Golly, there sure are a lot of white liberals sitting in their comfortable suburban homes trying to tell a brother what he should be thinking and feeling:
ProSense Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 09:52 AM
Original message
Joan Walsh: Cornel West's tragic meltdown
Cornel West's tragic meltdown
A few fair complaints about Obama drown in a sea of personal racial attacks. Is this how identity politics ends?
By Joan Walsh
The most tragic thing, to me, about West's meltdown was the way he tried to frame it as a universalist defense of poor and working class people – who in fact haven't gotten enough help or attention from this too-close-to-Wall Street administration – but then somehow descends into personal attacks on the president as "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats." If that wasn't bad enough, West claims Obama's problem is that he is afraid of "free black men" due to his white ancestry and years in the Ivy League. “He feels most comfortable with upper middle-class white and Jewish men who consider themselves very smart, very savvy and very effective in getting what they want,†West claimed.
<...>
How did the man who wrote in "Race Matters" that it's time "to replace racial reasoning with moral reasoning" come to this? I don't disagree with some of West's critique of Obama, but Ta-Nehisi Coates is exactly right here:
Was there something more Obama should have done to get a public option? Should he not have traded the Bush tax cuts for extending unemployment benefits? Did Obama settle too quickly on a small stimulus package? Was he wrong to allow the GOP to shut down planned parenthood in DC? Is the strategy of increased drone attacks in Pakistan inhumane? Was the financial reform bill he signed ultimately too weak?
I think all of this is fair game. I think Charles Ferguson's critique in Inside Job was really solid. I think calling someone a "black mascot" or a "black puppet" because they don't agree with you is much less so.
<...>
But there's a way in which this whole controversy looks like progressives devouring their own tail. From the left, West attacks Obama for not being black enough; I've written about being attacked as a clueless, entitled white progressive for criticizing Obama; in a pro-West backlash, black Obama supporters are being dismissed as "elitist" fronts for white liberals and that half-white guy in the White House. It's crazy. The only good thing about the fracas is that maybe finally, America will learn that there's no monolithic "black community" and no one set of black leaders: The diversity of African-American opinions about the West-Obama tangle has been fascinating. And the ways that race comes into play when debating the achievements of our first black president shouldn't be surprising. But it's starting to obscure more than it reveals.
The focus on identity is stifling: I've seen people take potshots at many of the players involved based on their status in various Ivy League debates over the last decade. Preposterously, West attacks Obama's Ivy League background – yes, the president has degrees from Harvard and Columbia – when West has been sheltered beneath the cool ivy himself for most of his career. West defender Boyce Watkins of Syracuse University continued with the Ivy League slurs, trashing Melissa Harris-Perry as "a darker-skinned staple in the white liberal establishment" and an "Ivy League" pro-Obama sellout; other critics have suggested the Nation writer is attacking West because they didn't get along at Princeton (disclosure: Harris-Perry is a friend of mine who has brought me to speak at Princeton; now she's headed to a new post at Tulane University.) A few people have linked West's beef with Obama to his clashes with former Obama advisor Larry Summers back when Summers was Harvard's president, and West decamped to Princeton. Is our troubled country really supposed to care about who didn't get along with who in the Ivy League? Can I dismiss what all of them say because I went to a fine land-grant college, the University of Wisconsin? That would be stupid, right?
more
opihimoimoi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 10:08 AM
Response to Original message
2. Yup...West is using Domination Hubristic Lingo in his attempt tto control
The "Brother" route is not working...got smothered with his motives...self interest....
still_one Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Donate to DU! Thu May-19-11 10:39 AM
Response to Original message
3. Attack Obama on the issues, not on some perceived racial impression you "think" he has. I am quite
disappointed that West decided to take this approach.
Cali_Democrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 11:15 AM
Response to Reply #4
9. Yup
There are a lot more important things to worry about than Cornel's opinion of Obama.
This obsession is so strange.
vaberella (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 11:54 AM
Response to Reply #9
15. Actually you're wrong. It's as important because it touches on the racial divide.
I'm really pissed off that people don't see the racial dynamic used here and how significant it is when looking at the 21st Century. You are willing to dismiss this issue, because in part you agree, which basically touches on the ever present racism that is going on. We have racism against the President because he's Black or "too" Black. And now we have a well known Black man who speaks on racial issues calling Obama a "Black mascot" and suggesting his White side, ie his White mother made him incapable of recognizing poor people. This is not something you dismiss and say it's not important.
It's very important.
Cali_Democrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 12:05 PM
Response to Reply #15
16. "Because in part you agree"
Edited on Thu May-19-11 12:13 PM by Cali_Democrat
Bullshit.
I did not agree with West's analysis that Obama's white side and upbringing influences his policies. West essentially called Obama an Oreo. I do not agree with that assessment at all. Some of his analysis of Obama's polices was correct, other parts were not IMO. The Oreo part was not.
Please don't tell me what I agree with. You don't know me at all.
vaberella (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 12:27 PM
Response to Reply #16
18. I'm speaking to when you stated in another thread that you agreed with some of his analysis.
That is not wrong or BS. You said so. I'm not going to sit there and nitpick each separation since the entire thing is associated with a racist root.
Cali_Democrat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 12:57 PM
Response to Reply #18
22. Agreeing with parts of his analysis does not mean agreeing with the racial part of his analysis
Don't get it twisted.
vaberella (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 11:51 AM
Response to Reply #4
14. No it's not. This is serious issue and I'm ****in' disgusted that people are willing to ignore it.
Why? Because Jack & Jill politics are still at play, people calling other people---I mean successful Black individuals dark-skinned or light skinned and then this whole "Black mascot"---yeah, for you it's meaningless. But when shit like this is not addressed and it's not dealt with we continue on in circular situation. People are disgusting when they defend, this fool West---who pushed an extremely racist dialogue. This is why we are not moving forward. Because people like you are willing to so easily dismiss it.
Phx_Dem (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 11:41 AM
Response to Original message
12. Cornel West has always been a huge pompous ass.
Every time he appears on Real Time with Bill Maher I have to change the channel because he is beyond annoying.
racist
vaberella (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 11:48 AM
Response to Original message
13. Black people are their own worst enemy. You see that shit...
"dark-skinned staple" FOR GOD's sakes...I think I'm going to cry!
Oh no you di'n't
Jakes Progress Donating Member (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Fri May-20-11 12:36 AM
Response to Reply #13
36. Are you black?
Why do you lump all black people together as a monolithic group? Do you even understand what you do when you say something like this? So black people are this way? How about Jews? Gays? Got another group you can stereotype?
Herman Cain, Clarence Thomas and Allen West to the--erm--white courtesy phone; there's an apology waiting for you.
vaberella (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Fri May-20-11 06:33 AM
Response to Reply #36
45. Get over yourself. Should I have been more precise?
Let me explain something. When I see Black people on television or write in articles that go across the nation to denigrate other Black people's let's just say I find it cannibalistic. These are the people with power and influence and instead they spend their time touching on extremely racist ideology. Did you read the comments by Boyce Watkins against Melissa Harriss-Perry----she's a "dark-skinned staple" <---what does that say to you? How do you view that...and it's not just him, there are many people doing this. West sees the first Black president who has a White mother and implies his White mother is to blame for the way he is----there is a problem here. And I see the attacking of each other from within from going after someone's DNA to Jack & Jill politics, makes us a people fraught with issue and when we are successful in some way we deny our roots or we are experiencing "deracination" as West claims. You can read it as generalizing but if most are looking from the outside of people attacking people through skin color and biology---they'll see a similar pattern.
[youtube=425,350]0H2W1lK7P-I[/youtube]
namahage Donating Member (623 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 09:30 PM
Response to Reply #19
30. You know who else would love to see this issue die?
Joan Walsh.
But there's a way in which this whole controversy looks like progressives devouring their own tail. From the left, West attacks Obama for not being black enough; I've written about being attacked as a clueless, entitled white progressive for criticizing Obama; in a pro-West backlash, black Obama supporters are being dismissed as "elitist" fronts for white liberals and that half-white guy in the White House. It's crazy. The only good thing about the fracas is that maybe, finally, America will learn that there's no monolithic "black community" and no one set of black leaders: The diversity of African-American opinions about the West-Obama tangle has been fascinating. And the ways that race comes into play when debating the achievements of our first black president shouldn't be surprising. But it's starting to obscure more than it reveals.
...
But I continue to observe a disturbing ad hominem campaign against Obama critics (the Twitter war rages on, with or without me). If you're white, it's "white privilege" speaking. If you're black, you're old or jealous or angry you're left out of Obama's inner circle. If you're neither white nor black, you just don't get American race relations and you should "STFU." Just today on Twitter, I saw two (white) progressives I respect make wildly contradictory and nasty generalizations about a grouping of Obama critics (of different races; I wasn't among them): One suggested they're trashing the president for fame and money; the other that they're angry they've been marginalized by Obama's popularity. Which is it?
...
Former Biden economic advisor Jared Bernstein wrote a really great piece about why he left the White House: It's pro-Obama, it's compassionate, it's fair-minded and it's also critical. This is the discussion we're supposed to be having. That West mess is a lamentable sideshow.
Tarheel_Dem (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 12:33 PM
Response to Original message
20. With this latest tirade, West has just proven beyond any doubt, that he's
just another in a long line of "carnival barkers", and I predict this will eventually diminish him more than the person he sought to diminish. The whole tirade was laced with racist dog whistles, and that's the part that has caught so many by surprise, myself included. I'm actually ashamed that I ever had any modicum of respect for Mr. West.
Great piece by Joan. :thumbsup:
But you did and you built the establishment that gave him his platform and credentials. Yet, this whole episode is completely predictable.
Number23 (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 09:09 PM
Response to Reply #20
28. Yep. And it's interesting that so many were all too happy to embrace his "racist dog whistles"
It is very, VERY telling.
I also find if fascinating that Cornel says the president is "afraid of free black men" which is just about the greatest insult a black man could give another, but only the folks calling Cornel out are engaging in "character assassination." In other words, this president should and will be criticized for things he has ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL OVER (his race, upbringing, biology etc.) but it is somehow against some magical rule to criticize anyone who engages in such bigoted critiques.
You cannot make this shit up. Falls in neatly with the "CALLING someone racist is actually worse than BEING racist" meme embraced by far too many of our fellow citizens.
They love that term "dog whistle."
politicasista Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 03:55 PM
Response to Original message
23. I remember him speaking at our commencement in college
Edited on Thu May-19-11 04:02 PM by politicasista
He called us (our class) "Generation X/Expectations." His parents went to mine and my dad's Alma Mater. My late paternal grandmother taught him in grade school in Sacramento. She was thrilled to hear that he was going to speak there.
Have stayed out of the West vs Obama arguments, and while he has every right to his opinion, his ego and loyalty to Tavis Smiley is doing (has done) him in. This all started way before the meltdown, shouting match with Rev. Al Sharpton on that dreadful MSNBC special.
Chickens coming home to roost.
Gunny1 (51 posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu May-19-11 06:22 PM
Response to Original message
24. Cornel West is a poor, clueless soul.
He's out there lecturing Obama about "free black men" while he makes his home in the elite, almost exclusively white world of higher academia where he's a novelty act for white intellectuals to whom he provides diversity creds. West is no representative of the African American community. He's a self promoting clown playing just the song his white audience wants to hear. God this pisses me off!!! How dare this twit speak to Obama like that!?!
And on it goes...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x675827#675832
