Today’s social science quote is from philosopher Dr Cornel West, on social justice. We investigate the background to this quote, and its various iterations.

This often-quoted phrase was shared by Professor West on his Facebook, on 1 October 2011. It is a recurring theme in his work. Take these examples from his memoir, Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom:

Both Wash [“Brother Wash,” James Melvin Washington, historian and educator] and I shared a Christian worldview that conformed to what we saw as here-and-now reality. To be human is to call for help. We saw birth itself as a catastrophe: you’re thrown in space and time to die. The flesh fails. Then the question becomes simple—how you gonna cope? Life is shot through with contradictions and incongruities. But that doesn’t mean that any ol’ life is acceptable. On the contrary, it means there’s a big distance between a holy fool and unholy fool. Robin Hood and Alexander the Great were both gangsters, but consider the difference between them. As the Reverend Al Green once preached in his “Love Sermon,” that’s the distance “from heaven to earth.”

Cornel West, Hope on a Tightrope, 2008: 101

West recounts a time when he called his friend Cliff from the Cambridge Police Station. West and his two roommates from Harvard University, all Black men, were arrested for the rape of a white woman. This was the first year the university introduced co-ed dormitories. The white woman, whom they knew, was called into a room with the three men and a policeman (!), who interrogated her about West and his roommates. Despite being asked multiple times, she said they were not responsible. West says:

Yet the more she exonerated us, the more the detective pushed her. For a third time he asked her to reconsider her assessment, and for a third time she held fast. Much to the chagrin of the Cambridge Police Department, we were released. And we were so glad that the white sister told the truth. Her example convinced me even more how sublime the courage to bear witness to truth and justice can be.

Cornel West, Hope on a Tightrope, 2008: 74

Towards the end of his memoir, West reflects on reconciling with his old self, and his faith:

To come from a people who were denigrated, enslaved, and despised, and still place love in the centre of life is to be part of a miracle. To love myself without hating others—even and especially those who may harbor hatred for me—is another expression of that miracle.

My conclusion became my calling: that justice is what love looks like in public, just as deep democracy is what justice looks like in practice. When you love people, you hate the fact that they’re being treated unjustly. Justice is not simply an abstract concept to regulate institutions, but also a fire in the bones to promote the well-being of all.

Cornel West, Hope on a Tightrope, 2008: 232