Minorities At Risk For Drowning
Obama Honors Fallen Troops
From The Atlantic:
In this Chris Hedges piece, Cornel West attacks Obama for betraying progressives, and then descends into some really personal, embittered invective:
He bitterly describes Obama as "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats. And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it."
"When you look at a society you look at it through the lens of the least of these, the weak and the vulnerable; you are committed to loving them first, not exclusively, but first, and therefore giving them priority," says West, the Class of 1943 University Professor of African American Studies and Religion at Princeton University.
"And even at this moment, when the empire is in deep decline, the culture is in deep decay, the political system is broken, where nearly everyone is up for sale, you say all I have is the subversive memory of those who came before, personal integrity, trying to live a decent life, and a willingness to live and die for the love of folk who are catching hell. This means civil disobedience, going to jail, supporting progressive forums of social unrest if they in fact awaken the conscience, whatever conscience is left, of the nation. And that's where I find myself now...
Comments: (40)
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By: SAY WHAT! on 5/17/2011 6:28PM
Opinions are like A-holes
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By: Jay on 5/18/2011 5:22PM
everyone has one lol!
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By: Pat Wright on 2/07/2012 6:40PM
What the Hell did you say when Old Ben sent his people over in the US to kill our people thousnads of people were kill and you talking about OB, who in the Hell are you to say a dam thing about the President?
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By: OOOZZZZZ on 5/17/2011 7:50PM
A little recent history.
Any one with a casual knowledge of this rift knows it began during the Democratic primary and not after the election.
It began, not with a puffed up President, but when Cornel West’s “dear brother” Tavis Smiley threw a public tantrum because Senator Obama refused to attend Smiley's annual State of Black America.
And before Barack Obama hit the scene, Tavis Smiley had all the juice and black spotlight in the African American community. After Obama, Tavis just dissappeared.
Tavis Smiley repeatedly suggested that his forum was the necessary black vetting space for the Democratic nominees. He needed to ask Obama and Hillary Clinton tough questions so that black America could get the answers it needed.
But black America was doing a fine job making up its own mind in the primaries and didn’t need Smiley’s blessing to determine their own electoral preferences. Indeed, when Smiley got a chance to hold candidate Clinton “accountable” he spent more time fawning over her than probing about her symbolic or substantive policy stances that impacted black communities.
And what happened to Tavis' "The State Of The Black Union" when President Obama got elected? Tavis abandoned the annual event because he felt that Black people turned on him since he argured against President Obama, had beef with Tom Joyner and Black folk threw him to the curb.
Tavis should have continued the annual "State Of The Black Union" because the agenda, premise and cause was to keep tabs on the CURRENT sitting President Of The United States and it should not have mattered that the current President was Black.
If the next President is White in 2016, will Tavis restart the State Of the Black Union?"
Fiercely loyal to his friend, Professor West chose sides and began to undermine candidate Barack Obama is small and large ways. Candidate Obama ceased calling West back because he was in the middle of a fierce campaign and West’s loyalties were, at best, divided.
I suspect candidate Obama did not trust his “dear brother” to keep the campaign secrets and strategies. I also suspect he was not inaccurate in his hesitancy.
Furthermore, West’s sense of betrayal is clearly more personal than ideological. In an article, West claims that a true progressive would always put love of the people above concern with the elite and privileged.
Then he complains, “I couldn’t get a ticket to the inauguration with my mother and my brother. I said this is very strange. We drive into the hotel and the guy who picks up my bags from the hotel has a ticket to the inauguration... We had to watch the thing in the hotel.”Let me get this straight--the tenured, Princeton professor who collects five figures for public lectures was relegated to a hotel television while an anonymous hotel worker got tickets to the inauguration! What kind of crazy, mixed up class politics are these? Wait a minute…
As West derides the President’s economic policies he remains silent on his friend Tavis Smiley’s relationship with Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, and McDonald's--all corporations whose invasive and predatory actions in poor and black communities have been the target of progressive organizing for decades.
Why won't West take Tavis Smiley to task for helping convince black Americans to enter into predatory mortgages.
Has West him ask whether Tavis' decision to publish R. Kelley’s memoirs might be a less than progressive decision. He doesn’t hold Tavis accountable because Tavis is his friend and he is fiercely loyal.
I smell more personal than professional and political haterade from Dr. West and his defending his dear jealous friend & brother Tavis Smiley who can't seem or want to defend himself.
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By: ooo-b-doo on 5/18/2011 12:37AM
I'm a Progressive. Cornell West is a Democratic Socialist, who has a nerve to twist his fangled tooth mouth up to call himself a Progessive. The purpose of a Democratic Socialist is to Rabble Rouse and agitate, and that's what he's doing, and any little ole excuse will do. He said he's "Supporting "Progressive" forums of social unrest and civil disobedience." It's the President who is the real Progressive. West and Tavis could show some good, but jealous fools won't. Now on to the business of helping the poor people hurt by the tornado and flood devastations in the deep South.......
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By: Greg D. on 5/18/2011 9:56AM
@OOOZZZZZ,
I appreciate your informed observations and opinions on the history of this rift. I also watched and listened as it played out. I felt and still do that Tavis was miffed at Obama declining his invitation. But, I think the black establishment, whatever that is, had already thrown their support behind Clinton. Expecting her to be the eventual nominee. Obama was in the middle of the election cycle and had to walk a tight rope not to appear to be running for the "President of Black America" but the representative of "All of America". Had he done so, it just might have been the tipping point needed for reluctant whites NOT to support him. He already knew he was still in the race. Tavis and Dr. West, both of whom I still greatly admire, mis-read what was going on. So, instead of being far-sighted, they, surprisingly had a very short-sighted reaction to the refusal. Hillary Clinton, being white, never had to prove she wasn't "too black". So, she could afford to go on the State of the Black Nation and not suffer much, if any, backlash or "blacklash".
I think, male egos being what they are, are driving most of this criticism.
I too, at times, have been critical of President Obama. He has deserved it. But, I still support him due to the preponderance of his performance. I'm not dumping my support based on one or two things I didn't like.
I'm just a little disappointed that two men whom I admire, can't get past the small stuff and look at the bigger picture. I guess he's doing something right if he's got both sides pi**ed at him!
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By: Nocarole on 5/18/2011 3:56PM
@Ozzzz
Your comment was right on all points. Cornell West is a disgrace.He needs to take a bath,he always looks like he slept in his clothes.
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By: Debi on 5/18/2011 6:12PM
Your comment is thoughtful and inspiring. Amen to all you've said. Brilliant. Time out for petty jealousies and hypocrites as Tavis Smiley who pretend to have the American Black issues at heart but are in reality self-serving demigods.
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By: perfectasdusk on 5/19/2011 10:30PM
Extremely well written and well said! Tons of truth in it.~
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By: mike on 6/30/2011 10:14AM
This rift as it is being called is disgusting. It calls to mind how every time a true "progressive" brother tries to address the tough issues there are always other so-called brothers who only want to see him fail and try to tear him down. It seems that since tavis and cornell don't like The President for what ever petty reason they have decided to help the opposition (republican party, tea party, and hate mongerering white Americans in general)destroy him. This is sickeningly reminiscent of the ruling Africans who made deals with europeans to sell their own people into slavery.My God hasn't the last five hundred years in this country taught us anything? apparently not because here we are still selling each other out. Yes I agree Barack Obama must be doing something right because the devil is attacking him from every possible angle.
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