Cornel West: Obama 'a black mascot' and 'black puppet'

[The Northerner]

Cornel West, a Princeton University professor and leading black intellectual, is harshly criticizing President Obama, a candidate he once supported but now calls “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.”

West, a former Harvard University professor, said during an interview with the website Truthdig posted yesterday that the president has not been true to his race.

“I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men,” West said. “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…When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening.”

The White House did not have an immediate comment. West did not respond to messages left at his office.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2011/05/west_obama_a_bl.html

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. Cornel is the guy with the over-active vocabulary syndrome

a case so acute that has not been heard since the 60's.
A pain in the ass.

[LiberalLoner]

11. I was thinking I could have sworn he was a character from the show

"In Living Color."

[ecstatic]

27. I didn't want to say it, but it's so true!

He says Obama cannot relate to the common man, yet West's vocabulary choices are completely inappropriate in everyday dialogue. He's actually painful to listen to! He really overdoes it and ends up sounding like a caricature.

[Electric Monk]

2. ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1113516&mesg_id=1113516

[BlueCaliDem]

3. Obama married Michelle Robinson. If what Cornell says it's true, he'd marry a la Clarence Thomas...

...but I can understand his frustrations. As a Progressive myself, it's frustrating to see how President Obama has to tack to the right merely because our electorate is as gullible as any electorate I've ever seen, and if a single ad comes out stating how "lefty" he is, he won't get reelected and we can look forward to another Republican, perhaps as bad as Rick Scott or Scottie Walker, in the WH.

Most Americans don't even know ads don't have to have a smidgen of truth, but that's how they come across - as truth. People get confused. Tens of millions of dollars are thrown at them in between their shows toward that end.

At least now, I hope, Americans can understand how Hitler rose to power, and why the German people fell for his lies so easily. He held the bullhorn. Plain and simple. And he inundated his people with heavy, well-thought out propaganda day in, day out...just like the corporations today in our country.

My uncle was tortured to death in a Japanese concentration camp in Indonesia. His crime? He broke the seal to a transistor radio. The Japanese military needed to keep the people in terror, and have them ONLY listen to propaganda - and this was war time. Now, in America, they've been using the same tactic (only more sophisticated) and once again, the people are held in fear while the powerful make out like the bandits they are as they laugh and watch how people vote against their own financial interest in favor of Big Business.

Mission accomplished. :rant:

[pnwmom]

4. This was at the top of Greatest Hits all day yesterday.

Is there a point to doing this again today?

This guy is a publicity machine.

[Blue-Jay]

5. Just call the POTUS a "house nigger" and get it over with.

[elleng]

7. Sure, and get the f* outta here, C West.

:thumbsdown:

[Cant trust em]

6. As a fairly assimilated Chinese person, when someone tells me that I'm not very Chinese

it makes me want to choke the shit out of them.

[elleng]

8. As it well should.

[Cant trust em]

9. Has Obama ever claimed to be a black man speaking for black people?

Can you be a sell-out if you never claimed to be anything in the first place?

[Raschel]

10. Now there's a racist. Sick.

[opihimoimoi]

12. CW has a flawed brain....hubristic and attention whore using brother cover

[mdmc]

13. West is louder then a bomb

[RandySF]

14. In other words

Dr. West called the president an "Uncle Tom".

[Smarmie Doofus]

15. Rec for the link to Hedges interview. nt

[CakeGrrl]

16. Poor Cornel is suffering from Obama Derangement Syndrome IMHO. n/t

[AtomicKitten]

17. I really like Cornel West and it's tough reading some of the langugue he's used.

Melissa Harris-Perry smacked the shit out of him, he had it coming, and I hope that's the end of it. I regret the division this brouhaha has created. :(

[Hannah Bell]

18. i'll say one thing: obama's presidency has not been good for black people's employment outlook.

west campaigned for obama.

[Kahuna]

19. I think that WE black folks really do understand the severe nature

of the current economic situation and also understand that WE are not the only ones suffering. WE also recognize that the president is the president of ALL Americans and WE never expected him to govern as the BLACK president. :eyes:

[Solomon]

21. Thank you. Kills me when someone else tries to tell us what's

good and not good for us. Lotta nerve.

[Hannah Bell]

28. "Black Unemployment Rises Even As Overall Jobless Rate Drops"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/01/black-unemployment-rises-overall-drops_n_843891.html


When Will It Dip? Black Unemployment Reaches 16% (May 10)

http://newsone.com/nation/associatedpress2/african-american-black-unemployment-rate/


it's kind of laughable to suggest that one has to be black to "understand" the unemployment numbers, lady.

nor to "understand" that the attack on teachers & other public workers affects black workers disproportionately.

[Kahuna]

29. Sigh. Whatever. nt

[mfcorey1]

20. Watching him on Ed last night validates what I thought: Cornel is a bitter old man. nt

[The Straight Story]

22. How can I be "true to my race"? (nt)

[spanone]

23. what's being black have to do with anything?

[dionysus]

24. dear brother west has lost it.

[cali]

25. If this came from someone who was white it would be countenanced

by no one here.

[sufrommich]

26. Stay classy,Cornel. nt