General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Why all the hate towards Cornell West? [View all]Baobab
(4,667 posts)for democracy to work we all need to be able to discuss issues without being attacked. I think Cornell West raised legitimate issues about whether Obama was acting in the interests of the black community - the fact is, he was part of a group of people in Chicago who made careers out of gentrification that left the vast majority of black Chicagoans behind. When GATS was signed in 1995 that meant no more public housing but nobody knew this, his friends were able to make a huge amount of money by moving poor people out of public housing into badly built and maintained for profit housing built with grant money, and the neglecting it until people ended up suing the landlords.. one ended up in jail for stealing some huge amount of money. Then the land which had held the public housing was turned into million dollar condos.
A friend of the poor would not have done that, IMHO.
I should add here that I am not black- so please excuse me for saying this if it seems like I have no right to comment on it- but I like Cornell West and have enjoyed reading his points of view and seeing him interviewed on therealnews.com
I grew up a "nonmarital child" so i am familiar with discrimination.