I asked last month, “can the times really be changing, even if only a bit?” Cornel West, it should come as no surprise, has a mellifluous word on the subject, and he offered it to Stephen Colbert last week:
Thank God we’ve got white brothers and sisters who are a little bit less racist than they were in the past – that’s a beautiful thing. But it doesn’t mean that just because you’ve got a black face in a high place, racism has been eliminated. It just means we’ve made some progress – thats a beautiful thing.
Like Whac-a-Mole, I think I never feel satisfied with the dismantling of white supremacy because there’s always some other manifestation of it I hadn’t happened to notice before. I’ve been grappling with the complementary questions “What just happened?” and “Now what?” for a year come Wednesday morning. Graduate school hasn’t afforded much time to puzzle out an answer, and I’m no further along than I was on that glorious and hopeful morning after.
Say what you will about Brother Cornel, but he is a sort of cultural seer and must have a point here. All I meant to say was: this interview is hi-larious, much better than his first appearance last year. Check it out.
