this is a collection of meandering thoughts regarding the newest aspects of the CW/MHP controversy … personal, political, mean-spirited. some of this was said in private emails, others on facebook. i’ve tried to collect it and give it some semblance of coherence but i don’t pretend to have…
“The Baha’i Faith will be one of the leaven in the American loaf that allowed the democratic loaf to expand because of the anti-racist witness of those of the Baha’i Faith,” declares West. “A Christian like myself is profoundly humbled before Baha’i brothers and sisters.”
Loving learning new things about Baha’i History and Heritage in America from Prof. Cornell West like for example that Dr Alain Locke who was the first Black Rhodes Scholar was a Baha’i.
INTERVIEW: Cornel West Flunks the President
INTERVIEWER: What’s with the black suit, white shirt, black tie outfit you always wear? Do you have anything else in your closet?
CORNEL WEST: I’ve got four black suits that I circulate, and they are my cemetery clothes — my uniform that keeps me ready for battle.
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INTERVIEWER: Your cemetery clothes?
CORNEL WEST: It’s ready to die, brother. If I drop dead, I am coffin-ready. I got my tie, my white shirt, everything. Just fix my Afro nice in the coffin.
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INTERVIEWER: So let me ask you: in 2007, you introduced Barack Obama as your “brother, companion and comrade.” But in May, you referred to him as “the black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs” and the “head of the American killing machine.” What in the world happened?
CORNEL WEST: It was a cry from the heart. What happened was that greed at the top has squeezed so much of the juices of the body politic. Poor people and working people have not been a fundamental focus of the Obama administration. That for me is not just a disappointment but a kind of betrayal.
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INTERVIEWER: But you have also acknowledged that this is more than just political — you’ve said that after campaigning for him at 65 events, you were miffed that he didn’t return your phone calls or say thank you.
CORNEL WEST: I think he had to keep me at a distance. There’s no doubt that he didn’t want to be identified with a black leftist. But we’re talking about one phone call, man. That’s all. One private phone call.
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INTERVIEWER: He was running a successful candidacy for president. He might have been busy.
CORNEL WEST: So many of the pundits assume that it’s just egoism... “Who does Cornel West think he is? The president is busy.” But there’s such a thing as decency in human relations.
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INTERVIEWER: O.K., but did you also have to say that Obama “feels most comfortable with upper-middle-class white and Jewish men who consider themselves very smart”?
CORNEL WEST: It’s in no way an attempt to devalue white or Jewish brothers. It’s an objective fact. In his administration, he’s got a significant number of very smart white brothers and very smart Jewish brothers. You think that’s unimportant?
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INTERVIEWER: When Larry Summers was president of Harvard, he told you your rap album was an “embarrassment” to the university, and you quit soon after. He was one of Obama’s first appointments. Did that strike a particular feeling in your heart?
CORNEL WEST: I couldn’t help it. I’m a human being, indeed. Given the disrespect he showed me? Oh, my God. Again, it’s political much more than it’s personal. Summers was in captivity to Wall Street interests. But it’s personal too.
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INTERVIEWER: You have 30 seconds of private time with the president — what do you say to him?
CORNEL WEST: I would say “Look at that bust of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Oval Office and recognize that tears are flowing when you let Geithner and others shape your economic policy, when you refuse to focus on poor and working people or when you drop the drone bombs that kill innocent civilians. Tim Geithner does not represent the legacy of Martin King.”
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INTERVIEWER: How can Obama be the president you want him to be when he’s facing this Republican Congress?
CORNEL WEST: I’ll put it this way, brother: You’ve got to be a thermostat rather than a thermometer. A thermostat shapes the climate of opinion; a thermometer just reflects it. If you’re just going to reflect it and run by the polls, then you’re not going to be a transformative president. Lincoln was a thermostat. Johnson and F.D.R., too.
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INTERVIEWER: You lament in your book “Race Matters” that there’s a lack of black leadership. You’re smart, very charismatic — why did you never become what we would consider a black leader in the mold of Martin Luther King or Malcolm X?
CORNEL WEST: Well, one, it’s because we live in an age where there are no movements. But second, and most important, I have to be true to my calling. Martin King’s calling was to be a Christian preacher. Mine is much more linked to the life of the mind and being able to move back and forth. This weekend I was with Bootsy Collins at B.B. King’s. We wrote two songs together on his new album — that’s just one context where I try to play a very important role outside the academy. But my calling is still one of being an intellectual warrior and spiritual soldier.
“Barack Obama is not the fulfillment of Martin Luther King’s Dream.” - Dr. Cornel West
From Travis Smiley’s America’s Next Chapter.
This is where the black prophetic tradition is really important. [It reminds us that] you can’t really move forward until you look back. And what the black prophetic tradition has taught America [which has been so obsessed with the future and present] is that if you don’t have a sense of history, and that if you don’t put yourself in a narrative that is rooted in something greater than money, fame, quick success, and instant gratification—that the capitalism we’re all living under will create such hollow and shallow people that they’re never gonna straighten their backs up about anything because they’re all up for sale…That’s what this system’s all about. This is a major indictment. What kind of people are we really when we examine ourselves and acknowledge [our unjust reality]? It’s not just sad. That’s pathological. [Some would say] that’s anti-American. No! I’m anti-injustice in America. That’s not the same thing. I’m anti-injustice anywhere, but yes, in America, too. But if we’re really serious about being poverty abolitionists, and about eradicating the effects of poverty, we’ve got to start with the youth.
“
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Cornel West, on the black prophetic tradition. From Remaking America panel discussion at George Washington University. Three hour conversation available here. I enjoyed it, but they included Suze Orman, who is horrible. The audience wasn’t too happy about her presence either. She didn’t have much to say, and the panel members were very polite about her presence. I think Tavis Smiley insisted on her presence for some reason. It’s too bad. I can think of many other activists who’d have been great with the other speakers. (via dagseoul) |
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Audio from Occupy Tallahassee of Dr. Cornel West. Join Us this Friday 1-20-12 @1pm for Occupy the Courts Rally with Dr. Cornel West @ Bo Diddley Plaza. Facebook Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/309770789063074/ -k
