'Jogging mate': Independent candidate Cornel West trolled for choosing BLM activist Melina Abdullah as VP pick

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA: Independent presidential candidate Cornel West announced Melina Abdullah, a professor from California and a prominent activist of the Black Lives Matter movement, as his running mate on Wednesday, April 10, per the New York Post.

Abdullah has been vocal about her stance on defunding the police and has expressed her belief that almost everything is rooted in racism, claiming, “virtually everything is racist” even if one happens to be a fan of pop star Taylor Swift.

What are Milena Abdullah’s credentials that propelled her to be Cornel West’s VP pick?

Melina Abdullah, aged 51, is a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) chapter in Los Angeles. She also served as the Chair of the Department of Pan-African Studies at California State University.

In her career, she has been a vocal advocate for the improvement of racial relations in the United States.

When Taylor Swift supported boyfriend Travis Kelce by attending Super Bowl Sunday in February, Abdullah stated she thought it was "slightly racist to be a Taylor Swift fan."

Following up, the scholar expressed her belief that the Kansas City Chiefs' overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers "was some right-wing, white-supremacist conspiracy."

Abdullah reportedly advocated for rioting in largely White communities, according to LAist, following George Floyd's death in May 2020.

“We want to prosecute the police who kill our people. And we also want to defund police,” she said at the time.

“We’ve been very deliberate in saying that the violence and pain and hurt that’s experienced on a daily basis by black folks at the hands of a repressive system should also be visited upon, to a degree, to those who think that they can just retreat to white affluence,” Abdullah added.

Abdullah, along with her breakaway civil rights group, BLM Grassroots, previously instituted a lawsuit against Shalomyah Bowers and his national Black Lives Matters Global Network Foundation, claiming that Bowers had enriched himself while failing to provide her LA chapter with their rightful funding.

The lawsuit sought damages of $10 million, and in July last year, a judge in California dismissed the case, stating that there was not enough evidence to support the claims made in the lawsuit and that the case was "frivolous."

What did presidential hopeful Cornel West say regarding Melina Abdullah’s addition to his team?

On the Tavis Smiley radio show, Cornel West declared Melina Abdullah to be his preferred candidate for the vice-presidential spot.

West told host Tavis, “I wanted someone whose heart, mind and soul is committed to the empowerment of poor and working people.”

The professor at Manhattan’s Union Theological Seminary continued, “[Abdullah] has a record of deep commitment and investment in ensuring poor and working people are at the center of her vision.”

Abdullah described her reaction to West's proposal as, "My soul and my spirit and it felt as though God was speaking to me and said 'yes' immediately."

West's presidential campaign is based on progressive left-wing values, calling for a $27 minimum wage, affirming a climate emergency, granting reparations to Black Americans, abolishing ICE and demilitarizing the border, dismantling the “US empire” and disbanding NATO, among other matters.

However, West has harshly scrutinized President Joe Biden, calling him a “war criminal” for backing Israel in its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

He has also suggested that the 81-year-old Democratic incumbent may not make it to the November general election because he’s “running out of gas.”

Despite his left-leaning platform, West has struggled to gain traction as a third-party candidate.

According to RealClearPolitics, he is averaging 1.7% support in matchups against President Joe Biden, former president Donald Trump, independent candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

In addition, West has faced difficulties in getting on the ballot in all 50 states as an independent candidate.

So far, his campaign has announced that they have collected enough signatures to be on the ballot in South Carolina, Oregon, Utah, and Alaska.

West is the second third-party presidential candidate to reveal a VP pick after Kennedy had previously picked entrepreneur and attorney Nicole Shanahan as his running mate last month.

Internet mocks Cornel West as he picks BLM activist Melina Abdullah as his running mate

People on X ridiculed the independent presidential hopeful Cornel West over his vice-presidential pick since his announcement this week on Wednesday.

One X user wrote, "If you were ever serious about running... this would not have been your choice."

Another user said, "I like Cornel honestly but yeah, this is his crowd."

Another user quipped, "Jogging mate."

One user claimed, "A hot dog & ketchup have a better chance than these 2."

Another X user snarked, "Wonderful! Keep peeling those votes away from Joe!"

Another user remarked, "I guess he's not going after the youth, Republican, or sane voters!"

Finally, this user tweeted, "Surprising absolutely no one."

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.