One day before spending Martin Luther King Jr. day with the soon-to-be President Barrack Obama, nationally esteemed scholar and author Dr. Cornell West critiqued multiple aspects of Obama’s policy.

West gave the keynote address at a two-day conference hosted by Ohio University honoring 100th birthday of Mahmoud Mahamed Taha, a Sudanese Muslim regarded as the founder of progressive Islam.

Dr. Cornell West

He challenged Obama to speak out about foreign conflict, and to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

West referred to Obama’s election as the “end of the age of Ronald Reagan,” and was critical of the economic and foreign policies of past presidents.

“Greed is the product of the spiritual malnutrition and moral constipation that comes with the unregulated, market-driven life,” West said. “You can’t occupy a people and think that they won’t in some way respond.”

West is the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University, and has published 19 books, including 1993’s Democracy Matters, which has sold more than half million copies.

He also critiqued the campaign slogan of “hope,” drawing a distinction between hope for the future and “cheap American optimism;” arguing the being overly optimistic blinds people to the problems that surround them.

“Optimism deodorizes the catastrophic, hope gives us strength to deal with the catastrophe,” West said.

Following his speech, West flew to Washington to spend the holiday weekend with Obama.

West implored other African American political leaders to speak out about issues facing the black community.

“It’s really about the lives we lead, not just the words we say on television.”

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