Cornell West on NPR says: "We are all Niggers in America Now!" OMG

[KoKo]

did he speak the truth or what! I know what he's talking about...Niggers in America...we are and I know whereof he speaks when he says it's time to fight back...He mentioned Scott Fitzgerald, Tennesee Williams, Stephen Sondheim, hip hop and Blues folks..trying to "speak the word...get the message out." I grew up reading Fitzgerald, Williams and others..I know what he means!

That's what this "60's Person" thinks....we are all Niggers again in America...us White Folks/Black Folks and those Inbetween!"

WTF are we going to do about this? (He was promoting his new book..sorry I don't have the name...just Google it) I came in during the middle of his interview.

I'm tired...get out of here...it's gone.

[shoopnyc123]

1. Democracy Matters...

...and yes, we have been in the same boat for some time...watch any Frank Capra movie and you'll see it present even there...

[ulysses]

2. you're going to fight back

by leaving the country?

[KoKo]

3. I will fight until this election is over..and then...I'm gone...I can't

stand anymore. If I fight it's from outta here. I'm just tired and sick of it all like a "yo-yo" my string is worn and ready to go.

[ulysses]

8. the question stands.

[ulysses]

11. Koko?

I doubt Dr. West said that it was time to fight back unless you were tired. How are you going to fight back?

[Eloriel]

18. Oh, Jesus Christ, ulysses, quit badgering her

You got a pep talk, give her that. But stop the badgering.

Different people have different tolerance levels, different life situations, different ability to cope, etc., etc., etc. Each person is responsible to his or herself alone, not you or me or any one else or all of the rest of America. You don't even know what role she might end up playing outside the country if she goes -- maybe she could "fight" from somewhere else, perhaps offering others exile or doing other work.

Each person has to make their own decision about what's best for their life.

[ulysses]

20. excuse me?

Never known you to be one to back down from an argument, Eloriel, and honestly, I find it the height of irony to use a call from Dr. West to fight back as an excuse to retreat.

But yes, to each their own, I suppose. And we wonder why we keep getting our asses kicked.

[alittlelark]

14. I agree to some degree

If we fight and lose this bbv election - I will leave if there are not over 20 million people in the streets. At that point I will determine that America has indeed become AMERIKKKKA. I will be sad, realizing that my ancestors fought and died in every war until GWI....and I will be ready to return for the fight when the sheeple have awakened.

[KoKo]

4. I will fight until this election is over..and then...I'm gone...I can't

stand anymore. If I fight it's from outta here. I'm just tired and sick of it all like a "yo-yo" my string is worn and ready to go.

[21winner]

5. I forget who...

but this was said after Nixon was elected in 1972. West ought to get original. I have to doubt there are any "niggers" at Harvard. I hope he sells lots of books.

[KoKo]

7. But, you are ignoring the point he's making. Aren't we all on the liberal

side, "Niggers in America?" Or, are we. And, believe me, I'm not credit carded to the max and living on borrowed time here...but I understand those who are and WHY they are..

We are marginalized...those of us who see what's going on in Bush America. If he sells books on this...well that's what he does. I thought what he said was true. And I'm not a Cornell West groupie, here.

[21winner]

9. I heard him earlier.

On another show. As I said before,Harvard Professors are hardly niggers. It must be a class thing.

[Chomskyite]

13. He got fired from Harvard

. . . for joining Al Sharpton's exploratory committee, making a rap CD and generally upsetting the president of Harvard about what a professor should or shouldn't be in America. I applaud Cornell and hope he keeps doing exactly what he's doing. How many millions do you think he opened up to lit, to philosophy, to black history and to radical politics?

How many has Larry Summers, Harvard president, impoverished through his pro-corporate pro-poverty economic policies (while he was Clinton's Treasury Secretary)?

Cornel knows what he's talking about. Read more about him. You'll learn a lot.

[librechik]

6. thank goodness! Maybe the brothers will quit lording it over me now

n/t

[Quetzal]

10. It's a quick read.

He distinguishes between Constantianian Christinaity and Prophetic Christianity and discusses three nihilisms: Political Nihilism, Evangilical Nihilism, and Paternalistic Nihilism.

He also writes extensively on the Palestinian/Israel Conflict and how both sides are going to kill each other soon if they allow the extremists to keep on blowing each other up.

What tools do we have to fight this pervading sense of despair? Socratic Questioning, Embracing America's Prophetic Tradition, and Tragiocomic Hope.

[Kimber Scott]

12. I hate university "isms" and "ios"

I just wish these guys would speak English. "Tragiocomic" hope? That's not even a real word.

tragicomic

Tragi-comic \Trag`i-com"ic\, Tragi-comical \Trag`i-com"ic*al\, a. Of or pertaining to tragi-comedy; partaking of grave and comic scenes. -- Trag`-com\"ic*al*ly, adv.

Julian felt toward him that tragi-comic sensation which makes us pity the object which excites it not the less that we are somewhat inclined to laugh amid our sympathy. --Sir W. Scott.

Sorry to be a nitpicker, but it's a pet-peeve of mine. If you want to convey a message, speak to people in the language people understand. If you write and have to explain your vocabulary, if your reader has to look up every other word, or if your reader can't find the meaning of your word because you've made it up, you've failed as a communicator. If you're an artist and you've painted some profound message and nobody understands it without you standing around explaining it. You've failed as a communicator.

Nothing, really, to do with this post. Just a side rant. I like Cornell West. He just reeks of academia, sometimes. Most times.

[Flammable Materials]

15. I'm glad I'm not alone.

I caught his interview on Al Franken's show, and I want to like him, really I do. But I almost felt like he was deliberately trying to talk over my head. I mean, I got what he was saying, but it was a bit like reading subtitles on a foreign film - I had to spend so much time thinking about what he was saying, that I didn't have much time to think about what he was saying.

You know what I mean?

[Kimber Scott]

16. Exactly! It's like, are you trying to teach me something, or show me

how smart you are?

On edit: Just an aside to actually address the topic - My husband is black and when I started going off the deep end about George Bush, Iraq, the media, corporations, etc. he said, "Now you know how it feels to be black." I don't think I "know," but, now, I can sure venture a much more educated guess!

[Eloriel]

19. Good grief, people

He's an intellectual. He THINKS for a living. Imagine that. You want him to dumb it down for the masses?

[karlrschneider]

17. I want to agree with you, since after all language is the medium of com-

munication and we all want our message to be grasped (and, usually, accepted) by the listener/reader, but do you not find somewhat disconcerting that the vocabularies of those who listen but don't hear are bereft of the plethora of nuances of thought and meaning available of expression by our enormous panoply of grammatical exposition?

(Yes, that was a deliberate exercise in pedantic verbiage. :D)

But actually, I'm being serious, the apparent "dumbing-down" of our
language does irk the shit outta me. ;-)

on edit: It did occur to me that you have struck upon something we have discussed at some length...the malapropisms and "good-old-boyisms" (I'm sure there's some word for that) that Chimpy regurgitates with nauseating regularity do resonate with the unwashed masses. And that pisses me off too. :eyes:

[Kimber Scott]

21. I don't believe in "dumbing down," nor do I believe in "fluffing up."

Say what you have to say. Period. Look, doctors do it. Lawyers do it. Mechanics do it. Government employees do it. Religions do it. Everybody has their own language which they use to seperate themselves, place themselves above, the people they are trying to communicate with. It just seems silly to me.

I love words - big words, small words, silly words. I like ideas better. Why obscure brilliant thoughts with "enormous panoply of grammatical exposition?" ;) When we communicate, are we trying to convey ideas, or simply impress each other with our vocabulary?

In response to an earlier post and in defense of Mr. West, I don't think he can help himself. I'm sure that's just the way he talks and I do like to listen to him. However, the simple fact I, and apparently others, have been distracted by his academic vocabulary detracts from his message. It's as simple as that.

It's like, oops, stumbling on, wow, weird, gosh, stones in the middle of, darn, a wonderful road to a, bump, inspiring lightbulb, shoot, moment.

[Nordic]

22. that's so bizarre. I was JUST thinking about that

I swear to God before I logged on I was just thinking about "this must be how black people used to feel in the U.S. -- completely disenfranchised, pissed off, powerless, and with the realization that the government was out to fuck you up the ass".

I realized that the frustration can lead to complete apathy, which I'm sure is what those in power want.

Anyway ......