Cornel West announces his running mate. It’s Melina Abdullah

In case you forgot, the Black intellectual Cornel West is running for president as an independent. Today he chose his running mate. She is Melina Abdullah, a professor of Pan-African Studies at the University of California-Los Angeles.

Here is her Cal State bio:

Melina Abdullah is Professor and former Chair of Pan-African Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. from the University of Southern California in Political Science and her B.A. from Howard University in African American Studies. She was appointed to the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission in 2014 and is a recognized expert on race, gender, class, and social movements. Abdullah is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, with subjects ranging from political coalition building to womanist mothering.

Professor Abdullah is a womanist scholar-activist – understanding the role that she plays in the academy as intrinsically linked to broader struggles for the liberation of oppressed people. Professor Abdullah is a leader in the fight for Ethnic Studies in the K-12 and university systems and was a part of the historic victory that made Ethnic Studies a requirement in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She was among the original group of organizers that convened to form Black Lives Matter and continues to serve as a Los Angeles chapter lead and contributes to the national leadership. She is co-host and co-producer of the weekly radio program Beautiful Struggle, which airs on KPFK, part of the Pacifica radio network. Dr. Abdullah also serves on boards for the Black Community, Clergy and Labor Alliance (BCCLA), California Faculty Association-Los Angeles, Los Angeles African American Women’s Public Policy Institute, Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA-CAN), National Association for Ethnic Studies, Reverence-Wellness Salon, and Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE).

Melina is the recipient of many awards, most recently the 2016 Racial Justice Award presented by the YWCA, the 2016 Fannie Lou Hamer Award for outstanding community service presented by the Coalition of Mental Health Professionals, 2016 Fannie Lou Hamer Award presented by the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, 2016 Sacred Sistahs Award, 2016 California Teachers Association Human Rights Award, 2016 BCCLA Ella Baker Award, 2015 Freedom Now Award, and the 2015 Communitas Award. She was recognized by LA Weekly as one of the 10 most influential Los Angeles leaders, “Urban Girl of the Year” by 2UrbanGirls, and one of the 15 “Fiercest Sisters” of 2015 by Fierce. She has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, TV One, ABC, PBS, KTLA, KCET, BET, Free Speech TV, and Al-Jazeera, and is featured in the films 13th, When Justice Isn’t Just, and Justice or Else. Melina is originally from Oakland, California. She is a single “soccer mama” of three children and resides in Mid-City Los Angeles.

And here is CNN with the story:

Independent presidential candidate Cornel West announced fellow academic Melina Abdullah as his vice presidential nominee in an interview Wednesday on “The Tavis Smiley Show.”

“She has a record of deep commitment and investment in ensuring that poor and working people are at the center of her vision,” West said of his running mate. “I wanted to to run with someone who would put a smile on the face of Fannie Lou Hamer and Martin Luther King Jr. from the grave.”

West’s selection of Abdullah, a Muslim Black woman and a member of the board of directors for Black Lives Matter Grassroots, could further advance his outreach to Muslim Americans and Black Americans disenchanted with President Joe Biden.

A pan-African studies professor at California State University, Los Angeles, Abdullah said she enthusiastically agreed to join West’s campaign and was drawn to his platform of “truth, love and justice.”

“I regard (West), and many of us regard him as one of the most brilliant people to walk this earth, and so I’ve been following him and had been really enthusiastic about his candidacy,” Abdullah said on Smiley’s show shortly after she was announced as West’s running mate.

“He and his wife, Annahita, asked and immediately my heart just soared,” she said. “I said ‘yes’ immediately. Like, shouted ‘yes.’”

Abdullah said she hopes joining West’s campaign and forming a ticket with two Black people would encourage more voters to consider alternatives in political leadership.

“I think that both of us want to disrupt the narrative that you have only two choices,” Abdullah said. “The world tries to tell us that we’re tethered to certain ideas that we don’t have to be tethered to. We can be expansive and imaginative.”

Abdullah, who was raised Baptist, said she believes her religious background ties into the core themes of West’s campaign.

“People of faith all want the same thing. We want peace, we want truth, we want love, and we want justice,” she said.

Read the rest here.