Saturday, August 27, 2011






West is trying to offer an answer. What is yours?














Cornel West, a philosopher, is a professor at Princeton.


Thrasher said...

CWest..A Free Black Man in cemetery clothes and coffin-ready...The Uniform for WARN and the one I wear 24/7...

Comrade PhysioProf said...

It blew my mind that West referred to Melville as "our greatest writer". Melville is my favorite author, and yet as a privileged urban white dude academic, it had never occurred to me that his writing could be inspiring to revolutionary sentiment.

Pragmatic Realist said...

I appreciate the thoughts here and your calling Dr. West's article to our attention.

brotherbrown said...

I don't like prognosticating what some historical figure might have done or said; some people would have you believe MLK would be a conservative republican were he alive today. But if you wanna go there, what would MLK make of the poverty tour, of West and Smiley?

I do wish Obama had made different choices than he has in some specific areas: 1) the Stimulus was not big enough nor long enough; Obama was more concerned about midterm elections and couldn't see how deep the need is. 2) healthcare reform only makes since with portability, a public option, and some protections for consumers who get sick; portability never was in the package, public option was withdrawn in the spirit of compromise, and most of the provisions kick in in 2014. 3) Wars! What's the mission now, Mr. President?

How can the President begin to get on the track I hoped he would? If he raises $100 million for his campaign, give at least 10% to charity. Start there.

brotherbrown said...

Oops!! Healthcare makes "sense" not "since"

nomad said...

I will probaly have more to say later, after my brain cells fireup. In the meantime I will point out support for my argument that Obama is working against the best interests of his constituents. And he is doing it intentionally, the closet Republican.


Plantsmantx said...

You're right, Nomad. He's not stupid or cowardly. In fact, he's very shrewd, and has an amazing ability to put his ego aside. He's not being intimidated into accepting outcomes he doesn't want. He's pretending that he's being intimidated into accepting outcomes that he does want.

nomad said...

"Being a trouble making truth teller"

I have to believe that were Dr. King alive he would be criticizing Obama in the same terms as West. Indeed it is West that manifests King's legacy rather than Obama. What was King but the ultimate trouble making truth teller? He would have certainly been making more trouble over our present conditions, under this president, than Dr. West has a means of causing.

Thrasher said...


No one is the equal of MLK, Mandela, Parks, etc...I tire quickly when folks begin the compare dead icons with the living...Obama is not a dragonslayer to expect such is foolish...More importantly we are now in an era where the ability to influence and alter the course of events is now even beyond the ruling elite...This reality underscores Obama's impotence as well as the ruling elite...

The question we are left with is how we can managed our own orbits to create and develop collectives that have similar objectives and goals.. As Black folks we should marshall all of our collective liablilites and assets and then proceed accordingly..

Chasing down Obama now is a waste of time I rather focus my attention on those forces that impact us right now from cops to teachers to criminals to change agents withing the community all at a micro level..

This is how I view West, CD and others playing out thier roles in the collective

nomad said...

I'm not so much chasing him down as demythifying him. There is a myth that has become a serious impediment for black people this past 3 years. Somehow they conflate the images of MLK and BHO. I think it's important to undo that couple that linkage. Barack Obama is an illusion planted in the mind by clever "corporate" marketing. It is important to recognize this.

Thrasher said...


Sorry but I am not buying the "corporate god " theme....I never purchased the racial fiction that the 'white man" was all that and I won't buy your omnipotent corporate theme either..

My world is dominated but what I do in it not the agenda's of others..

I have no quarrel with the opinion that Obama was over sold and Black folks may have been on trhe kool aid but given our legacy of survival in America we are not robots or illusion suckers...Your view of Black folks is rather low a

parvenu said...

As black folks we must very careful who we listen to in this day and age of the super wealthy corporate oligarchs spreading money all over the place when it advances their pernicious racialist agendas. In fact my policy is to look for the money whenever someone steps up as the self-appointed critic of Barack Obama, our first black president.

In this respect the Smiley West tour does not pass the SMELL test for me. The Smiley West poverty tour with its unashamed "Sock it to Obama" theme certainly is something that would warm the hearts of the Koch Brothers and Dick Armey. Further, the corporation funded institute ALEC when it is not writing Voter Suppression legislation for Republican controlled state governments is always on the lookout for any freelance projects that can effectively be used to help "swift boat" the 2012 re-election campaign of Barack Obama. Now it is well known that Tavis Smiley has long had extensive corporate connections who have funded all of his projects in the past. What I need to know is just who is writing the checks to fund the Smiley West poverty tour?

Lastly the very public feud between Dr. West and Dr. Laurence Summers, the president of Harvard during the time that Cornel was on the staff at Harvard. The feud became so heated and nasty that it finally ended when Dr. West resigned and returned to Princeton. Dr. West was a strong supporter of Barack Obama and even campaigned on his behalf in 2008. However west’s endorsement of Obama all changed in 2009 when Obama appointed Dr. Summers to be the Director of Economic Council in the White House? Was it just a coincidence that after the appointment of Dr. Summers in 2009 that Cornel West started his personal quest to publicly attack president Obama for unacceptable incompetence and unforgivable neglect of the black community?

IMHO these questions must be answered before I personally start listening to the rhetoric coming out of the Smiley West Poverty Tour.

nomad said...

'Sorry but I am not buying the "corporate god " theme'

Wherentheheck did that come from? I never said anything about god. Or that the white man was all that. I said black people were the victims of a "corporate" hoax, just like the whites that voted for Obama.

nomad said...


Yes, you're right. Trust no black person but Obama.

Weird Beard said...

CD- Thanks for opening up the discussion on the poverty tour, I was hoping it would get a little play on your boards. I am curious to hear more about your feelings/thoughts/insights on the matter.
BrotherBrown- I like your take on the situation, your points are one's that call for us to hold the president accountable without demonizing and spinning off into conspiracy muckity muck.

To others, I may ask "what went wrong here?" Is it that Washington is so effed in the A that any person no matter what their original intent would get bogged down in the mire of corporate/white quicksand? Or is it something particular about Obama that gives him an Achilles heal for big business and militarism over the needs of the people? Is it that America herself is so entrenched in greed and power that one plays along or is cast aside at that level?

Anonymous said...

Whoa! good points. West is catching a lot of hate. I'm on the fence with this thing.

We need to be doing more to get under Congress' ass. Obama is NOT King. But he can do something.

Ta-Nehisi Coates continues to blast at Cornel and nem.

Any thoughts on what's up with dude? I like his blogs, but he's kinda hard on West especially?

Oh Crap said...


I know just what you mean. To a large extent CW doesn't have any control over it; that's function of invisible manning/tokenization in the first place.

But I find a lot of white progs suddenly trotting "Cornel West" out (the stick to beat Obama, not the actual scholar, thus the scare quotes) as some kind of authentic Black man in contrast to Obama.

It's like Malcolm vs MLK, they tell me. Rotfl, like they know jack crud about either Malcolm or MLK.

I find it awful, and amusing.