Exclusive: Interview With U.S. Presidential Candidate Dr. Cornel West
The outspoken scholar and activist vying for the Green Party nomination talks dismantling empire, ending wars, saving the planet, jazz, UAPs, the power of love, and much more with the News Beat team.
“If our democracy is to survive, the empire must be dismantled.”
That’s just one of many declarations Dr. Cornel West shared with us in an exclusive, wide-ranging interview highlighting such campaign goals as demolishing systems of oppression; uplifting the poor and working class; ending America’s military industrial complex; abolishing poverty, homelessness, and prisons; and much more.
West, who is vying for the Green Party nomination for U.S. president, said his third-party bid is also about putting an end to the “corporate duopoly” that has long dominated the political power structure in America, and dismissed claims that a candidate outside of the incestuous two-party system can’t win. He said he’s entering the race not just to introduce new ideas, but to fight for marginalized people, vowing to take on anyone who is hostile to the struggle of working people and those on the frontlines of what’s been a long, horrific line of disastrous military conflicts slaughtering innocent civilians.
West didn’t hold back. He said he’d go after his rivals and rejected criticisms from mainstream circles that he could potentially act as a spoiler in the presidential race by weakening Joe Biden, the presumed Democratic candidate. West, a supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign for president, said there was a consensus within Sanders’ campaign that they wouldn’t target Barack Obama (and, we assume, his policies). West has no problem going on the offensive.
This is the second time we’ve interviewed Dr. West—one of the greatest and most outspoken intellectuals, activists, and human rights advocates of our day. The last was at Harvard University in 2017, for an episode we were working on examining the oft-ignored and grossly underreported conditions that spark rebellions in cities and Black communities across America, both historically, and up through today. Then Harvard’s professor of the practice of public philosophy, he’s currently the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary, and professor emeritus at Princeton University.
Along with Dr. West, that drop, titled “Why We Riot: Institutionalized Inequality, Racism & Oppression,” also featured powerful insights from organizer and independent journalist Rosa Clemente, activist Larry Hamm, and University of Baltimore associate professor Elizabeth Nix. Our co-artist in residence, hip-hop demigod Silent Knight, and The Band Called FUSE (which he fronts), punctuated it all with original verses and an absolutely electrifying performance. Please check it all out if you haven’t already, or listen to it again!
passion soul fire intellect heart empathy lightning
Those were some of the words jotted down last night reflecting on the hour-plus interview we’d just had with West a few hours earlier. As mentioned at the top of this post, we covered a lot—from economics, foreign policy, and mass incarceration to climate justice, UAPs (yup), hip-hop, and much more.
he threads jazz and love and history and W. E. B. Du Bois and Charlie Parker and Harriet Tubman and Coltrane and Lincoln and Bernie Sanders together in scat-speak poetry while simultaneously illuminating all the greed and rot and corruption and disaster politics of the neoliberal and fascist political establishment
his words are smooth and deadly, his intonations veering between a saxophone and razor-sharp scythe cutting down the regurgitated hypocrisies and propaganda of both Dems and Republicans and shining a light on the darkest recesses of the power elite and their global machinations—war, poverty, the death of Palestinian children—reaching back to Plato and enslavement and Jane and Jim Crow to modern-day incarnations of those horrific chains: mass incarceration and the always widening inequality gap and the countless atrocities of empire
as a love warrior and revolutionary he evokes Fred Hampton and Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. and applies their words and struggles to now, vowing to dismantle it all, pardon all whistleblowers, end our endless wars, end poverty, and give this country back to the people / he sings for a little thoughout—riffing and stitching together the pain and horrors and joys and hopes across centuries / there’s always hope
That’s a pseudo-decent attempt at encapsulating our talk. You all really have to hear it for yourselves to fully understand, so we’re deliberately not loading this post up with quotes.
Here’s one segment, in which he explains why he was inspired to run for president at this particular moment in time:
“I just felt that, you know, I come from a tradition of Black folk whose anthem is ‘Lift Every Voice,’ he tells us. “And I didn't see enough voices at the national level, and when it comes to expressing the presidential politics, that was really trying to tell the truth and pursuing justice in the way in which people ought—especially the way in which the masses of folk in the empire and in the country deserve. And so I figured, ‘Well, God Almighty, I might as well raise my voice.’ I've been trying to raise it in other contexts. But the calling is still the same. You know, I mean, electoral politics is just one vehicle, and one vessel. Really, the calling is still the same in terms of commitment to truth and justice. And it's just a matter of allowing the tradition that shaped me to spill over into electoral politics. And I figured given the depths of the decay and the decrepitude of the empire, that I might be able to be a force of good in the short time that I'm here though, man, that's really what it comes down to.”
At some point in the interview, we suggested a new moniker to add to his ever-growing list of titles: ‘Gangsta of Love’—which he wholly embraced. It’s a special moment, indeed—check it out for yourselves! Also, be sure to help the cause and spread the word.
Here’s a video of our interview:
Additional Resources
Check out Dr. West’s campaign website to learn more about his platform and what he’d do once elected.
Check out all previous episodes of News Beat, extended artist and guest bios, original episode artwork, ways to contribute, and more, at USNewsBeat.com.
Learn more about all the incredible things Manny Faces is doing at MannyFacesMedia.com.
Check out Rashed’s very, very first interview with Dr. Cornel West way back before we’d even launched this podcast, circa 2014.
Thanks for reading News Beat! Subscribe to our Substack and podcast for free to receive new posts, episodes, stories, and more!
Listen to News Beat on your favorite podcast app. The button below will enable you to subscribe wherever you listen to pods. Please also share our Substack to help build this community and support independent media and indie hip-hop.
News Beat is a multi-award-winning social justice podcast that melds journalism with music from independent artists to highlight important stories and issues.
Audio Editor/Sound Designer/Producer/Host: Manny Faces
Editor-In-Chief/Producer: Christopher Twarowski
Managing Editor/Producer: Rashed Mian
Episode Art: Jeff Main
Executive Producer: Jed Morey