Professor emeritus from Princeton University and celebrity proponent of the Black Lives Matter movement, Dr. Cornel West Ph.D. lectured and listened to Clarion University students on Thursday, regarding issues of equality and American politics.
Two events were sponsored by the Mary L. Seifert Cultural Series, as well as other campus organizations, that brought hundreds of Clarion students and residents together. The first was a panel discussion titled Black Lives Matter about the movement. Host and senior communication major Ari Fulcher introduced five panelists to the body of attendees.
Former Clarion Black Student Union President Traesha Pritchard, sociology professor emeritus of Clarion Robert Girvan, Assistant Professor of Sociology Jane Walsh, and NAACP Clarion President Torron Mollett all joined West in addressing students’ concerns, while asking them provocative questions as well.
The event kicked off with the panelists defining what the “Black Lives Matter” movement meant to them. The five speakers were unanimous in recognizing the importance of the movement, terming it as a call to action. West expanded upon this by expressing the importance of taking risks and standing up to empower those who are vulnerable.
The “All Lives Matter” rhetoric was also brought up as Pritchard said, “You don’t fully understand” if you respond to “Black Lives Matter” in that way.
West further addressed the audience in his lecture later that night and said, “of course all lives matter, but if all lives really mattered, we wouldn’t have to say black lives matter.”
Students polled in the audience largely held the same opinions expressed on stage; many reiterated that the movement was all about educating the youth. While still advocating for black pride, West and the other panelists, black and white, suggested that people need to get rid of the stigmas that separate us, come together and then empower each other.
Clarion student Ivana Chambers-Bennett said, “In order for us to succeed in this world, our children need to grow up to be leaders and be examples of what an educated, black person should be.”
Questions of police brutality and the permeation of racial profiling in society were posed by the panelists to the students in attendance. A large portion of the conversation was centered on what the local Clarion community and college can do to raise awareness and provide transformative change on all levels.
These messages of the “Black Lives Matter” panel also correlated well with West’s individual lecture later in the night at the Marwick-Boyd Auditorium. Entitled “Inside Politics,” West’s thoughts in his speech focused on the bottom-up process of first critically evaluating ourselves before thinking about what we want to see in our political lives.
“I begin with soul-craft,” said West. “There will never be a healthful political state without mature persons, who aspire to high morality.”
West spent a fair portion of time in his hour-long lecture addressing, what he called, the supremacist overtones of American society. He often stated that the root of the political and racial issues that America faces today is the inherent greed in society and the individualistic culture we are a part of.
In his advocacy for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, which did not show itself until the tail-end of his presentation, West often warned against being manipulated by the allure of material things and the propaganda of modern media. Deep, self-critical education was the pillar upon which his lecture revolved.
“Deep education is about the cultivation of a critical self,” reiterated West.
With enthusiastic idealism, West kept bringing his message home that was, in summary: building up courage to educate ourselves every day. He mentioned that all people together had to fail, try again and then fail again but better. His overall conclusion was urging everyone listening to actively seek the truth and use it to educate others.
“We could try to leave the world a little better than we found it,” said West.