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sheshe2

(83,967 posts)
Fri Jan 10, 2020, 11:15 PM Jan 2020

DR. Cornel West. The Story.

snip

Cornel West latest outburst is directed at a now familiar target: his one-time brother Barack Obama. "Outburst" is almost the wrong word to describe West's recent and vehement opposition to the president on everything from how he's handled the financial crisis to how he handles his black identity. "Redux" might work better since the points on which the Princeton professor harps are the same he's been championing since the beginning of Obama's ascent to office. However, West's way of saying things has become increasingly, shall we say, aggressive.


snip

According to West himself, President Obama betrayed him on two counts after his election. The first was personal. It all started with a mix-up over inauguration tickets. Obama became increasingly hard to track down after his election but came through with a ticket for West. Tickets for West's mother and brother were nowhere to be found, and the three ended up watching the event from their hotel room. West told Hedges:


What it said to me on a personal level was that brother Barack Obama had no sense of gratitude, no sense of loyalty, no sense of even courtesy, [no] sense of decency, just to say thank you. Is this the kind of manipulative, Machiavellian orientation we ought to get used to? That was on a personal level.


snip

I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men. It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation. When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening. And that’s true for a white brother. When you get a white brother who meets a free, independent black man, they got to be mature to really embrace fully what the brother is saying to them. It’s a tension, given the history. It can be overcome. Obama, coming out of Kansas influence, white, loving grandparents, coming out of Hawaii and Indonesia, when he meets these independent black folk who have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, JaneCrow and so on, he is very apprehensive. He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination. It is understandable.

Then on Obama's failure to be progressive:

I was thinking maybe he has at least some progressive populist instincts that could become more manifest after the cautious policies of being a senator and working with [Sen. Joe] Lieberman as his mentor. But it became very clear when I looked at the neoliberal economic team. The first announcement of Summers and Geithner I went ballistic. I said, ‘Oh, my God, I have really beenmisled at a very deep level.’ And the same is true for Dennis Ross and the other neo-imperial elites. I said, ‘I have been thoroughly misled, all this populist language is just a facade. I was under the impression that he might bring in the voices of brother Joseph Stiglitz and brother Paul Krugman. I figured, OK, given the structure of constraints of the capitalist democratic procedure that’s probably the best he could do. But at least he would have some voices concerned about working people, dealing with issues of jobs and downsizing and banks, some semblance of democratic accountability for Wall Street oligarchs and corporate plutocrats who are just running amuck. I was completely wrong.

https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/cornel-wests-continuing-feud-barack-obama/350794/

16 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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DR. Cornel West. The Story. (Original Post) sheshe2 Jan 2020 OP
Cornell West is weird. pangaia Jan 2020 #1
I listened to him and Tavis on NPR. sheshe2 Jan 2020 #2
I remember several yeras ago hearing that tavis show. pangaia Jan 2020 #9
Yup. A weird narcissist that takes on the persona of a baptist preacher. Shaddox Jan 2020 #14
When I was in college, TexasTowelie Jan 2020 #3
Nailed it. sheshe2 Jan 2020 #5
The first time I ever made a 'B' in a mathematics course TexasTowelie Jan 2020 #7
Oh yeah, Hawaii and Indonesia are soooooo white. I feel deracinated just reading this. Hekate Jan 2020 #4
This sheshe2 Jan 2020 #6
Crockpot. Grins Jan 2020 #8
that's unfair, he had justification to insult Pres Obama Demonaut Jan 2020 #11
Bwahahaha sheshe2 Jan 2020 #12
And the Dems allowed this malcontented egotist take part the 2016 oasis Jan 2020 #10
Took a dump in the platform and left to vote for Stein. sheshe2 Jan 2020 #13
Much more diplomatically put that I would have...;-) Docreed2003 Jan 2020 #16
What good does this do now? Buckeyeblue Jan 2020 #15

sheshe2

(83,967 posts)
2. I listened to him and Tavis on NPR.
Fri Jan 10, 2020, 11:43 PM
Jan 2020

They both trashed him every dayum day.

He was never good enough for them.

pangaia

(24,324 posts)
9. I remember several yeras ago hearing that tavis show.
Sat Jan 11, 2020, 12:27 AM
Jan 2020

They're both weird, and regardless of whatever they may gave said about obama, just 2 weurd dudes..



TexasTowelie

(112,521 posts)
3. When I was in college,
Fri Jan 10, 2020, 11:48 PM
Jan 2020

there were certain professors that all of the students avoided taking classes with unless they were the only instructor and the course was required for their majors. After 36 hours of mathematics, I had no qualms skipping topology. I learned a lot taking two courses from that professor (and what I learned had very little to do with mathematics).

TexasTowelie

(112,521 posts)
7. The first time I ever made a 'B' in a mathematics course
Sat Jan 11, 2020, 12:12 AM
Jan 2020

was when I had that professor for calculus II. The redemption came a year later when I took calculus III and had a 98 average.

It's difficult to gauge how one is doing in a class when there is only a mid-term and a final. The worst part is that we didn't find out our grade on the mid-term until two weeks before the final and it was too late to drop the class.

That professor always had an overly ambitious syllabus and we only made it through about one-third of the content. The other class that I had with professor was theoretical in nature and we only made it to page 47 of the text that semester. I made an 'A' in that course, but there was no way in hell that I would ever take another course from that professor. I don't know how that professor ever received tenure since none of the students liked him and he couldn't remember the names of his students one semester later. That's pretty sad considering that there were only seven students in the class and I actively participated each class with only one excused absence when I was on a band tour.

Hekate

(90,868 posts)
4. Oh yeah, Hawaii and Indonesia are soooooo white. I feel deracinated just reading this.
Fri Jan 10, 2020, 11:52 PM
Jan 2020

But what brings up the esteemed Professor West at this moment?

Grins

(7,239 posts)
8. Crockpot.
Sat Jan 11, 2020, 12:17 AM
Jan 2020

Can’t stand listening to his droning on and on and his responses on any subject. For YEARS. Don’t know why media brings him on.

The first African-American wins a presidential election and he says this? Bye-bye, Cornel!

sheshe2

(83,967 posts)
12. Bwahahaha
Sat Jan 11, 2020, 12:42 AM
Jan 2020

Good list!

..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Tickets

oasis

(49,430 posts)
10. And the Dems allowed this malcontented egotist take part the 2016
Sat Jan 11, 2020, 12:34 AM
Jan 2020

Convention platform committee. He thanked them by showing his ass and walking out.

Buckeyeblue

(5,504 posts)
15. What good does this do now?
Sat Jan 11, 2020, 01:03 AM
Jan 2020

Obama was not as liberal or progressive as Republicans tried to make him out to be or as Democrats hoped he would be. But in his defense, the country was a mess when he became president. I think his strength was his pragmatism. And I think he was genuinely a good person who wanted the best for his country.

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