Every problem we have today is the same one we had 30-40 years ago. You thought just because you voted for someone who looks like you that would change? When did we become so weak? So dependant on government hand-outs and politicians we will never meet. We spend more time making excuses for each other than solving problems. If our slave ancestors could see us now I have no doubt they would shocked and disgusted at what we have become.

And I commend Cornel West for his attempts to demand action from this indifferent Black president and his administration!

He doesn’t deserve condemnation or derision. He deserves your backing, your support, and your activism! I’m tired of Black folks being petty, debating the minutiae, instead of acting and communicating as a united front with a common goal.

The problem here on most of these blogs is that many of you have house nigger mentalities and won’t be able to see the realness of global warfare against blacks until it affects you and your kids personally.(which will come soon, guaranteed) The true fact of the matter is that Barack Obama was vetted and screened very intently and purposefully by the powers that be because they knew he’d be the perfect puppet to give the USA and the whole world a false sense of hope.(a man with a black face but totally void of the historical black american struggles, mindset and experiences) What does having a black president really mean for blacks if he won’t do ANYTHING concrete for the one’s who voted for him with over 90% of their votes?

Do any of you who disagree so vehemently against the Smileys, Wests, etc really believe Obama has done what you voted for him to do? He was supposed to change the way things were done in Washington and has done absolutely nothing with regards to real change! Instead of bringting in new people with fresh ideas and solutions, he continues to stick to the script and has kept EVERYTHING status quo. If you Obama supporters are honest, (And I voted for him too) you would admit that the team of rivals mentality he has is a bunch of nonsense.

I’d encourage all of you who continue to believe in and follow Obama blindly to buy two movies. 1. “The Inside Job” and 2. The Company Men. If the Obama Administration, the NAACP, The Urban League, the CBC, etc, were really serious about serving the poor and the middle class of Black America, they would include and infuse the ideas, insight and saavy of people like Tony Brown, Dr. Kunjufu, Dr. Francis Welsing, Dr.Julia and Nathan Hare and Randall Robinson.

See, scared, naive and ignorant negros think they can assimilate and tiptoe to a safe comfortable life in America but they can’t. America’s downfall is already in effect and the truth is when things like , money, jobs and opportunity start to become scarce, all Black people will feel the harsh brunt and backlash of the racist society which is America.

Wake the hell up people! Our survival depends on it! Remember, we were brought here as slaves and we now serve no purpose to America and have no real value as far as white America is concerned. They’re already focusing on the Asians, Hispanics and Indians to take our place. Don’t take my word for it. Just look around.

Some of your arguments are as hypocritical as Dr. Wests. You rail against the Ivy League establishment and Melissa Harris-Perry’s connection to it, completely overlooking the fact Dr. Cornell West has been a part of that exact same institution, and for many more years than she! Apparently you think he’s managed to stay grounded and connected to “rank-and-file black folks” while she has been swept up in the highest Ivory tower in Obamaland. This is either ignorant or disingenuous. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with her work, but no one in recent history “keeps it real” like Dr. MH-P. Prior to her I think the same could be said about Dr. West.

Harris-Perry did not launch an assault on Dr. Cornell West. Nor did she suggest that he remain silent. You Dr. Watkins framed it that way. What she did do however is identify untruths, hypocrisy, revisionism, and personal bias in his statements, that detract from the validity of his argument. If you can’t see her excellent identification the Socratic irony, elitism and hypocrisy in Dr. West’s criticism of President Obama because he and his family didn’t get tickets to the inauguration and his hotel bellhop did, then you are a fully-indoctrinated member in the Dr. Cornell West fan club. That was one of the most disgusting, classist, entitled bits from Dr. West, and interestingly enough, this comes in a piece criticizing Pres. Obama for not looking out for poor people (like hotel bellhops)! To quote MH-P, “What kind of crazy, mixed up class politics are these? Wait a minute…”

What I do agree with you on is that framing this as a Dr. Harris-Perry vs Dr. West event definitely distracts from the issues. Also, rather than naming some of her gripes with the Obama Administration in an attempt to prove she isn’t a blind fan, (clearly she didn’t convince you,) the piece would have been better served if she addressed some of Dr. Wests valid arguments. She attempts this in a television interview on MSNBC’s The Ed Show recently. She calls Dr. Wests arguments vague, and brings to light laws the administration has passed which directly affect minorities, such as the Lilly Ledbetter Act, Loosening of Marijuana and Cocaine laws in two separate acts, which attempts to turn the tide on disproportionate black/brown imprisonment and subsequent disenfranchisement. Not to mention his appointment of two female/minority supreme Court justices which will have long lasting effects on laws that directly affect us. These are the issues you and Dr. West speak of him not addressing, and here we have three recent laws passed under his watch to address those very issues, among others.

I realize it takes time for some of his actions to be felt at the community level, but it’s there. Please don’t preclude the much more instant results of local government action, Obama can’t do it all.

Dr. Watkins is it that the administration is doing nothing? Or are you not paying attention?

I am of the opinion that these particular comments by Dr West where not really appropriate, but that will not change the fact that Cornell West is one of my heroes.

We all say dumb things sometimes, but Cornell West is a great man and I will continue to think very highly of him.

Thank you very much, I really liked your bread metaphor and agree with you 100%. I think that President Obama is getting some really bad political advice. And as much as I disliked Rahm Emanuel, Daley is worse. Another person I have always admired is Jesse Jackson, and I supported him in both his runs for President. In 1988, William Daley moaned about “the black party.” The black party of course being the Democrats, and was in reference to Dukakis’ failed attempt to keep Jesse Jackson’s profile low during the Democratic convention.

So it is not surprising that President Obama has not been great on issues important to the Black Community.

I really love this site. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for bringing attention to issues that will be the ruin of us all if they are not addressed. While I agree with comments about Dr. West and Mr. Smiley making attacks that seem very personal and that seem to little to enhance important debate, I do believe this article offers much needed insight.

Anyway, it is my opinion that despite my feelings that both Tavis and West criticism began from a personal incident, their points are valid. Aside from West attacking the President’s race and taking his “blackness away from him” by asserting he was raised by whites, the point that Black issues (issues/concerns of those who overwhelmingly voted him into office) are not on the President’s visible, public agenda, for fear of not wanting to lose votes of backward ass thinking whites, is a problem.

Does the black community let the President and his advisors get away with taking our vote for granted? Do we vote for the President blindly because he is the first black President? I think West knows exactly what he is doing. He is raising the discussion at the perfect time. He knows that the election is next year. He wants this debate to go into the summer with the help of the media, and the white house is listening with open ears, make no mistake about it, they are listening and they will be forced to address the issue.

Mark my words, if West and Tavis continue to voice legitimate issues and stay away from the personal attacks, they will begin to shape this debate as the white house outsiders they are, (since they clearly do not have access to the white house and the first Black President, they are locked out of direct access to a one time event…they will never have the opportunity to write a book about their inside access to the first black President. Make no mistake about it, this bothers them) causing the Presdient give a speech directly addressing black issues. I think that speech is going to come sooner rather than later, because he does not want to do it in the middle of a heated campaign when it will be fresh in the minds of backward ass thinking whites, jeopardizing their possible support of him.

The black community needs someone to hold the President accountable when he does not address our issues, especially since our local elected officials in Congress don’t seem to be able to hold him accountable. They have been silent. Maybe because like me they know his heart is with us. Or they don’t want to risk losing their seat to someone else when re-elected. Or maybe they don’t openly criticize him because he is getting enough heat from the Republicans. But if their reason for not holding him accountable is the latter, we must remember that while we hold back criticism the Republicans are shaping policy and setting his agenda.

This is evident in instances such as the health care debate when the President opted out of the public option, and recently when he extended the Bush tax cuts…they are lobbying him along with corportate America. They all have a seat at the table, except us.

During one of President Obama’s speeches early in his presidency, he challenged us to make him address our agenda. When I heard him say that, I immediately reflected on how he started his political career. He started as a Community Organizer in Chicago. He organized on a grassroots level. I interpreted his remarks as we need to organize his white house with our agenda. To some extent this is what Tavis and West are doing without the grassroots level. They are doing it by voicing their feelings (such as no agenda to address the 16.1% black unemployment rate) and using the media to lobby the white house. Brilliant! Now we will have half a seat at the table in the oval office.

The other half of the seat will come when we organize and take our concerns to our local officials, who will then be forced to lobby the white house with our agenda. As Fredrick Douglass stated, “Power concedes nothing without demand. It never has and it never will.” This is still relevant today.

That all I got to say about it!