Cornell West doesn't approve of President Obama using Martin Luther King Jr's Bible during his second inauguration on Monday. West accused Obama of using the Bible as a prop for political purposes. King, West explains, was a threat to those in power and his memory should not have been used for political pageantry.
"So the righteous indignation of Martin Luther King becomes a moment in political calucation and that makes my blood boil," West said.
Dr. King was not only a champion of racial justice, but also spoke out against Vietnam and poverty, two ideals West claims are not being held up by those in power today. West derides modern-day politicians "who refuse to follow decent policies," citing the prison-industrial complex, Wall Street executives escaping the economic disaster without punishment, drone strikes and poverty.
"We just love the tradition that produced Martin Luther King and we're not going to allow it to be in any way sanitized, deoderized, and sterilized, we want the subversive power to be heard," West concludes.