Cornel West: Dr. King Weeps From His Grave

[marmar]

from the NY Times:




Dr. King Weeps From His Grave

By CORNEL WEST
Published: August 25, 2011


THE Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial was to be dedicated on the National Mall on Sunday — exactly 56 years after the murder of Emmett Till in Mississippi and 48 years after the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. (Because of Hurricane Irene, the ceremony has been postponed.)

These events constitute major milestones in the turbulent history of race and democracy in America, and the undeniable success of the civil rights movement — culminating in the election of Barack Obama in 2008 — warrants our attention and elation. Yet the prophetic words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel still haunt us: “The whole future of America depends on the impact and influence of Dr. King.”

Rabbi Heschel spoke those words during the last years of King’s life, when 72 percent of whites and 55 percent of blacks disapproved of King’s opposition to the Vietnam War and his efforts to eradicate poverty in America. King’s dream of a more democratic America had become, in his words, “a nightmare,” owing to the persistence of “racism, poverty, militarism and materialism.” He called America a “sick society.” On the Sunday after his assassination, in 1968, he was to have preached a sermon titled “Why America May Go to Hell.”

King did not think that America ought to go to hell, but rather that it might go to hell owing to its economic injustice, cultural decay and political paralysis. He was not an American Gibbon, chronicling the decline and fall of the American empire, but a courageous and visionary Christian blues man, fighting with style and love in the face of the four catastrophes he identified. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/opinion/martin-luther-king-jr-would-want-a-revolution-not-a-memorial.html?_r=1&hp

[ProSense]

1. "Dr. King Weeps From His Grave"?

Dear Cornel, MLK would not have gone on a pay-per-view tour with pettiness in his heart.

<...>

The age of Obama has fallen tragically short of fulfilling King’s prophetic legacy. Instead of articulating a radical democratic vision and fighting for homeowners, workers and poor people in the form of mortgage relief, jobs and investment in education, infrastructure and housing, the administration gave us bailouts for banks, record profits for Wall Street and giant budget cuts on the backs of the vulnerable.

As the talk show host Tavis Smiley and I have said in our national tour against poverty, the recent budget deal is only the latest phase of a 30-year, top-down, one-sided war against the poor and working people in the name of a morally bankrupt policy of deregulating markets, lowering taxes and cutting spending for those already socially neglected and economically abandoned. Our two main political parties, each beholden to big money, offer merely alternative versions of oligarchic rule.

The absence of a King-worthy narrative to reinvigorate poor and working people has enabled right-wing populists to seize the moment with credible claims about government corruption and ridiculous claims about tax cuts’ stimulating growth. This right-wing threat is a catastrophic response to King’s four catastrophes; its agenda would lead to hellish conditions for most Americans.

King weeps from his grave. He never confused substance with symbolism. He never conflated a flesh and blood sacrifice with a stone and mortar edifice. We rightly celebrate his substance and sacrifice because he loved us all so deeply. Let us not remain satisfied with symbolism because we too often fear the challenge he embraced. Our greatest writer, Herman Melville, who spent his life in love with America even as he was our most fierce critic of the myth of American exceptionalism, noted, “Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges; hence the conclusion of such a narration is apt to be less finished than an architectural finial.”

<...>

Not only is that first paragraph nonsense, Bush bailed out the banks.

President Obama, while facing the despicable obstruction from the right, is accomplishing a lot for ordinary Americans despite being torn down by his detractors.

[girl gone mad]

46. Obama whipped for TARP..

calling CBC members late into the night to warn them that his election would be at risk if TARP wasn't passed. He was probably the Democrat most responsible for its ultimate passage.

Once in office, Obama's Treasury department found new and exciting ways to bail out the banks, such as hundreds of billions in http://www.businessinsider.com/citigroup-gets-huge-new-38-billion-bailout-wiping-out-all-of-the-taxpayers-profits-2009-12">tax forgiveness schemes and http://www.usnews.com/news/stimulus/articles/2009/02/10/geithner-outlines-treasurys-ambitious-new-bailout-package">cash for trash deals.

Obama re-appointed Bernanke, who was by that time obviously determined to prop up the banks using http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/03/the-end-of-qe-part-ii">any means possible, while http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com/2010/11/is-bernankes-qe2-act-of-desperation.html">ignoring the Fed's mandate for full employment.

Bush bailed out the banks. Obama bailed them out even more.

[Starry Messenger]

2. k&r

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. Amen, Dr. West.

[xchrom]

4. Recommend

[ProSense]

5. "Why Is Cornel Mad?"

Why Is Cornel Mad? “I Couldn’t Get A Ticket To The Inauguration!”

Princeton professor Cornel West is on a mission to tear down President Obama.

He needs to stop using MLK to do his dirty work.

Poverty

Urban Policy

Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative (President Obama’s anti-poverty initiative, PDF; California Promise Neighborhoods Initiative Passes)

A Progress Report on the Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness

[Supersedeas]

6. it's coming from all angles

[Raschel]

13. The whole ticket thing sounds very petty.

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2011/05/cornel-wests-continuing-feud-barack-obama/37842/

According to West himself, President Obama betrayed him on two counts after his election. The first was personal. It all started with a mix-up over inauguration tickets. Obama became increasingly hard to track down after his election but came through with a ticket for West. Tickets for West's mother and brother were nowhere to be found, and the three ended up watching the event from their hotel room. West told Hedges:

What it said to me on a personal level was that brother Barack Obama had no sense of gratitude, no sense of loyalty, no sense of even courtesy, sense of decency, just to say thank you. Is this the kind of manipulative, Machiavellian orientation we ought to get used to? That was on a personal level.

[Whisp]

30. if that story is true Cornel is a childish little petty jerkoff

[sabrina 1]

32. Lol, and to think he used to be a Hero of the 'left'.

Does anyone have a list of former Democratic heroes who are not under the big bus yet? It's getting harder and harder to find such people.

[Whisp]

35. never was mine. didn't know who he was until he made a fool of himself

[sabrina 1]

39. That's obvious. If you were paying attention to minority issues over

past several decades you could not NOT know who he is.

He is highly respected in the African American community and for very good reasons.

Maybe you should familiarize yourself with this man's work, or it is not he who will be judged to be 'making a fool of himself'.

[Whisp]

42. if he's so respected, then maybe he should show some respect

the things he is spewing out of his bullhorn are silly and immature.

he's mad because he didn't get tickies for the inauguration, boo hoo. big fat cry baby

and maybe you should familiarize yourself with Kaden Scarboro, he's yards taller in a lot of ways than Mr. C.

[sabrina 1]

47. Keep digging. I sure hope this President is not depending on this

kind of diatribe to get re-elected. I hope you are speaking only for yourself and not for his campaign. Talk about silly. Rove tactics never work on Democrats, you should know that.

[Whisp]

49. rove tactics work here just fine.

some of the talking points on DU against the President are the same. guess you don't notice that

[sabrina 1]

56. Rove cared about issues like SS and Medicare not being used

bargaining chips by the POTUS? He cared about the Environment? He cared about the elderly, the disabled, dependent children, he cared about the Unions and the working class? Those 'talking points'? Got any links to those Rove talking points, because I don't remember them at all ~

[Whisp]

57. for sure, Obama is one careless dude manchurian back stabbing felon.

now that's rove stuff, prime.

[sabrina 1]

58. Sure, Rove would probably find a way to say stuff like that, but

what has that got to do with the subject? You just changed the subject. And probably thought no one noticed! :rofl:

Not to worry, I was being a bit Rovian myself. I knew you couldn't back up what you said, but I asked anyhow! Bad me!

[Number23]

70. Ummm... if you're interested in what real black people think

and not what a non-black anonymous poster on the Internet THINKS black people think, the links from Prosense and the one from newsone.com are good sources.

Anyone who says that Cornel is "respected" in the black community is either purposely lying or has not been paying even the TINIEST bit of attention for the last three years.

[indurancevile]

76. and west goes under the bus!

[msanthrope]

26. If Coretta Scott King was still alive, he wouldn't have dared write this piece.

Cornel, and his bullshit race theories regarding the President. He's not getting a ticket to the second inauguration, either.

[Bluenorthwest]

38. If Coretta was alive Bernice would have no platform and it would

be much more difficult for Obama to parade his intolerance and support of inequality for some minorities under the mantel of religion and tradition. Coretta would have calmly corrected his petty prejudices and shamed him out of his most hideous pandering to those who preach actual violence and retribution against those they deem to be inferior.
Yeah, too bad she's gone alright.

[msanthrope]

43. Right.....Coretta Scott King would have signed onto the "Kansas Influence" nonsense?

"I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men. It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation. When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening. And that’s true for a white brother. When you get a white brother who meets a free, independent black man, they got to be mature to really embrace fully what the brother is saying to them. It’s a tension, given the history. It can be overcome. Obama, coming out of Kansas influence, white, loving grandparents, coming out of Hawaii and Indonesia, when he meets these independent black folk who have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, Jane Crow and so on, he is very apprehensive. He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination."


http://www.slate.com/content/slate/blogs/weigel/2011/05/17/cornel_west_worries_about_barack_obama_s_kansas_influence.html


Sure. I can see her ghostly hand helping him to write....

[Major Hogwash]

73. wow . . that's . . bad . . that's pure . . shit . . shit on a stick

Talk about a shitty corndog!
This West jerkamo has no idea what the hell he is spewing.
He's about as far off the mark as Ann Coulter.

I appreciate the link to Slate to something he said 3 or 4 months ago because West continues to embarrass himself.
It's no wonder Melissa Harris Perry left Princeton and is now teaching at Tulane.
This is crap by West.

I don't understand why West has a litmus test like this, saying that Obama is not black enough to be considered a black man.
Saying that he has to be black-black and inherited the scars on his back from his grand daddy's days of being whipped as a slave.
Makes no sense to me at all.

[sabrina 1]

40. She would have written it with him.

[msanthrope]

44. I can see her ghostly hand writing about Obama's "Kansas Influence."

You really think she would have signed on to this shite?

"I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men. It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation. When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening. And that’s true for a white brother. When you get a white brother who meets a free, independent black man, they got to be mature to really embrace fully what the brother is saying to them. It’s a tension, given the history. It can be overcome. Obama, coming out of Kansas influence, white, loving grandparents, coming out of Hawaii and Indonesia, when he meets these independent black folk who have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, Jane Crow and so on, he is very apprehensive. He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination. "

http://www.slate.com/content/slate/blogs/weigel/2011/05/17/cornel_west_worries_about_barack_obama_s_kansas_influence.html

[sabrina 1]

50. He is speaking to an audience that understands what he is talking

about. Clearly you don't, which is fine. You would have hated some of what MLK had to say on this subject. And yes, she most likely would have agreed. She was very familiar with West's opinions and with him personally. He hasn't changed, so I don't see her changing her opinion of him either.

Shocking to you maybe, his bluntness, but so was a lot of what MLK had to say to America also. The truth is not always pretty, but someone has to tell it. As did MLK and in his last speech on the relationship of White America with the Black Community he was pretty blunt. A few weeks later they killed him. They called him an idiot also.

[msanthrope]

59. You really believe that the Kings would have bought into the "Kansas Influence" race psychobabble?

That's 'truth?'

Okay, then.

And downthread, I asked you to prove that Cornel West had donated a dime of cash, or ran a single fundraiser for President Obama. I couldn't find a single FEC record to document anything--can you?

[sabrina 1]

61. Are you seriously asking that question?

Have you ever read MLK's speeches and writings on race? If you are offended by West, I imagine you would have been even more offended by MLK. Coretta King was proud of her husband's stand on race issues. The fact that he was killed for what he stood for should tell you that he did not pull punches simply because of other people's sensibilities. And neither does West. I imagine that was something Coretta King probably admired about West also. She was more polite than her husband and West, but she certainly never said she disagreed with either of them.

[msanthrope]

62. Show me where, specifically, the Kings said anything like the "Kansas Influence" quote.

Since you know their writings so well, why don't you show us all anything they wrote that backs up your assertion that they would have agreed with Cornel West on his 'Kansas Influence' psychobabble.

And again, downthread, I asked you to document a single dime Cornel West gave to the Obama campaign. A single instance of an in-kind contribution of a fundraiser that he ran.

Still waiting.

[sabrina 1]

64. Cornel West said he helped raised funds for the Obama campaign.

He did that. Your statement that he did not is false.

Do your own homework, although it's a shame that you should have to have Dr. West explained to you, frankly. MLK's writings on race are readily available on Google. MLK offended many people with his speeches on race. I would think that Democrats at least would know that. And your ridiculous twisting of what I said into claiming I said 'he spoke about Kansas and Obama etc'. That is pure nonsense. I said he spoke about race, which is exactly what West was speaking about, with that example, which apparently you don't understand. He and King and many others use analogies, sometimes real life experiences, and sometimes other people's experiences, to illustrate the problems of race then and now. It is so clear that all I can say is if you don't get it, no amount of links will help. It's something you have to do for yourself.

[msanthrope]

66. I found not a single FEC filing by Mr. West. Not one.

If he gave money, or raised money, or donated in-kind services, he had to account for it. There would be a filing.


The FEC database is searchable--I searched, and didn't find one. In fact, the last time West dontated a dime was to Ben Bradley.

As for Dr. King's writings, I am simply not surprised you could not find a single quote that would back West up regarding his silly "Kansas Influence" theory of race.

[EFerrari]

63. LOL. Barack Obama wrote an entire book about this issue. n/t

[msanthrope]

67. Really? He wrote an entire book about how he feared Black men because his family came from Kansas?

Who knew?

[Number23]

71. TELL. IT. The first thing that came to mind when I read this article

was the utterly disgusting, repulsive irony of someone who has MORE THAN ONCE criticized the president because of his "associations" with Jews quoting a Rabbi three sentences in.

Cornel has no shame and has lost all perspective. I have defended this man even when other black folks had written him off long ago. Now, he makes me almost ill.

[SidDithers]

7. Cornel West. LOL...nt

Sid

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ProSense]

8. Here's a good article:

Obama faces uncomfortable questions from black community, lawmakers

[Beer is God]

9. A sad K&R

[Romulox]

10. Didn't you hear? They OUTSOURCED Dr. King's dream to authoritarian China

Turns out that a free black man asks for too much pay. So we outsourced the work to cheap labor China!

[robcon]

11. The U.S. is a MUCH better place than it was in Dr. King's day.

For that we should always be grateful for Dr. King's passion and eloquence.

West is just pissed off at Obama, and refuses to see the best part of America. Barack Obama is the best part of America.

[marmar]

12. No, he just doesn't see it through rose-colored glasses.

Anyone who cannot see that economic inequality is destroying this country is either clueless or willfully blind.

[BOG PERSON]

15. agreed - we're not worthy of barack obama

[nashville_brook]

16. Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges...

which chafe the buttcheeks of those not ready to hear it.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JoseGaspar]

23. Is it really a "much better place"?

Try it again from the standpoint of objective conditions... statistically. Do black people earn more money in relation to whites, when compared to the day that King died? Do they have more assets? How about health, education, and housing, all in relative terms? All I see is a slightly bigger black "middle-class", overwhelmed by the titanic growth of prison populations and their impact on the black community in all its aspects. Some of the talk has changed but what else has really changed?

Who is it who refuses to "see America", I wonder?

[sabrina 1]

69. 40% unemployment in African American districts? I guess if you

don't live there, America is doing great ~ Cornel West's focus is on those inequalities. Good thing someone is attempting to highlight the problems. Elijah Cummings, Maxine Waters, John Conyers, all have spoken out about the huge gap in America still between poor African Americans and the rest of the country. It's a shame to see such disrespect for a man who could probably retire and just forget all of it. But he has a conscience so he continues to highlight what most would rather ignore.

[indurancevile]

77. Black unemployment at depression-era levels. In June. In this "recovery".

While unemployment among the general population is about 9.1 percent, it's at 16.2 percent African Americans, and a bit higher still for African American males.

CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports that, historically, the unemployment rate for African Americans has always been higher than the national average. However, now it's at Depression-era levels. The most recent figures show African American joblessness at 16.2 percent. For black males, it's at 17.5 percent; And for black teens, it's nearly 41 percent.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/06/19/eveningnews/main20072425.shtml

[amborin]

17. K&R

[Amonester]

18. Pinchin' tha nose.

Yes, Supreme Court nominations are worth it (if the changes are not satisfactory enough yet, more can be asked for with upcoming actions (peaceful ones)).

If still not satisfactory enough in 6-9 months, focus on Congress in your district.

[Enrique]

20. "a courageous and visionary Christian blues man"

I love Cornel West. :thumbsup:

[uponit7771]

21. Cornel West has fallen into the trap of pettiness and now is to be ignored by those who've payed...

...attention to his utter lack of discretion.

[RufusTFirefly]

22. Cornel West can squeeze more wisdom into a single sentence...

... than most newspapers have on their entire front page.

And yet the usual suspects continue their loser tactic of shooting the messenger instead of facing the facts.

[KeepItReal]

25. Word

eom

[msanthrope]

27. Wisdom? More like absolute lunacy about the President's race:

"I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men. It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation. When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening. And that’s true for a white brother. When you get a white brother who meets a free, independent black man, they got to be mature to really embrace fully what the brother is saying to them. It’s a tension, given the history. It can be overcome. Obama, coming out of Kansas influence, white, loving grandparents, coming out of Hawaii and Indonesia, when he meets these independent black folk who have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, Jane Crow and so on, he is very apprehensive. He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination."

http://www.slate.com/content/slate/blogs/weigel/2011/05/17/cornel_west_worries_about_barack_obama_s_kansas_influence.html

That's what passes for wisdom? Ha!!!

[hifiguy]

24. Incredibly powerful piece

Read it over lunch in the Times.

Thank you, Dr. West.

[madville]

28. "culminating in the election of Barack Obama in 2008"

"culminating in the election of Barack Obama in 2008"

Does that mean it's all downhill from here?

[Whisp]

29. what's with this jerk Cornel? he got Sarah Needs Attention Disorder?

[msanthrope]

31. You know, he didn't give a single dime to the Obama campaign, didn't raise any money for it

but claimed that he did.****


Then he doesn't get the tickets he wants to the inaugural. Hey, Cornell, neither did I. Now he's pissy he isn't being treated as the 'royalty' he thinks he is.



****I've checked the FEC records. Can't find a listing for him donating to Obama, can't find any hard record of any fund-raiser he threw.

[sabrina 1]

36. Cornell West introduces Sen. Obama at Harlem fundraiser:

West was described by Obama as one of the best friends and made him a 'point man' between him and the Black Community during his presidential campaign.

He did more to help get Obama elected than any of the people slamming him in this thread.

It really is sad to see this kind of reaction to every criticism of the policies of this President. So man great people, one after the other, trashed for daring to speak up about issues that matter to the American people.

[msanthrope]

45. Um, that's an introduction at a fundraiser that West neither ran nor contributed to.

I dare you to find a single dime West contributed to the campaign.

The FEC filings don't lie.

[RufusTFirefly]

34. Are you addressing the content of the op-ed piece?

Didn't think so.

[Whisp]

37. yes I am. You are wrong.

Thought so

[EFerrari]

33. K&R

[FrenchieCat]

41. This is one of the way that West can get something he wrote in the NTY.....

Times are hard.....
and folks got do what they go to do.

Minister West is speaking for himself; not for me and especially not for Rev. King.

[amborin]

51. what a false smear of a noted & widely published scholar whose articles repeatedly appear in NYT

[msanthrope]

60. What's false? West doesn't speak for FrenchieCat, and he doesn't speak for MLK.

He can pretend he speaks for whatever deceased icon he wishes, but it's all bullshit.

[indurancevile]

78. yeah, cornel is just a token who can't make print unless he mentions mlk.

[bvar22]

48. K&R for Brother West.

Love his appearances on Bill Maher
where he hammers Conservatives (Republicans & Democrats) with
intelligence, facts, wisdom, and eloquence.

I notice that his detractors can summon up only Ad Hominems.



Who will STAND and FIGHT for THIS American Majority?
Cornell West WILL!!

You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.

Solidarity!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[tenten]

52. I love Cornel

knr

[swilton]

53. Extremely powerful words!

and as true as they are provocative!

[TBF]

54. Excellent Dr. West, I completely agree. nt

[CatWoman]

55. if those sorry ass kids didn't make him "weep from his grave"

I don't see why Obama should.......

[CakeGrrl]

65. Should've known this tripe would find its way here and be well-received.

Unrec.

[msanthrope]

68. Of course. We haven't had our full quota of Obama-hate threads today because of Irene.

Had to get this one in.

[Number23]

72. Yep. And from the usual "we care so deeply about black people until they disagree with us"

crowd. Edit: And the references to "Brother West" make me so very tingly inside. Can't you just FEEL the sincere, genuine love and affection??!!one!1

:puke: :puke: :eyes:

[Major Hogwash]

74. I don't mind marmar bringing it here because I think West has made an ass out of himself.

Doing it where he works is one thing, but getting up on a national stage and doing it in front of everyone is a whole new ballgame.
I quite honestly don't think anyone agrees with West for the reasons he thinks they might.

[Number23]

75. I agree, Major.

I quite honestly don't think anyone agrees with West for the reasons he thinks they might.

West thinks he's speaking to black people. Black people have tuned him and Tavis out for the last few years.

As this thread beautifully illustrates, the people that are most receptive to West are people most likely outside of the community that he's purporting to address. Since I'm sure that he knows this by now, it's fairly obvious that he's no longer really talking to black people anymore but to whatever group of whites (Tea Partiers, angry leftists etc.) still find him relevant.

[mysistagirl]

79. Why MLK would REALLY weep.

An appropriate response to Mr. West's op-ed. It says it ALL!!

http://www.thepeoplesview.net/2011/08/exploiting-dr-kings-legacy-to-serve.html?spref=tw