FAYETTEVILLE — When philosopher, educator, and activist Cornel West heard Martin Luther King Jr. speak, he didn’t comprehend everything—he was only 10—but he could tell immediately that King was “for real, not posturing or posing.”
King “was about authenticity, [and] he set a standard of giving, giving, and giving,” West said Monday during a question-and-answer session that was part of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day vigil. King was “an artist” with his oratory, and “artists dig deep inside their souls” to find ways to touch other souls, which ultimately leads to a better world.
“We saw him as a wave, not just as an individual,” because King modeled integrity, honesty, and decency, then acted courageously, and that’s how “you become an exemplar,” he said. King’s “spirit” is alive in Northwest Arkansas, a region with a booming economy, because King wanted everyone to have a chance to thrive, but he cared more about moral and spiritual needs than monetary health, and all communities across the state, nation, and world need to remember “the least of these,” because “their babies are as precious as” those of the wealthy and privileged.
Those who find monetary success in life need to use their position to serve others, said West, the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary who teaches on the works of the German Luther pastor and theologian, as well philosophy of religion, African American critical thought, the classics, philosophy, politics, cultural theory, literature, music and more. “You can get any pleasure you want and still be joyless [with an] empty soul.”
There’s “so much spiritual decay these days,” with an emphasis on “status,” “brand,” and material wealth, said West, who has held professorships and fellowships at Harvard University, Yale University, Union Theological Seminary, Princeton University, Dartmouth College, Pepperdine University, and the University of Paris. Rather than “strutting,” people should be concerned with “the fruits you bear,” such as love, justice, integrity, and honesty.
