Excerpt: "So let's take, if I'm correct, the civil rights movement as the starting point. I think you've pointed out that it was a legal victory, but not an economic victory."



Cornel West and Chris Hedges. (photo: teleSur)

Chris Hedges and Cornel West in Conversation: The Betrayal by the Black Elite

By teleSUR

Editor's note: This excerpt is from the second part of a two-part interview with Dr. Cornel West by Chris Hedges for the teleSUR show Days of Revolt. It has been transcribed by RSN - JA/RSN

hris Hedges: Welcome to Days of Revolt. I'm Chris Hedges. This is part 2 of our interview with Doctor Cornel West where we are examining the Black Prophetic Tradition, which he has laid out in his book Black Prophetic Fire, its importance within America, and what has happened to it with the rise of neoliberalism in the wake of the civil rights movement. Welcome Dr. West.

Dr. Cornel West: Blessing to be here again.

Hedges: So let's take, if I'm correct, the civil rights movement as the starting point. I think you've pointed out that it was a legal victory, but not an economic victory and that with institutionalized racism particularly, in terms of economic discrimination the creation of what Malcom X and I think finally Martin Luther King referred to as our internal colonies, the invisible walls, the very physical walls of mass incarceration, you promoted a certain segment of the black elite into what you refer to as the lumpenbourgeoisie, and yet you could argue that for the bottom three-quarters of African Americans in this country life is maybe worse than when King marched in Selma. There was an assault against the Black Prophetic Tradition, the most important intellectual tradition in America because of its critique of empire, its critique of poverty, its critique of systems, of capitalism, sustained by white supremacy. What happened to that tradition, which was given voice in the sixties, through radical mass movements and our martyrs Malcom and Martin? How was it dismantled?

West: It was dismantled, one by trying to instil a fear within black people, within poor people, within working people so that we no longer want to straighten our backs up and engage a collective fight back. What took the place of collective fight back was individual upward mobility. So that what was once in place, stronger moral conviction, we saw ruthless ambition. So you look at the formation of the black professional class: doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, professors, politicians across the board, they have much less fire. Why? Because they're much more tied more to ruthless ambition than they are moral conviction. They are much less tied to a 'We' consciousness than opposed to an 'I' consciousness concerned about upward mobility. There are always going to be some professionals, prophetic professionals, but it's a small slice. And it's not connected to the energies of black poor people. It's completely severed, as it were.

Hedges: But to an extent, don't they even demonize the black poor?

Well, elements of them do. And of course they not only keep a distance but they can contribute to the callousness and the indifference toward the plight and the predicament of the black poor and the poor people across the board. So what happens, your warriors end up incarcerated or killed. You get your professionals who surface at the top. They tend to be nerdy, smart, self-promoting, not taking any risks, very little courage, highly conformist, and usually when it comes to battle, complacent. On the other hand you say 'oh we've got memories of the social movements.' And of course when we talk about the civil rights movement, there is no civil rights victories without the rebellions! Watts, without Newark, Detroit, we could go on and on and on! Plainfield had the rebellion right after Newark and so forth. But of course, often times these precious poor people, they were not the beneficiaries of it. Their bodies, their sacrifice, did generate the conditions this new black middle class could move into place. But what did it do? For the most part, that black middle class, driven by ruthless ambition, became well-adjusted to injustice and well-adapted to indifference.

Watch the video above to see the interview in its entirety