The challenge artists face today is whether to be an underground, unheard genius, or to dilute their art for the marketplace.
Cornel WestPhilosophy is in fact a quest for wisdom based in sophia; that quest for wisdom has everything to do with a love of wisdom.
Cornel WestThe problem is that affirmative action could never really get at the issue of corporate power in the workplace, and so you ended up with the downsizing; you ended up with de-industrializing. You ended up with the marginalizing of working people and working poor people even while affirmative action was taking place, and a new black middle class was expanding.
Cornel WestWe look at the legacy of Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells and Ella Baker, Malcolm X and Martin King. We have, and part of the struggle now in the age of [Barack] Obama is how do we keep alive the legacy of Martin King?
Cornel West