Who Is Melina Abdullah? Cornel West VP Running Mate Revealed

Independent presidential candidate Cornel West seemed to his acquainted worlds of academia and activism when he named his vice presidential working mate candidate on Wednesday.

Utilizing a digital press occasion moderated by pundit Tavis Smiley, West revealed that he had chosen famous scholar and authentic Black Lives Matter (BLM) chief Dr. Melina Abdullah to hitch him on what’s now the first-ever all-Black presidential ticket.

West referred to as Abdullah — a co-founder of BLM Los Angeles who can be a professor and former chair of Pan-African Research at California State College, Los Angeles — “one of many nice freedom fighters of her era.”

Presidential candidate Dr. Cornel West speaks to the neighborhood and congregation at Second Baptist Church in Santa Ana on March 29, 2024. | Supply: MediaNews Group/Orange County Register through Getty Photos / Getty

Abdullah, 51, mentioned her candidacy with West, 70, additionally made for the primary presidential ticket to incorporate a Muslim and credited “divine timing” for her choice as West’s working mate.

Referencing her religion, Abdullah famous that Wednesday is Eid, “the holiest day for Muslims.”

West, a school member at Union Theological Seminary, is a famous Christian.

Watch the press occasion beneath.

Abdullah described West’s telephone name asking her to be his working mate as being fully surprising and “the furthest factor from my thoughts.”

Abdullah’s candidacy was celebrated in ready statements posted to West’s marketing campaign web site.

“At this historic and pivotal second, it’s my profound honor to face alongside my pricey sister, Dr. Melina Abdullah, a fierce and tireless advocate for fact, justice, and transformative change,” West mentioned. “Sister Melina’s unbelievable braveness, eager mind, and deep imaginative and prescient have tremendously served the reason for liberation in training, employee rights, and each racial and gender justice. Her distinctive Black evaluation and witness helps us confront our crumbling period of empire, white supremacy, and patriarchy. I stay up for working along with her as we strengthen our dedication in our marketing campaign for fact, justice and love!”

Abdullah expressed the urgency of her candidacy with West.

“I’m deeply honored and humbled to hitch Dr. Cornel West as his Vice Presidential candidate at this essential second as we work collectively for transformative change. This marketing campaign affords an actual imaginative and prescient for the world that stands in opposition to oppressive forces and holds quick to the common rules of fact, justice, and love,” Abdullah mentioned. “As we work arm-in-arm with justice-loving folks in all places, we reimagine and work to construct a world that chooses goodwill over greed, braveness over cowardice, and liberation over exploitation. Collectively, we’re igniting a motion to not solely dismantle dangerous programs, however set up the agency foundations of a simply, nurturing, and free world.”

This can be a creating story that will likely be up to date.

Who’s Dr. Melina Abdullah?

From Abdullah’s bio on Cal State LA’s web site:

Professor Abdullah is a womanist scholar-activist – understanding the position that she performs within the academy as intrinsically linked to broader struggles for the liberation of oppressed folks. Professor Abdullah is a pacesetter within the combat for Ethnic Research within the Ok-12 and college programs and was part of the historic victory that made Ethnic Research a requirement within the Los Angeles Unified Faculty District. She was among the many authentic group of organizers that convened to type Black Lives Matter and continues to function a Los Angeles chapter lead and contributes to the nationwide management. She is co-host and co-producer of the weekly radio program Lovely Wrestle, which airs on KPFK, a part of the Pacifica radio community. Dr. Abdullah additionally serves on boards for the Black Neighborhood, Clergy and Labor Alliance (BCCLA), California School Affiliation-Los Angeles, Los Angeles African American Girls’s Public Coverage Institute, Los Angeles Neighborhood Motion Community (LA-CAN), Nationwide Affiliation for Ethnic Research, Reverence-Wellness Salon, and Strategic Ideas in Organizing and Coverage Training (SCOPE).

Abdullah was among the many small, hand-picked group of BLM executives who led the social justice activism group following the departure of co-founder Patrisse Cullors in 2021 after heightened scrutiny over the group’s funds. Particularly, Abdullah, Cullors and co-founder Alicia Garza have been all named in a New York Journal article that claimed BLM used donations from supporters to buy the Black Lives Matter International Community Basis’s house primarily based in Southern California, a sprawling 6,500 square-foot Los Angeles-area compound. The $6 million property was created as a hub for Black filmmakers, musicians and artists to come back collectively and “foster creativity,” however its buy invited a partisan backlash that prompted Cullors’ resignation.

In a press release on the time, Cullors referred to Abdullah as “BLM Grassroots Co-Director” and “an authentic member of BLM and co-founder of its first chapter in Los Angeles.”

Cullors has vehemently denied the allegations.

“I’ve by no means misappropriated funds, and it pains me that so many individuals have accepted that narrative with out the presence of tangible fact or information,” she wrote in a since-deleted Instagram submit.

A couple of months after Cullors stepped down, Abdullah was focused with a sequence of “swatting” — a type of harassment that sends a regulation enforcement response workforce into another person’s house. Typically mischaracterized as a form of prank, “swatting” incidents are harmful and may result in lethal outcomes.

The second such occasion got here at some point after Abdullah filed a lawsuit accusing the LAPD of getting a disproportionate response to the primary “swatting” incident months earlier.

The primary reported the primary incident concerned police forcing Abdullah and her youngsters out of their house at gunpoint. In 2020, an estimated 20 LAPD officers in full tactical gear surrounded Abdullah’s home with weapons drawn, terrorizing her and her youngsters amid racial justice protests and calls for for police accountability.

“This underscores why we proceed to loudly say #DefundThePolice and #ReimaginePublicSafety,” Abdullah mentioned on the time. “If certainly, there have been a medical emergency, paramedics ought to have been those to reply, not police, who got here to the home of a neighbor roughly an hour later to ‘verify on me.’”

That very same yr, the husband of then-Los Angeles District Lawyer Jackie Jacey was proven on a video pulling a gun on Abdullah throughout a protest in entrance of their house.

“Get off!” David Lacey may be seen telling folks off-camera whereas pointing a handgun instantly at them, aiming back and forth.

“Good morning,” Abdullah may be heard saying.

“Get off of my porch!” David Lacey says along with his gun aimed steadily.

“Are you going to shoot me?” Abdullah asks incredulously.

“I will shoot you,” he mentioned. “Get off of my porch!”

“Are you able to inform Jackie Lacey that we’re right here?” Abdullah asks in an even-toned voice, clearly undeterred.

“I don’t care who you might be,” David Lacey says, lastly decreasing his gun to his proper facet. “Get off of my porch! Proper now!”

He then threatened to name the police whereas elevating his gun again in an aiming place.

Watch the troubling video beneath.

Cornel West’s candidacy

West kicked off his presidential marketing campaign final June when he introduced he was looking for the Folks’s Occasion nomination.

“I enter within the quest for fact, I enter within the quest for justice, and the presidency is only one car to pursue that fact and justice — what I’ve been making an attempt to do all of my life,” West mentioned.

Not two weeks later, West introduced that he was switching to the Inexperienced Occasion, a declaration that he mentioned on the time was in “the spirit of a broad United Entrance and coalition technique.”

Fewer than 4 months later, West declared himself an impartial candidate.

Now, West has his working mate.

Identified for his mental activism, West has had an illustrious profession within the training sector. He has taught at Harvard College, Yale College, Princeton College, Dartmouth School, Pepperdine College and the College of Paris. He additionally hosted a radio present with discuss present host Smiley from 2010 to 2013.

In 2008, West endorsed Barack Obama throughout his run for president, however would later retract his help in 2011 for Obama’s centrist beliefs. In 2016 and 2020 West supported and campaigned for Bernie Sanders. As soon as Sanders was defeated by Hillary Clinton within the 2016 main, West turned his help towards Inexperienced Occasion nominee Jill Stein.

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