Cha

Cha's Journal

August 20, 2015

Michael Eric Dyson on Cornel West BRDS..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=532732

And..

"Cornel West and Tavis Smiley do a disservice to African Americans"

snip//

That is why it pains me to say that Smiley and West have let me down. Sure, I'm not really anyone important to them, but I represent a generation of African-American men who looked up to West and Smiley – only to see them damage their legacies by engaging in embarrassing public roasts of President Obama.

I've looked up to Smiley and West since I was a teenager, gathering an appreciation for race relations and my own personal understanding my place in this country. I've always dreamed of having even a fraction of their respective impacts on American discourse. So I can't help but be disappointed when I see these two men relegated to bickering, insult-tossing self-parodies, especially when it comes to discussing the president.

snip//

When I was in college, I wanted to grow up to be Cornel West or Tavis Smiley. They had that sort of influence on me and millions of other young black Americans. Now, I see the way they're conducting themselves and I just feel sad about the opportunities they've wasted by letting pettiness and pride overshadow their desire to effect actual change.

Perhaps, Smiley and West can look at the recent backlash aimed in their direction and try to scale back the personal attacks. Perhaps, they can really lead deeper discussions about Obama's presidency and what it means for black America. But until that happens, they'll still be letting us down.

More.. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/26/cornel-west-tavis-smiley-disservice-african-americans

And, a huge disservice to themselves.

August 20, 2015

"Calling Obama a ‘global George Zimmerman’? No. No.”: Michael Eric Dyson sounds off on Cornel West,

Obama & his critics."

snip//

When African-American friends defended the president, he went in on them. West called MSNBC’s Perry “a liar and a fraud,” claimed Sharpton was the “bona fide house negro of the Obama plantation,” and attacked “the Michael Dysons and others who’ve really prostituted themselves intellectually in a very, very ugly and vicious way.”

It’s true that as Dyson’s TNR piece bemoans the nasty ad hominem nature of West’s attacks on Obama, as well as on him and his colleagues, he gave almost as good as he got, first praising West as “the most exciting black scholar ever,” then charting his intellectual decline. “His greatest opponent isn’t Obama, Sharpton, Harris-Perry, or me,” the Georgetown scholar’s article concludes. “It is the ghost of a self that spits at him from his own mirror.”

snip//

But that’s part of what stung me when he turned on Obama in such ad hominem ways, as you wrote in your piece. First, he tears into Obama for appealing to white people and reaching out to white people – when that used to be a core of West’s politics, too – and then he harps on the fact that the president is half white, too close to his “white brothers” and “Jewish brothers,” allegedly afraid of “free black men.” The trademark generosity of spirit was gone entirely, and we were left with a kind of racial essentialism – and borderline anti-Semitism, with the “Jewish brothers” crack. Who’s the real Cornel West? What happened? It was shocking. And I didn’t feel like people addressed it enough at the time.

snip//

Now there are legitimate criticisms to be made, and I’ve made them. And there are white folks who criticize him, and it’s not from racism. However, the structural features of his presidency, the fact that this man is assaulted in so many ways and methods that assassinate his character — he has not been physically, thank God, assassinated — but there have been such rhetorical assaults on him. It’s unprecedented that a president didn’t automatically get the debt ceiling raised. Unprecedented that 47 senators would write our “enemy” compromising national security; it’s an unconsciously racist motivation, that I feel safe in saying. People see it, black and white…

Much More..
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/22/calling_obama_a_global_george_zimmerman_no_no_michael_eric_dyson_sounds_off_on_cornel_west_obama_his_critics/

Yes, cornel west hates President Obama.. starting when he didn't attend tavis smiley's Black State of the Union and offered to send Michelle Obama instead.

snip//

Tavis Smiley was never an ardent supporter of President Obama. That of course is his right. His antagonism of the president during the 2008 Democratic Primaries hit a crescendo when the president did not attend Smiley’s “State Of The Black Union” forum in New Orleans even as Hillary Clinton did. In a further display of uncalled for arrogance, he rejected then Senator Obama’s request to have Michelle Obama represent him at the forum. Further he castigated Senator Obama for distancing himself from Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and for not attending African American events Smiley deemed he should attend. The height of this man’s arrogance, lack of scope, and self-serving hyperbole makes him an unfit spokesman for the cause of the poor and disenfranchised. That Dr. Cornel West has allowed himself to be Tavis Smiley’s sidekick speaks poorly of his judgment.

More http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/24/1164307/-Naivet-of-Tavis-Smiley-Cornel-West-Attack-On-Obama-Danger-To-Poor-Blacks

August 20, 2015

Cornel West on President Obama: “Rockefeller Republican in blackface.” "a niggerized black person."

“brown-faced Clinton.” "Kenny G in brown skin.” "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs" a black puppet of corporate plutocrats."

BS can have him. Millions of people support President Obama.. and the Democratic Candidate, who I hope will be Hillary, will be having Obama campaign for them and with them.

Thanks for the list of ignorant racist slurs cornel west has thrown at the President, Cali. He's said some bullshite about First Lady Michelle Obama, too. I don't want him anywhere near my candidate.

August 19, 2015

I've loved Stevie for so many years! "Come on Philly..!" Mahalo BRDS!

He always reminds me of my time visiting Detroit back in the day when he was Little Stevie, "Uptight".

Barack Obama presents Wonder with the Gershwin Prize in 2009.