EXTRA CREDIT -Cornel West

BIO - copied from Wikipedia

Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, and civil rights activist, as well as a prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America. West currently serves as the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University, where he teaches in the Center for African American Studies and in the department of Religion.

West is known for his combination of political and moral insight and criticism, and his contribution to the post-1960s civil rights movement. The bulk of his work focuses upon the role of race, gender, and class in American society and the means by which people act and react to their “radical conditionedness." West draws intellectual contributions from such diverse traditions as the African American Baptist Church, pragmatism and transcendentalism.

My summary of the speech

Cornel West asks his audience, "what does it mean to be human?" I don't think that he meant biologically I think that he was talking about what we have inside of us. He also asks what kind of human will you be through out your life from, "Mama's womb to tomb"? People today have just become "well adjusted to injustice" not just with in the realm of racism and segregation but with everyday things that we just don't notice as injustices. An example that most of Americans are dealing with is the financial recession. How is America the richest nation but most everyone is poor? I think that Cornel West's answer to this question would be because we are not using our voices enough, we are not standing up to the injustices or questioning why, instead we just take it as normal life when it could and should be better.
Cornel West talked about Martin Luther King and that we as a people together should continue his legacy. When we witness crimes against people we need to stand up and let the wrong be known, and use the voices that we have that make us so individually us. Martin Luther King had to deal with injustices and it eventually lead to his untimely death, but he was a warrior who knew what "learning how to die to learn how to live" meant. Jim Crow was American Terrorism and MLK wanted liberty for everybody. He didn't want revenge, or Jim Crow for the people who supported it, but he wanted peace between all kinds of people. He understood how dangerous it would be but he did not want the segregation to go on with out people knowing how destructive it was. He took the risk and lost his life but he did not die, 42 years after his death we still realize how important it is for people to be treated fairly.