Yes, Cornel West’s Attack on Jay-Z: A Prime Example of Black-on-Black Racism.

Posted by by Staff December 3, 2012 9 Comments Ent. Music News Opinion Politics Weekly Columns
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(ThyBlackMan.com) Dr. Cornel West seems to have gone on a shameless mission to disparage anyone in the Black community who tends to overshadow him. Now he’s after music mogul and entrepreneur, Jay-Z, regarding his business holdings. West seems to be bound and determined to demonstrate to the world that Jay-Z’s business holdings aren’t as impressive as he’s increasingly being given credit.

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But what Jay-Z owns or doesn’t own is not the point of this piece. The bigger issue is the pettiness of a mind that can become so fixated on such a trivial issue. Considering Cornel West’s, fading, yet substantial influence in the Black community, the possible impact of such a petty mind during a time when we are fighting for our very existence is indeed frightening.
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During a time in this nation’s history when powerful forces in this country are hell-bent on establishing an era of corporate feudalism, how does Cornel West’s attack on Jay-Z show “love” for the Black community? How does it help to reinforce the Black community and abolish poverty, as Cornel West insists to any and everyone who will listen, is his primary goal? In short, it doesn’t – and that, is the point of this piece.
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Cornel West’s petty fixation on such issues as the extent and source of Jay-Z’s wealth, why a baggage handler could get inauguration tickets over his own illustrious personage, and why the President of the united States failed to return his personal phone call, clearly demonstrates that poverty and  suffering within the Black community, and America as a whole, is not only less than his primary concern, but is, in fact, merely being used as a tool to gain personal attention and to promote his own self-aggrandizing agenda.
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In addition, Cornel West’s all consuming penchant for attacking high-profile Black people – and in racially drenged terms – suggests far more than what many attribute to West’s exaggerated sense of self-importance, but is in fact, a form of black-on-Black racism – an intense disdain and condenscending attitude toward his own people. Black people don’t take a close enough look at this syndrome, but we need to, because it’s one of the most toxic maladies in the Black community. It’s been killing us for over 400 years, and it’s past time to bring it to an end.
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I was discussing this issue with a friend the other day, and she insisted, “No, it’s not racism; it’s a form of self-hatred.” But I beg to differ. People like Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, Larry Elder (who Smiley just recently had on his show), Clarence Thomas, and Herman Cain, don’t hate themselves at all – it’s the Black community that they look down their noses at. During the Republican primaries Herman Cain said that Black people weren’t supporting him because they were brainwashed. That’s politispeak for stupid. But as things turned out, being stupid nonwithstanding, with respect to Cain, it seems that the Black community was way ahead of the Republican Party.
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The Black community needs to start wrapping it’s head around the fact that you don’t have to be White to have racist attitudes towards Black people. Clear evidence of that fact can be had by simply asking yourself when was the last time you heard of a drive-by being perpetrated by a shooter wearing a sheet?
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You see, I know a little something about Black racism. I’ve been observing Black racists plying their trade for most of my adult life. I worked for the United States Postal Service for 28 years, and for 12 of those years I was a union representative who specialized in EEO claims. And during that time I witnessed Black managers and supervisors engage in some of the most vicious forms of racism against other Black employees that I’ve ever seen – in fact, a White manager wouldn’t have been able to get away with it.
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Personally, I believe the postal service incorporates that fact into its business model. You see, it’s next to impossible for a Black employee to file a successful claim of discrimination against another Black person, so part of the postal service’s business model is to elevate Black people to rob, steal, intimidate, harrass, and fire other Black people. As a direct result, I have an Asian friend with a Master’s degree and she’s been being  passed over for promotion for over 10 years by a parade of Black racists who barely made it through high school, because the only qualification for promotion was their willingness to abuse other Black people.
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The following is an eye witness account of a Black racist at work:
Customer Statement
 
“Atten: Miss Stanley, Station Manager
To Whom It May Concern:“My name is Elizabeth Crawford. I along with my wife Michelle Lo, own [address withheld].  On August 13, 2011 we were landscaping our front yard and witnessed an altercation between our mail carrier, Sylvester Burton and a woman whom I later learned was Juanita, his supervisor.

“At first I only heard a woman (Juanita) shouting and cursing. Since my back was to them I did not see who was yelling. Then I saw our letter carrier Mr. Burton drive by in his mail truck and pull over to the curb just past our driveway. A black woman raced over to the now parked mail truck cursing and shouting at Mr. Burton saying “you tried to run me over” and that she was going to “call the police”. As I watched I became very very alarmed because I could not tell at first from the casual attire she was clothed in that she was a postal employee. All I could see was an extremely unhinged woman going ballistic and attacking our mailman. I watched Juanita as she reached inside the mail truck and shook her hand in Mr. Burton’s face as she shouted ‘I don’t give a fuck about you and by the way I think your ass is GAY!’ Then she shouted ‘you take your ass back to the station right now…this is MY ROUTE, MY ROUTE…and you take your ass back to the station right now…’ She then shouted ‘I’m calling the postal police on your ass you take your ass back to the station right now.’

“Mr. Burton drove away in the mail truck. I don’t know what Mr. Burton was saying in response to all this as he NEVER raised his voice or shouted back during the entire episode.

“My entire family including my seven year-old niece had to witness this entirely unprofessional vulgar outburst. The cursing and swearing peppered with the f-word and the homophobic remarks was nothing less than shocking and completely inappropriate. I was extremely offended by her homophobic remarks and I am myself gay, not to mention the cursing and swearing in front of our child.

“Don’t know and I really don’t care what prompted Juanita’s tirade. I was shocked to see someone in a so-called “supervisory position” treating someone who works for her so brutally. Needless to say law in the state of California the law prohibits the attack on Mr. Burton based on his sexual identification in the workplace! You should take note of this.

“You need to DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS WOMAN. While representing the USPS no one should be able to behave that badly and make that big of a scene in public plus publicly attacking a subordinates sexual orientation and be allowed to keep their job.

“If Mr. Burton sues for harassment I will gladly be a witness on his behalf.

Signed,
M. Elizabeth J. Crawford”

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The postal service lost the case and gave the supervisor involved a tap on the wrist (sensitivity training). Now it’s back to business as usual.
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So with respect to Cornel West, just take a minute to ask yourself the following questions. First, with everything the Republican Party is trying to do to Black people – obstructing our right to vote, trying to destroy our educational system, attempting to take away our parent’s and grandparent’s access to Medicare and Social Security, and trying to destroy our future by making higher education beyond our children’s reach – why is West focused on something as unimportant to our welfare as what Jay-Z is doing?  In addition, West is as quiet as a church mouse regarding the role that his buddy, Tavis Smiley, played in helping Wells Fargo Bank swindle Black homeowners – at least, former Black homeowners. All of a sudden, “accountability” doesn’t apply in that case.  http://washingtonindependent.com/59633/suit-alleges-trusted-black-figures-drew-minorities-to-high-rate-loans
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And secondly, since the most direct road out of poverty is to ensure that our young people obtain a quality education, why is it that Dr. Cornel West has failed to teach at any school that more than 1% of Black students can even afford to get into in his entire career? Wouldn’t you think that one who is renowned as an educator, and who claims to “love” his people so passionately that he was “forced” to publicly attack the first Black President of the United States, would at the very least, apply his skills to educating Black youth? Come on, people. Connect the dots.   
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What we have to begin to understand regarding people like Cornel West and others of his ilk is, Black people are the product of the very same racist environment as White people. And as a result, many of us are just as racist and condescending towards other Black people as any racist Hillbilly. So what West is clearly demonstrating is, in spite of everything that’s coming together to destroy the Black community, it all has to take a backseat to America’s favorite pastime – dragging a successful Black man through the mud. And West’s attack on Jay-Z is not just an aberration – he’s done the exact same thing to President Obama, Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, and Rev. Al Sharpton. Yet, he seems to be fine with Walmart, and the others who are trying to cut the Black community’s throat.
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No other group of people in the world thinks that way about their own, and for that reason, Black people are at the very bottom of the social and economic ladder. So we need to wake up, and stop tolerating this sort of thing, regardless to how we might feel about Jay-Z’s wealth.
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We shouldn’t be doggin’ Jay-Z. We should take pride in what he’s accomplished, because whether you’re a hip hop fan or not, the brother has demonstrated the intellect to rise to the top – and without Walmart.
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So don’t be bamboozled by wooly head and hardcore rhetoric. While Cornel West has been hyped by the establishment as one of the Black community’s premere intellectuals, he’s demonstrated the very worst in Black behavior. And while it’s both understandable, and appropriate, for the Black community to despair over this public embarrassment, we should use it as a teaching moment: Always look beneath the hype, and never allow others to define our heroes.
 
Staff Writer; Eric L. Wattree
 
More thought provoking articles feel free to visit; The Wattree Chronicle.
 
 

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