Posts tagged ‘Juan Gonzalez’

“War is the Enemy of the Poor”: Cornel West and Tavis Smiley on Poverty, MLK, Election 2012

by , posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 at 11:45 am

Part two of an interview from Democracy Now!

DemocracyNow.org – In part two of our interview with Tavis Smiley and Prof. Cornel West they discuss growing up in working-class households. “I saw so much poverty growing up,” says Smiley, who lived with 13 family members in a three-bedroom trailer and learned that even when he was not optimistic, he could be hopeful. “Hope needs help,” Smiley notes. West recalls how he worked with the Black Panthers to organize a general strike while growing up in Sacramento, California, in order to push for African-American studies programs in local high schools. Looking at current events, Smiley and West cite Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s comment that “war is the enemy of the poor.” They compare the amount of money spent on the war in Iraq, and the 2012 presidential campaign, to funding for programs that assist the one in two Americans who are now poor.

The first part of this discussion can be seen here.

Share

Tavis Smiley & Cornel West on “The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto”

by , posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2012 at 1:22 pm

from Democracy NOw!

DemocracyNow.org – The latest census data shows nearly one in two Americans, or 150 million people, have fallen into poverty — or could be classified as low income. We’re joined by Dr. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley, who continue their efforts to spark a national dialogue on the poverty crisis with the new book, “The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto.” Smiley, an award-winning TV and radio broadcaster, says President Obama has failed to properly tackle poverty. “There seems to be a bipartisan consensus in Washington that the poor just don’t matter. President Obama is a part of that,” Smiley says. “I take nothing away from his push on healthcare, but jobs for every American should have been priority number one.” West, a professor of religion and African American studies at Princeton University, says that after the historic U.S. struggles against monarchy, slavery and institutionalized racism, “the issue today is oligarchy. Poverty is the new slavery, oligarchs are the new kings — the new heads of this structure of domination.”

The second part of this discussion can be seen here.

Share