Cornel West announces BLM activist and pan-African studies academic Melina Abdullah as his VP pick, after she once claimed being a Taylor Swift fan was 'racist'

Long-shot independent presidential candidate Cornel West has selected as his running mate BLM activist Melina Abdullah, who calls herself a 'Pan-Africanist, Hip Hop scholar' and drew pushback with her post about Taylor Swift.

West announced the selection on an appearance on the Tavis Smiley show with Abdullah, chair of the Pan-African Studies Department at California State University, Los Angeles.

She is the co-founder of a Black Lives Matter chapter in LA, and calls herself a '#BlackLivesMatter organizer, Pan-Africanist, Hip Hop scholar, daughter of God, womanist, truth-teller, mama' on her X profile.

In one prominent post, from February, she asked, 'Why do I feel like it's slightly racist to be a Taylor Swift fan?'

When a fellow platform user pushed back, she responded, 'I said FEEL, not think. Kind of like that feeling I get when there are too many American flags.'

West, in comments on Smiley's show, gave her the posthumous nod from Civil Rights icon Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.   

'She has a record of deep commitment and investment in ensuring that poor and working people are at the center of her vision,' said West, a prominent public intellectual and left wing activist whose campaign has some Democratic activists worrying he could play spoiler for President Joe Biden.

'I wanted to run with someone who would put a smile on the face of Fannie Lou Hamer and Martin Luther King Jr. from the grave. Put a smile on their faces from the grave, and that's the highest standard ‒ as you know that's not a typical standard of the garden-variety politician,' he said.

She led dozens of protests calling for the removal of Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey for declining to to prosecute killings by police officers before the killing of George Floyd set off nationwide protests. 

Another controversial post pegged to the Super Bowl said, 'Why do I feel like this was some right-wing, white-supremacist conspiracy?!?! Booooooo!!!! #SuperBowl.'

And she appeared to urge white people not to join in Juneteenth celebrations. 'Attention white people… Please don't ask if you can come to the cookout… #Juneteenth is freedom day for Black folks,' she posted to Twitter in June 2022. 'It should be #Reparations day for white folks.' 

Last month, she weighed in on the controversy about Beyonce's new exploration of country sounds, commenting on a Beyonce photo riding a white horse while holding an American flag.

'The #AmericanFlag symbolizes the genocide of Indigenous people, the theft of their land, the enslavement, dehumanization, and exploitation of Black people, and settler colonialism. Critique around @Beyonce's artistic choice is important and healthy, not hate. #CowboyCarter'

Abdullah indicated that the call came out of the blue.

She said she 'was not expecting the phone call that I got last week at all, like it was the furthest thing from my mind. And then he and his wife Annahita [Mahdavi West – a top advisor to her husband] asked and immediately my heart just soared,' she said, Politico reported. 

Now that he has rounded out his ticket, West can proceed to try to get on the ballot in about 20 states. 

He has already made trips to battleground Michigan, a battleground where Biden is neck and neck with Donald Trump, and appealing to Muslim and Arab-American voters.

'We got to do something,' West said in Dearborn in December, as an 'uncommitted' movement that damaged Biden was building. 

'That's why I'm here to tell the world and especially straight to Gaza, where they're dealing with a genocidal assault. We believe that a Palestinian baby has the same value as any baby in the world.' 

West has dismissed concerns that he would play spoiler, saying ''I’m trying to convince people thinking about voting for Trump into voting for me,' West said Thursday.

West, a former professor at Harvard and Princeton, started out his run for the People's Party, then switched to the Green Party and then started running as an Independent.