Apparently, the good Doctor, Mr Cornell West doesn’t like the fella that is living in the White-House. I’ve always questioned why Dr West and Mr Tavis (not so) Smiley were so heavy with their criticisms of Obama.
Yes, I get that black people don’t have to like Obama. I have heard numerous black leaders rightly criticizes President Obama for the country’s economic performance. While the unemployment rate is sitting at 9% nationally, amongst the African American community it sits at close to 15%. But these are not arguments that Dr West or Mr Smiley have been making. In fact they seem to be more worried about their roles as so called leaders of the African American community and how Obama [dis]respects their roles than they are with the people they claim to represent.
This is what made Melissa Harris Perry’s recent article more delicious. She exposes both Dr West and Mr Smiley’s attacks on the President for what they are – wholly personally.
She especially goes off on Dr West for his disgusting racial attack on the President. She quotes Dr West’s recent rant on Obama:
“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.”
Can you imagine the pistachios on Dr West. West, a light-skinned brother (though i’m pretty sure both his parents were black), questioning another light-skinned brother’s blackness?!? While this is going on, you have people on the right questioning the President’s Americaness and trying to draw attention to the very blackness that West is questioning. What is this, the Twilight Zone?
Anyway, there is a sadness to this Dr West and Mr Smiley Obama-hatefest affair. You don’t have to agree with the man’s policy decisions, you can be all Herman Cain on Obama, but why stoop to Donald Trump’s level? Does that increase you standing amongst the black community?
Melissa Harris Perry’s article is worth the read. Here is the link. Enjoy
