What The Cornel West Mess Really Means

Cornel West is blasting President Obama on what he, West, believes is the president's inaction on "Black issues" as well as progressive/liberal issues. As a strong defender of President Obama, Al Sharpton, somewhat rightly, has defended the president by saying he, Obama, is the president of the United States and not just president of Black America.

That last point is something I heard many Black supporters say about Obama soon after he won election and that was something I expected to hear since then candidate Obama couldn't win with just the Black vote.

In 2010, I wrote that I thought the election of Obama as president meant the change within Black America politics was manifesting itself.

West's polemics are a clear indication of a "civil rights agitator/thinker" trying to get a non-civil rights based politician to "get in line." But what, I think, people are missing, is that some so-called "Black leaders" are now calling for accountability. What has been missed in this mess is, even Al Sharpton has criticized President Obama.

Comments

[Roderick]

I have yet to understand why people like Cornell West are relevant to mainstream blacks.

Academics like West prefer to mentally masturbate in their ivory towers than actually offer common sense solutions to problems.

Sadly a lot of mainstream blacks end up paying attention to egomanics like West instead of using our energy to improve our communities.

[MIB]

We have to consider Prof. West is also a politician. He's just not an elected official. So he's free to rigorously advocate on behalf of his preferred ideology. Up to a point, I've accepted his criticisms of Obama as fair game. I don't buy the 'civil rights leaders versus non-civil rights leaders' explanation, though, for several reasons. It should be obvious by now Obama's not a progressive; he's closer to what's called a 'social democrat'. I'm not disappointed because he never sold himself as a progressive politician.

I'm less sure West is as progressive as he claims, but instead is a socialist in the style of Bernie Saunders. My point being is the ideological distance between Obama and West is more substantive than you've allowed.

West's comments have seemingly become very personal lately, as in the way West minimized Obama's 'Blackness'. He's way out of pocket with that kind of rhetoric. The irony is that's the kind of stuff people accuse Rev. Sharpton of doing all the time; revoking people's ghetto passes and such.

[DarkStar]

MIB, please define what you mean by "social democrat."

Thanks.

[MIB]

A social democrat believes the basic system of government is fine as is, it just requires some tweeks. A democratic socialist believes the government should be overhauled in a way that the state is the lone provider of some services, i.e.; utilities, air travel, health care, etc.