, compassion in the face of catastrophe. We are blues people. We are wrestling with the catastrophic. Oo such thing as a negr problem. Catastrophe visited on people. And black prophetic fire response to that. We are trying to tell the truth and most importantly willingness to pay the cost. The willingness to sacrifice your Property Energy your popularity for integrity, sacrifice fitting in for bearing witness, and i am very proud to be a small part of that great tradition of a great people, and in this ferguson moment, we need it more than ever, more than ever. [applause] helene you begin the book with Frederick Douglass. A really interesting choice because he was a very complicated guy, wasnt he . And tell us about his bearing witness and the point at which maybe he lost sight of that. Cornel the book is dedicated to david walker and. Tubman, two folks always already on fire. Goes back to the belly of the beast. David walker appealed the colored citizens of the world. He is a dead man nine years later in boston. He told the truth what a bounty on his head. That is my kind of brother. Willing to tell that kind of truth, the vicious forms of evil in this society, not just White Supremacy, but of course it spills over, to indigenous peoples, subordination of women working people, antijewish, antiarab, anticatholic, all of those part of our history, but White Supremacy sitting at the center. And so Frederick Douglass of the most eloquent exslave in the history of the modern world. By eloquence im talking cicero and defined eloquence, wisdom speaking in the face of catastrophe with a bounty on his head. There is simply nobody like him. It is true he does become part of the Republican Party and part of the american imperial machinery, visavis the relation to haiti and the Dominican Republic and my critique, it is hard to be on fire for a long time. He had years to live. At 39, martinone is gone at 39, ellen baker was on fire her whole life. We are going to get to that. Ida b. Wells was on fire her whole life. It is hard to be on fire your whole life, and we know that because we live in the age of the sellout. And 20 and 30, now you look at them and their well adjusted and even discerning what is going on with the fire in ferguson. Hardly discern what theyre going on. They look at Freedom Fighters like ashley yates or alexis templeton, and tory russell, and brother wiley, right now in the belly of the beast in i was going to say mississippi ferguson. Helene lets jump to ida b. Wells in fact, because she was an extraordinary woman, and i discovered so much about her. I dont think the lot of people know much about her. Tell me your story. Cornel i wish ida b. Wells name was as wellknown as melissa king junior and omx. And many malcolm x. She is probably the most courageous person to the degree to which she was willing to aite it southern whore, and red tear, doing what, telling the truth about american terrorism. We have a lot of talk about terrorism since 9 11. All americans feel unsafe, hated for who they are, to be black in america for 400 years is to be hated for who you are. We have an 9 11fied condition. It happens every week. Happens every month, happens every year, it is not something that happens one time and everybody gets afraid. What did ida b. Wells do . Booker t. Washington and the boys were arguing about education and civil rights, she was confronting american terrorism, lynching, the raw face of the american nation state with courage, and they ran her out of tennessee, put a bounty on her head. If it were not for the person that received her in new york, and they still hunted her down in new york and she had to leave the country and go to britain, and she came back with her classics. I got something to say about the underside, the night side of america. You got terrorism at your center called jim crow and jane crow. Of course in our textbooks they call it segregation. That is a deodorized term. We are talking american terrorism where every two days it was a precious black man or black woman or black child hanging from a tree, the strange fruit the southern trees , bear that the great great Billie Holiday singing with such power and the jewish brothers writing the lyrics. It was ida b. Wells who led that serious struggle, she organized black women and a black womens club. We need to know much more, the classic pursuit, crusader for justice. We need to know how she was able to sustain of course she is a sunday School Teacher in chicago. She still led the club music from chicago, but was also mistreated as was the case with every individual in this text. For many black people themselves, why . Because when you are on fire in that way, when you have been america, taught to hate yourself believe you have , the wrong hands and lips and noses and hair texture, believe you are less beautiful, less intelligent, less moral, and black folks have been niggerized like that for hundreds of years. She and the folks in this book say, dont be intimidated, dont be scared. Liftghten your back up, your voice, have a sense of dignity. Others. And walk with andwas often misunderstood misconstrued by black folk, including the great dubois himself, and we love him. But all the human beings are cracked vessels. We try to humanize across the board. But ida b. Wells, i wish, my god, her name was a household word. Helene maybe it will be soon. Cornel we have got so many other voices, black and brown, raising their voices, some magnificent test, where does it helene a couple of them are under my bed. Cornel my bed. I thought it was every bed. Indeed, it is very important to have these women voices. White sisters are willing to get in on it if they are willing to tell the truth and bear witness. Got against the grain, absolutely. Men too. Brothers too. Helene tell us about, since we are talking about sanitized, tell us about Martin Luther king. Nd his Santa Clausification what do you mean by that . Cornel you mention his name, it is like talking about jungle train john cole coltrain, how in the face of hatred, he could dish out so much love, the face of so much terror . He is in the paddy wagon in the 1960s, just him in the dark with a German Shepherd coming get him every moment. Andy young and his father are the only two to receive him at readsville prison, looks like martin had a nervous breakdown. This is the price we must pay for the freedom of our people. That is what we are talking about, we are talking about martin king. He is not alone. He is part of a tradition comes , out of a rich black church tradition. Brother moses is in arizona somewhere. He understands that. What happens to this Martin Luther king jr. . He gets sanitized and sterilized because that much black love and that much black fire is always a threat to america. America understands black rage as always being connected to revenge. Black rage could be connected to black love. This is what love looks like in public, just like tenderness is what love feels like in private. He was a tender man too just like malcolm. He was a gentle man. He was a sweet man. But he had a deep commitment to justice. When he died 72 of americans disapproved of him. 55 of black people disapproved of martin when he died. Ooo Everybody Loves him now that the worms got him. The fbi said he was the most dangerous man in america. How come . So much love. So much fire. Why was that he was unpopular at the end . A critique of empire, the government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. He was telling the truth, vietnam, trying to organize all four people, going beyond poor people, going beyond civil rights, adding humanrights, and talked about in 64 going to the united nations, bringing america to trial for the violation of human rights of black people. That scaredmartin folk, and understandably so. When you are working at that level of love and fire, it can be very, very difficult to embrace. You have to embrace at a cost. And so of course, the radical king is going to lay this helene because we have turned into santa claus. Cornel turned him into an old man with toys in his bag, everybody cant wait to see him. [laughter] cornel we did the same thing to nelson mandela, but that is another text for another time. Brother martin, this radical king would keep track of the centrality of the love commitment, keep track of the centrality of compassion and the willingness to pay the costs. This is a challenge to the younger adoration. I am passing from the scene. I know i dont need to be center stage. Trying to tell that to brother al sharpton. You know . You dont need to be center stage, brother. There is something called grassroots leadership, indigenous leadership in these different contexts. Get out of the way of the camera, let the young folks speak. Get out of the way of the camera, let them tell their truth. You stand alongside them. We went to ferguson. We go to jail when we go to ferguson. We want the young folk to know some of us oldschool folk love them and love and deeply. We might not understand everything, but we are in solidarity with them even as we want to respect and protect and correct them. We stand alongside them like coltrain allowing eric dolphin to play. Coltrain could have been center stage every performance. He let the guy voices in. Come on. You all see what i am talking about in terms of what it means to tell the truth but also make room for the young folks coming through because so many of them have been unloved and uncared for and unattended to, and i have been so loved and cared for and attended to for three lifetimes. That is just the west household. We aint got the Shiloh Baptist church yet or harvard or yale and princeton, so it is a matter of keeping the caravan of love going, or the love train Curtis Mayfield sang about. People get ready, dont need a , ticket to get on this love train. But are you ready for the love train . Are you wellequipped, spiritually, politically, to tell the truth about the american empire and the bombs dropping on innocent people, every child, everywhere has exactly the same value whether they impact what brothers and sisters in newtown, connecticut or the east side of l. A. Or the southside of chicago, cuban, palestinian, israeli or whether their guatemalan. That is oldschool rithika to listen to sly stone old school. You got to listen to sliced down. Not just everybody is a superstar not just beyonce. ,she is a star, but everybody is a star. That is telling the truth. Helene so some of you stars, start lining up at the microphone because we will let you ask some questions. I am going to ask one more while you get in line. In fact, one of the characters i was intrigued by was ella baker. Was really intrigued in fact, i buy i was intrigued by them all was ella baker. In fact i think what you were saying about not being center stage was really ella bakers m. O. Cornel absolutely, and a wonderful book by sister barbara ramsey, one of the great of our great progressive scholars of our day, we live in the age of ella baker. A relation to occupy wall street. Ella baker had a critique of charismatic leadership, messianic leadership. She believed like a jazz orchestra, to raise all the voices, not one at the center, nc head negro in charge who could be murdered or coopted. You bring all the voices. As executive director of Kings Organization and the voices of stokely carmichael, bob nash, a wave of others. Ella baker was a democratic you democratic activist, but she believed in the centrality of grassroots, and she believed in the capacities and abilities of those sliced and called everyday sly stone called everyday people. As you access their ability and capacity, you dont have to have just one leader representing all black people and all brown people, usually to be coopted or killed area once you coopt or murder them, lo and behold, depression sets in, and the possibility of those capacities and abilities of ordinary people are overlooked. Ella baker is somebody who we have to catch up with. She is ahead of us and she died of course working closely with my precious puerto rican brothers and sisters in the independence movement. Oscar lopez rivera is still in jail. Because she was cosmopolitan. She was international. There was always at a grocery level and there is nothing wrong if people think your a charismatic but you must use your charisma as a form of service, not using it as a form of conspicuous consumption that makes you center stage as an isolated individual rather than part and parcel of the group. That is like count basie, always with the groove. Wasnt just the count basie band and him protecting himself with some individual all by himself. He understood there is no count without the group and no doubt duke without johnny hedges and we could go on and on. Sister maria here. It is a blessing. Start with thes questions. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you for being here and for continuing the struggle. My name is paul fletcher. You know you know my dad arthur a. Fletcher. Cornel from kansas . Yes. Cornel yes. I just want to mention absolutely. Skimming through your book, and i noticed one of the subjects that i definitely have concern, with i read in the New York Times it was 60 trillion that the banks used to launder arms and drug money from the cartel and selling arms to the iranians. And i was like nobody went to , jail. Nobody went to jail, and yet we are going to jail for petty drugs. And i am glad you mentioned, but when i tell people 60 trillion , they still look at me like i am talking about something that cannot be imagined. Im like, yeah, its hard to believe that when this economy is 4 trillion and we have 60 have 60 trillion being stolen. And nobody. Too big, they said, to go to jail. I would like you to further comment. That was in the New York Times. Cornel i thought it was in my book. [laughter] cornel somebody snuck something in my text, but all right, i got you. I got you. I understand. In the book out in the beginning talking about no one went to jail before the catastrophe of 2008. With the bank. Cornel for all of the crimes committed on wall street, insider trading, market manipulation, you are absolutely right. Jamie dimon calls at the white house and makes a deal. They move the tax write off for jpmorgan anyway whereas everybody gets caught with a crack back straight to jail. That is the criminal Justice System that is in some ways criminal. That is in some ways criminal. It is true. If we are going to have rule of rule of law, about for poor people, lets have will of law for all people. For wall street, if we have it for main street. What jane austen would have called constancy. Ethical constancy. And it needs to be pointed out, the same with student loans. I was just in santa cruz just yesterday with the students who said, why increasing tuitions . Interest rates for students, still out of control. What were interest banks for 3. 5 years, almost zero. How come the banks treated that way and students treated another way . Which group is more important for the future of the country, the students or the banks . What are we talking about . More priorities not a matter of , hating on rich people. Some rich people can do the right thing in my view. I will fight for their right to be wrong. Im a libertarian about these things, but we have to tell the truth in regard to how warped our criminal Justice System really is. You know Michelle Alexanders great text, the new jim crow. Absolutely. Thank you for being here. My question really is not about the case, not about the facts, not about the verdicts, but what do you think Martin Luther king would say about the reaction and the protests in ferguson . Cornel from the young people themselves . What i am saying is, maybe if i say how i feel, maybe that helps the question. I feel like Martin Luther king stood for peace and peaceful protest. So i am wondering, what do you think he would say about what is going on there . Cornel i see what you are saying. We cant speak on behalf of martin, but he would call for resistance. But it would be nonviolent resistance. That is the kind of brother he was. Resistance but nonviolent resistance, which is to say, he would not go to ferguson and say, we have got to cool things off. He would not say that. He said you cool things off, you end up in a deep freeze. No. The challenge has always been this is true for black spokespersons from the very beginning. How do you channel your rage into love and justice rather than hatred and resent . That is the question, and that is the question Martin Luther king was wrestling with and he answered it with nonviolent resistance. I think, in fact, you are right. But keep in mind for calling for peace and calm is not downplaying the violations that have been taken place, not just in ferguson every 28 days, every 28 hours a precious young black brother or sister is shot by police or security guard. This is the tip of an iceberg. You cant go in and say we are concerned about the violence of the young folk and not deal with the violence of the system. And Martin Luther king would want to accept that. You see . But martin was, like myself, he was a jesus loving free black man. He put love at the center. And america ought to be grateful in fact in some ways america ought to see black people and give them a standing ovation. Oh yes. How are you going to put up with all of this hatred, contempt, if you are still dishing out the Stevie Wonder about love and John Coltrain what is it . Sending the contempt back and how long will that tradition survived . Me, when theve you tradition starts getting weak and it is gone, america, im praying for you. You are in a world of trouble. It is true its true. , good afternoon, brother. Cornel my sister, how are you doing . Grades. I was moved by your lament that ida b. Wells is not a household name. Im interested in hearing your thoughts about the importance of the intergenerational transfer of knowledge of the struggle, basic knowledge of history to the sustaining of black prophetic or even to sparking new fires. Cornel that is such a profound a profound question and is very much what this book is about not just for precious black folk but human beings all around the country. We live in a whole world driven by bigmoney. On the money is very much about the erasure of memory and the erasure historical connection. All are confined to the present. The present is a repetition of fleeting pleasures where the Corporate Media are generating massive weapons of destruction. You see, not the attention to the things that matter. But distractions. This is especially true for our young people. It is one of the time this reasons i spend so much time in music. Music is still focused on mosque and synagogues and temples were all they have is missing to get distance from the pain and the music is thin coming from the oligarchs that control recording, radio, video, live performance. So it is very rare now that you get a group that sounds a sweet and mellow as the bands of the past, the miracles, or enchantmant. All of the soft voices that blend and dont affect your soul, there is no group among young people that sing of collectivity, no band other than roots that are left on the national level. No lakeside. No ohio players. No Charles Wright and the rhythm band, no sly stone. The young kids go to schools with no arts program. They get soul murder every day in those schools. It is a vicious cycle in these schools. They dont have access to imagination and critical intelligence through the arts. Some of them some of them cant sing in tune and still make a million dollars. Nat king cole turns over in his grave. So do aretha and gladys although they are still alive and not in their graves. I come from a people that were very concerned about getting it right, and they sang the notes because souls were predicated on whether you got those notes right in that church or on the blocks or in the clubs, but now with the corporatization of music the same way our universities are corporatized and schools are corporatized, the market, downturn of integrity, decency pushed to the margin and it is all about just getting over the 11th commandment, thou shalt not get caught. That is will we are teaching our young folk. Get over by any means, just dont get caught. Just dont get caught. That is a sad sad thing. ,we have reached that point. Go right ahead. Given the universal human challenge of preserving treasures in earthen vessels, what comfort do you have for aspiring prophet who seek to raise their voices in a way that will not contradict the four principles that dubois highlighted in your text. Cornel wonderful question. What a wonderful group. Miamidade college. Every time i come, you got this stitched up for me. Every time i come. Ill put it this way. Actually i am brower college. Cornel you are what . [laughter] i got you. But youre here now. Youre here now. I appreciate that. I think every generation that takes people who are full of fire, full of love compassion, willingness to pursue what i call the way of the cross is a christian, but it is unconditional love, it is just a matter of example. There have to be enough examples around so it becomes contagious. There is a recent, examples are the go karts of judgment. The peoples judgment is very shaped by who they are imitating, what they see exemplified before them. The young folks primarily see marketeers everywhere they go. They go to the churches, mega churches, mega love . Not always. Mega churches. Sometimes not enough good example. They go to university. They used to be folk deeply can turned deeply concerned with quest for knowledge. Wutang clan got it right. Cream. Cash rules. It doesnt have to rule me. One can be oldfashioned quest for integrity. I do think young people are hungry and thirsty, and that ferguson is the peak of the iceberg. They are tired of the old models of the marketeer. They want to see something what was called real. Give me something real. That is what young folk are saying. They want to see the real thing. These six are the real thing, and they are not the only ones. James baldwin, a whole host of others. We got a cloud of witnesses that are the real thing, but i got six of them here, and this is just the peak of this wonderful tradition. Go right ahead, my brother. Thank you. I wanted to ask you in light of obamas immigration speech on thursday, can you comment on how well did he, or how well he did not do when he talked about this struggling marginalized group . ,cornel i appreciate that question, very much so. One, we have to recognize just like Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass and philip randolph, our dear brother barack obama was pressured by the magnificent wave of activism of young immigrant brothers and sisters from all around the country. I was blessed to be a small a small part of it in arizona. In washington, dc we marched in front of the white house. It looked like we had the chance of a snowball in hell at that time. It took him a while to do it he had political calculation. Didnt want to do it before the election. Hes a politician like any politician. We understand, brother barack. [laughter] cornel but we want moral conviction. I applaud what he did yesterday. I think he should have gone further. Folks need benefits health care , benefits, other kind of benefits, pay taxes and no benefits. There something wrong about that. Something deeply wrong about that. But he took the first step. Of course he is going to get a firestorm from fox news and the right wing. He is going to get that if he is singing out of tune in the shower. So what, that aint new. And the sky is blue and grass is green. Of course he is going to get it. Take a stand, brother. Because part of my criticism is that he tends to punt on second down rather than fourthdown. He gives in too quick, not enough backbone. But i was glad to see what he did, and that we will keep the pressure on to make sure our immigrant brothers and sisters are treated as such. But i say this, i dont like the fact that people talk about america as a nation of immigrants is that overlooks our indigenous brothers and sisters, you see. That is not true. America is not a nation of immigrants. Immigrants have played a fundamental role in the shaping of america, but were some folks already here on they lands. They dont need they dont need to be in the room for us to be truthful about that and then there is the distinction between voluntary and involuntary immigrants. My lineage on the african side things got conjugated. [laughter] cornel we laugh. It could have included rape. It included violation. I dont know. I have not called up my dead brothers to find out, but involuntary immigrants, that is a different status of from voluntary immigrants. You come hitting the ground, jamaica, the hitting the ground they hitting the ground moving. Haiti, they hit the ground moving, what great people they are. But my immigrants different , circumstances. Dont put it in the same category. Dont put it in the same category. There is thousands of bones on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean that will remind us of that immigration trek of those precious dignified africans who came here and encountered a slave auction, and that is also what we are dealing with for ferguson, because we were already criminalized before we got here, and we still look at too many of our precious young black people as if they are criminals before they had done anything. This is true for brown, but especially for black. I appreciate that question. I will keep the pressure on my dear friend, barack obama. I applaud him this time. I applaud him. We have time for one more question. My name is louis armstrong. I heard you Say Something earlier about the 400 years. What i want to ask you is that those 400 years you are talking about, is they the same 400 years of geneses 1513 or some other time . Cornel in the biblical text. Yes. Cornel creative imagination, my brother. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. It is difficult for me to make that kind of leap in our late modern times to some of those deep truths told that shape my own traditions. And therefore i would never want to make any kind of direct parallel. Because when i read the biblical text, i read it in a spirit. As a christian, i am christian centric. I focus on the Palestinian Jew named jesus, and i keep track of what is in that text in the way of love and justice. It does not justice. It does not really spillover into the particular years and parallels. It is more the love and justice that i am focusing on, my brother. But you stay strong in your prophetic word. Absolutely. Absolutely. Helene thank you so much, cornel west, such a wonderful conversation. I wish it could just go on and on. [applause and cheers] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer 1 history bookshelf features the bestknown American History writers talking about their books. You can watch her weekly series every saturday 4 00 eastern on American History tv on cspan3. This weekend on american lecture from the university of North Carolina chapel hill on the 1960s. The 1945 film to the shores of iwo jima and a look at slavery in the nations capital. Tonight 8 00 p. M. Eastern on lectures in history, North CarolinaProfessor William starkey on equal rights in the 1960s. There was an incredible sense of optimism and hope. The sense of optimism of the 1960s was credible. People from all walks of life, even the most downtrodden people, for black southerners who never had voting rights, are so hopeful because of americas place in the world and the rhetoric of many of its leaders. Announcer 1 sunday 2 30 p. M. Eastern, the Smithsonian Institution secretary lonnie bunch and David Rubenstein take part in a position on slavery in washington. 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