Milena Abdullah, a University of California professor and Black Lives Matter activist who was announced Wednesday as independent presidential candidate Cornel West’s running mate, regularly pushes for defunding police departments and has “effectively Everything is racist,” and is also on record claiming to be a Taylor Swift fan.
Abdullah, 51, is a co-founder of the Los Angeles BLM chapter and former dean of the California State University School of Pan-African Studies.
Steven Yang
Like West, she has been outspoken about race relations in the United States.
Abdullah said in February that she felt “being a Taylor Swift fan was a little bit racist” when the music star appeared at Sunday’s Super Bowl to support her boyfriend Travis Kelce. Ta.
The scholar also said he felt the Kansas City Chiefs’ overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers was a “right-wing white supremacist conspiracy.”
Abdullah also supports violence in majority-white areas, saying: LAist Following the death of George Floyd in May 2020.
“We want to prosecute the police who kill our citizens. And we want to defund the police. ”
“We strongly believe that the violence, pain, and injury that Black people experience on a daily basis at the hands of oppressive systems should be given some consideration, even by those who think they should retreat. I said that intentionally. To white affluence,” she added.
West announced his choice of Abdullah on the Tavis Smiley radio show, telling the host:
California State University Los Angeles. California State Los Angeles
“[Abdullah] West, a professor at Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan, added:
Abdullah said of his reaction to West’s offer, “I felt like my soul and my spirit and God was speaking to me and immediately saying yes.”
Abdullah and breakaway civil rights group BLM Grassroots previously filed a $10 million lawsuit against Shalomir Bowers and her National Black Lives Matters Global Network Foundation, alleging that Bowers enriched his own pockets and accused her of accused the L.A. chapter of not providing adequate funding.
A California judge dismissed the lawsuit in July 2023, calling the case “frivolous” due to insufficient evidence.
Mr. West has advocated a left-wing platform that includes a $27 minimum wage, declaring a climate emergency, issuing reparations to black Americans, abolishing ICE and demilitarizing borders, dismantling the “American empire,” and disbanding NATO. I’ve done it.
He has criticized President Biden, calling him a “war criminal” for supporting Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, alluding to the 81-year-old incumbent. I might not make it in time He will not participate in the general election because he is “running out of gas.”
According to RealClearPolitics, Mr. West has struggled to regain momentum as a third-party candidate, competing against Mr. Biden, former President Donald Trump, independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. In matches against him, he received an average approval rating of 1.7%.
The former Harvard professor is also struggling to get on the ballot in all 50 states as an independent. So far, his campaign claims it has collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot in South Carolina, Oregon, Utah and Alaska.
Mr. West is the second third-party presidential candidate to announce a running mate, following Mr. Kennedy’s nomination of entrepreneur and lawyer Nicole Shanahan as his second-choice choice last month.
