Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Cornel West is Personally Offended that President Obama Used Martin Luther King Jr.'s Bible at the Inauguration
Cornel keeps shanking Obama in the gut whenever the opportunity presents itself. This just hurts to watch.
At this point it is pretty clear that Cornel West is permanently off of the Obama's Christmas card list. Brother West is also not going to be getting a personal invite to any of the inaugural balls or other related events. I do wonder, if President Obama had it to do all over again those few years ago, would he have issued Cornel a personal invite for the first inauguration in 2008?
At this point all of the bad blood is just so much piling on and could have easily been prevented by a simple gesture.
In the abstract, Brother West is correct in how many of Obama's policies are problematic and wanting when viewed from a radically humanistic, Black Prophetic, social justice perspective. However, are black "radicals" (to the degree that Cornel is one given his full professorship and lucrative role as a public intellectual) being fair and reasonable in assessing Barack Obama as the President of the United States, a man who by definition is part of Power as opposed to being outside of it?
There is so much sound and fury from some on the Black Left towards President Barack Obama. Is there anything he can do to silence them? What would make them happy while still allowing Obama to stay in office as president?
I am all for Black Freedom Dreams. If we and our allies did not dream, then Jim and Jane Crow, and the Southern Slaveocracy would not have been brought down. I worry that those Black Freedom Dreams have left too many folks living in a haze, unable to grapple with the waking realities that are politics in the real world. Obama is firmly grounded in the pragmatic politics of compromise and the now: he is blessed and cursed because of that temperament.
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14 comments:
rotflmbao...,
CDV wags his finger and sucks his teeth disapprovingly at certain white folks disingenuous appropriation of King on Thursday http://wearerespectablenegroes.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-class-that-discusses-white-privilege.html but a mere one week later, when Stephen Obama - blackface overseer of the bankster military industrial impyre - even more audaciously and disingenuously appropriates King - it's all goodness and the "black left" needs to sober up, grow up, and sit down?
Riverside church is living memory history http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm - put forth in plain language that everybody can understand. The only folks who even try to play fast and loose with living memory history are liars and revisionists with snake oil to sell.
Why you shilling that ophidian shea butter CDV?
"Stephen Obama - blackface overseer of the bankster military industrial impyre - even more audaciously and disingenuously appropriates King - it's all goodness and the "black left" needs to sober up, grow up, and sit down?"
Never said that. My claim is more subtle. I thought you would agree. Obama is one part of Power and its various organs. The sheeple need to adjust their expectations accordingly.
The Black Left should keep crying, complaining, protesting, and marching. As should others. Obama made a smart move to cooptate the silent majority in the service of his agenda...brilliant actually. I would have advised the same move.
Can black and brown folks and those others who care about the working class and poor push him in that direction via using existing organs of power? Can they get a seat at the table? Or is OWS, an effort to use people power against anti-democratic forces--the only way? How successful was that?
All this talk of shilling...again. Where is my check? Help a brother out!
Never said that. My claim is more subtle. I thought you would agree. Obama is one part of Power and its various organs. The sheeple need to adjust their expectations accordingly.
How are the "sheeple" going to adjust their expectations if their "teachers" continuously extol the virtues, the genius, the temperament, and their own personal support for the serpent?
That's shilling.
The Black Left should keep crying, complaining, protesting, and marching.
Or is OWS, an effort to use people power against anti-democratic forces--the only way? How successful was that?
Wait, is that the tickle and slap method of encouraging folk to keep crying complaining protesting, and marching?
I once had respect for Mr. West, and I looked forward to Smiley's annual live panels on C-Span, but now I find the West & Smiley vaudeville act embarrassing. Michael Dyson has it right when he suggests that this duo has "sold its souls."
As for Dr. King—whom I highly respected and once had the pleasure of meeting for more than a hot minute—we tend to overlook his homophobic stance re Bayard Rustin in connection with the 1963 March on Washington. MLK basically wanted to hide Bayard from sight, disregarding the fact that he was instrumental in that pivotal event taking place.
Granted, Mr. Obama receiving the Nobel Peace Prize is almost farcical, and his drones are a bigger strike against human rights than Dr. King's fleeting homophobia, but
The fact that you called Dr. West and Tavis Smiley "vaudeville" certainly smacks Patriarchy
And Dr. Dyson I suppose, who like Al Sharpton- before he got his nationally syndicated TV Show,- was highly critical of Obama's unwillingness to address Black poverty and unemployment, was "keeping it real" when all of a sudden Dyson showed up with front row seats and rock star access at The Democratic Convention? This is where he then, turned and rabidly denounced Cornel West. Of course you care to engage both points of view socratically look at the you tube video where The Black Agenda Report's Glenn Ford intellectual handles Dyson like an Intellectual Ali of Frazier.
Of course it's expected that you would harangue Cornel West/Tavis, because Obama has secured and promoted the interests of the white community in it's totality, including those that will never support him.
Meanwhile the Black community has further declined in terms of economics and general well being due to neglected from the white house, directly.
Further, if I had a buffalo penny for every white person who marched, met, ate, dance, laughed, etc, with Martin Luther King I'd be a rich man. I'd also have my of reparations because King would certainly have been far more popular.
Finally your labeling King as homophobic smacks of the same entitled bluster as your labeling of Dr. West and Tavis as "vaudeville"
Dr. King was under mountains of stress and pressure , especially leading up to the march. So it should come as no surprise that when the President of the United State's walked Dr. King outside into the Rose Garden for the single purpose of explaining that a nut case named J. Edgar Hoover knew of Bayard's recent arrest for perhaps not being careful enough to get a hotel room instead of a public wash-room stall and for being equally bold about being communist, both King and Bayard Rustin would know that for the good of The Movement, Rustin needed to take a back seat roll, which was deeply unfortunately as Rustin had mad skills as they say. It's also historically accurate to say King knew his friend very well therefor Rustin's politics an his sexuality were no secret to King. So please next time do your search as opposed to trampling on my history, which I know comes natural for "certain groups".
Regards to you,
I.M.
@IM.
Please explain you use of the phrase, "patriarchy" if you would.
One's principles are revealed when they are under pressure; likewise one's principles are revealed by how they act when they think that no one is watching. Dr. King's treatment of Brother Baynard was homophobic by definition.
King was a brilliant tactician and strategist. Folks forget many of the controversies about his approaches. See for example how he allowed children to participate in marches knowing that violence would befall them. Great visual for painting the evils of racism though, isn't it?
Dr. King chose to sacrifice Baynard. He was a general who sent his men to die by sacrificing them for the good of the larger force.
King was no Saint, just a man with great commitment and intelligence.
When did you meet Dr. King? Do share.
Adolph Reed had a great essay a few years back in the late 1990s in the Village Voice I believe on the role of black public intellectuals that I think you would get a big kick out of. Check it out if you haven't seen it.
Way to call me out,Vincent Vega. Nothing gets past you,
I was trying to pull some punches, cause I know you all respectable, and what not, and I is a guest, in dis here gilded front parlor of yours. ;-)
I meant "white male patriarchy" in this case a supercilious self insertion into the complicated politically and emotionally charged affairs of other cultures with no real knowledge including no willingness to respect said cultures enough to study them before inserting an "expert" voice.
I did this once( undergrad) in a room full of feminist and got schooled and never did it again. Now I can insert my voice because I did "the work".
CNu,
It pays better than the fiction you vomit on this site..lol,lol,lol
You the classic Black apologist and hypocrite has zero standing and credibility in here expect for CD's twisted admiration for your nonsense..WTF
I thought creating parity in sentencing in crack and powder cocaine was in fact specific to us. Equal work, equal pay certainly helps Black women more than any other group. Healthcare costs especially the inclusion of provisions for preventative care address a huge issue in our community so I'm curious...what could the president do to specifically address issues within the Black community. I think Dr. King would have had a problem with this president (as well as Ben Jealous') treatment of Shirley Sherrod. However crafting national policy to address the concerns of the Black community would be what exactly? While there have been laws in the past that have hurt us, I don't see how the issues that plague us now can be helped by policy changes. In regards to West and Smiley their partnership with Wells Fargo and continued steering of Black consumers to an entity that clearly hurt them and their ability to build wealth negates any credibility they may have had in the past.
I personally think that Cornel West is an idiot.
In what way?
In the way that he thinks that Obama can wave a magic wand and eliminate all of the deleterious effects of hundreds of years of white racial animus in one fell swoop. In the way that he petulantly criticizes Obama's every action when the aforementioned impossible magic fails to materialize.
Most of all, he's an idiot in a hypocritical way, because if he'd gotten his personal invitation, he wouldn't be shuckin', jivin', and buck dancin' for Newt Gingrich's amusement.
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