Cornel West, President Obama feud will not end.

by Staff November 19, 2012 11 Comments News Opinion Politics Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) As we enter into the second term of President Barack Obama, we find that the end of the election allows us to continue the conversations that seemed practically intolerable before Obama was reelected. The black community is becoming ground zero for a battle of wills between those who expect President Obama to acknowledge an increased degree of black suffering and those who feel that Obama has no obligation to the group that gave him 93% of their vote. The man who has voluntarily placed a bull’s eye on his forehead is Dr. Cornel West, who seems to be unable to “just get over it” when it comes to racial inequality.

I find it interesting that there are so many among us who will criticize Cornel West for speaking out on poverty and mass incarceration by saying that he’s only mad because he didn’t get inauguration tickets. So, rather than seeing if poverty and mass incarceration are actually a problem, you allow your focus on Cornel West’s inauguration tickets to excuse you from addressing these critical issues? That just doesn’t make any sense, and shows the lengths to which even seemingly intelligent individuals like Melissa Harris-Perry will go in order to avoid defending the indefensible.

Whether Cornel West is or isn’t upset about the tickets has nothing to do with the fact that black people continue to be incarcerated and born in poverty more than any other group in the history of the United States. Sometimes, when faced with an inconvenient truth, we find that it’s easier to kill the messenger than it is to actually deal with the message. Poverty and mass incarceration are VERY REAL and destroying the black family in America. It’s time to elevate the conversation.

This week, I met with Father Michael Pfleger, a respected pastor and extraordinary activist on the South Side of Chicago. Father Pfleger and I spoke for nearly three hours about the challenges that exist within the black community. One of the points on which we agreed is that poverty, violence and mass incarceration continue to worsen, even as we celebrate the condition of the Harvard-educated black aristocracy. Another thought that came to mind is that we must address the collective self-esteem problem which leads African Americans to feel that we should give 93% of the vote to a political party that barely says a word about the struggles our community continues to endure (Gay or Hispanic people refuse to accept such blatant disrespect).

The bottom line is this: We must suffer in silence no longer. Also, battle lines must be laid out clearly between those who care about poverty/mass incarceration/violence, and those who do not. The same way that whites have the right to complain about 7 percent unemployment, blacks have an even greater right to complain about 14.3% unemployment. The racist rhetoric which claims that black people don’t have jobs because we are too lazy to work is directly contradicted by the woman who found that her job offers skyrocketed when she pretended to be a white woman on Monster.com. Nearly every study in America says that African Americans are more likely to go to prison, even for the same crimes, and our children are more likely to be born into poverty. It is white supremacy and ignorance that leads us to believe that we all randomly decided to have horrible lives.

The day for cosmetic politics must come to an end for symbolism will not pay the bills. Also, we must continue to speak up on anyone within black leadership who has been compensated into silence, being forced to pretend that conversations on gay marriage are as important as discussions of the prison industrial complex. In fact, I dare President Obama or his evil sidekick Valerie Jarrett to even use the words “Prison industrial complex” in public.

Their ignorance toward black suffering and the prison/poverty holocaust is no less damaging than what happened in Germany during World War II: Back then, millions of Jews died because people did not have the courage to stand up and today, millions of black families are destroyed (with too many youth dying in the streets) because mothers and fathers have been placed behind iron bars.

Cornel West didn’t cause these problems and neither did President Obama. But the difference is that one man has billions of dollars in African American tax money available to help solve these problems, and the other one does not. If the president and his team do not wish to address these issues, then they should give us our tax money to let us address these problems ourselves: Taxation without representation is entirely unacceptable and represents a blatant violation of our civil, constitutional and human rights. We must speak the truth about America during this second-term for it makes no sense that our lives have become markedly worse under the first black president in history. Barack Obama can do better than that.

Staff Writer; Dr. Boyce Watkins

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. For more information, please visit http://BoyceWatkins.com.

11 Comments

Ummm Yeah says:

November 20, 2012 at 4:46 pm

Eric Wattree, I have read your stuff and it is clear that economics isn’t your strong suit. If you are going to make economic commentary it would behoove you to learn a little more about it. The concept of job creation is is only relevant when associate to the concept of net jobs. Bro think about it, the unemployment rate was never higher under Bush than it has been under Obama. Visit BLS.gov and pull up a chart. This means that the concept of job creation has to be equated with job contraction as well. WHICH means also that if Obama truly did create all these jobs, he is not doing a great job of stopping jobs from being destroyed or else we would be back to a 4% unemployment rate.

I am not blaming Obama for the economy, it was truly a bipartisan effort if anyone ever took the time to research on what ACTUALLY happened. But at the same time, you can’t give Obama credit for the positive without also crediting him with the negative. Which is the inefficiency of Dodd Frank, the market destabilizing impact of Obamacare, the myriad of regulations that stall economic growth, etc.

Now in regard to the poor. I am not concerned about the generalized “poor”. It is a secondary consideration to me. I am concerned about BLACK PEOPLE. On that issue President Obama has woefully fallen short.

We are rife with demagoguery on for this president. I spoke at a college class today about the next Black “freedom” point in America and how it is economic freedom led by entrepreneurship based economic development. Liberalism AKA Obama still is not nor never will it be sufficient for the elevation of Black men and women in America. It is philosophically bankrupt and morally ambivalent to the plight of Black folks. It is a non-start and Obama is its figure head.

Someone above ask the question of Dr. Watkins on his book that focus one Black economic freedom. I don’t think it is happening. He has gotten soft on the political commentary trail. But I am compiling my work and research over the past few years and I will have something coming out soon.

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James Davis says:

November 20, 2012 at 12:54 pm

You Are Right And This Discussion Should Not Go Away!

This is a fight for JOB CREATION! The fight we are in is for the very existence of our way of life. Double digit unemployment for five years amounts to a frontal assault on every black community in this nation! Our current unemployment rate is 14.3%. To the brothers and sisters who like to talk about what this President has done, I say to them go down to the average black community in the inner city or small town. We are litertally hanging on! Tavis Smiley said in another piece I read the following, “How tragic would it be at the end of eight years to be confronted by economic data which suggests (as the data does now) that in the Obama era Black folk lost ground in every single leading economic indicator category?” There is something we all can do and that is relentlessly push for a JOB CREATION PLAN with our every utterance, at every opportunity. You, know, at the end of the day, this President is a politician. Once we all come to that realization, that he is not the 2nd coming of Christ or something to be ogled, but a politician ( a good one ) maybe just maybe we will then start treating him like a politician – that includes but does not limit us to holding protest signs stating, “Mr. President – What about high black unemployment?” On the other hand, perhaps we could start an e-mail campaign where we send 1,000,000 e-mails to him and people in his immediate circle asking is he going to come up with a JOB CREATION PLAN? Once you remove the aura of fascination with a man of color occupying the office of President, you readily see a man whose Presidency’s when you crunch the numbers have in no way benefited the long-term aspirations and advancement of blacks. Let the truth be stated! Crunch housing foreclosure numbers… crunch the numbers regarding wealth and finally crunch the numbers regarding income. They all point downward for blacks. We need this President to step up and present the nation with a JOB CREATION PLAN and he should have done it yesterday! We fail to realize when this President says, “He is the President of all the people,” he is not including black people; otherwise we would be mentioned by name! Google, Jobs and Their Creation for a job creation plan that will work. Mr. President if this plan is not good enough, advance one of your own. http://www.sslumpsum.com

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natalie says:

November 20, 2012 at 10:18 am

Love the president but our communitys love affair with him is bordering on idol worship.

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Ramses says:

November 20, 2012 at 6:50 am

Like my friend said, there needs to be a civil war within the black community. Arms included. There needs to be a war between the civilized and uncivilized and whoever is left standing will lead the rest into either prosperity or the abyss. I hate to say this, but as a collective, the black man in north america is the most powerful, yet the weakest man on the planet. How can I say this? You have the power to d great things, yet you just talk. Our so-called leaders are preachers and scholars. What the hell are they doing? Lining their pockets like the fags they have always been. That’s why I embrace my aztec and mayan brothers because they are not soft like we have become. We so weak, that we even allow our women to abuse us, and turn around and make excuses for the abuse instead of putting foot in asses. How can you be respected as a group of men when people see that your women don’t respect you? We say Obama needs to do for the poor. Who created the poor in the first place? Negroes did through integration. How can our Aztec (mexican) brothers come over here and live illegally, and build wealth better than we can and we have a legal status (for now)? One of our greatest civilizations (Kemet, Egypt) in the east fell. If Kemet can fall, what makes black people in the west (North America) think they are above destruction when they are not even close to what Kemet was at the height of its power? Black people are begging for destruction as a collective. How many organizations need to be set up before black people get it together. All this wealth that passes through our hands and we squander it on trivial material things. We adore Jay Z, yet when he owned Roc-a-Wear his clothes were made overseas, taking away the possibility of jobs being in his “community.” He could have hired brothers if he wanted too. But did he? Hell no and niggas idolize this coon like he the second coming of christ. You know you in trouble when you president, will fight on the behalf of fags getting the right to marry, quicker than he will fight for you as straight men. Black people are as divided as they will ever be and are getting picked off one-by-one. While negroes remake the traditional family, the world is moving forward. The negro in America is finished. And should be after what they did to their messengers (Malcolm, Martin, Garvey, Booker T). Black people have turned into a 24 hour train wreck. A traveling circus. Everyday, through social media, we see black people reinvent the definition of stupidity. How can one explain away or defend stupidity? Negroes have become the trash heap of history. So many researchers have unearthed their greatness in antiquity and yet niggas still can’t put it together. Sounds like a bunch of losers to me. Your women are whores for this corporate structure and yet you glorify them as strong black women. Getting on your knees begging for her to respect you while she loves being her master’s pet. Yet you want respect? Too many organizations have been built in order to help black people and they didn’t work. As my own Man, I don’t need an organization to tell me how to move forward, my family showed me that and we all know that the black family structure is an oxymoron. There is no black family collective. You have a few pockets out here but for the most part it’s non-existent. And therein lies your problem.

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Terrance Amen says:

November 20, 2012 at 4:51 am

@ Brother Peter and anyone else who wants to take action rather then keep talking.

I have that Master Plan. Just click on my name in this comment. Enough said.

Black Unity means financial independence and happiness

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Eric L. Wattree says:

November 20, 2012 at 2:04 am

Satchel,

I’m with you on this. I don’t understand the rationale of a brother who’s essentially saying, “Why is President Obama allowing us to keep shootin’ each other and going to jail?” That kind of thinking whizzes right past my head. Isn’t the best way to defeat the prison/industrial complex to stop gettin’ busted?

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Satchel says:

November 20, 2012 at 1:06 am

I’m having trouble understanding your bottom line assessment I quote “battle lines must be laid out clearly between those who care about poverty/mass incarceration/violence, and those who do not. Since you pit The President against Dr. West you seem to suggest one cares and the other does’t. What do you truly think The President alone can do about the violence or the high incarceration numbers of blacks. The best course has always been from the ground up rather then from the top down.

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Eric L. Wattree says:

November 19, 2012 at 10:17 pm

Bro. Watkins,

As I mentioned to you once before, your heart might be in the right place, but so was Sitting Bull’s – and he still led his people over a cliff.

I’m very curious about one thing, concerning you, Tavis, and West. Why is it that you seem to totally ignore all of the craziness that’s going on in the Republican Party? These people are trying to prevent Black people from VOTING(!!!!),yet you three completely ignored that and said, “Yeah, but let me tell you about Obama.” There’s something wrong there, brother.

Brother, hooking your wagon to Tavis and West is like tying your lifeboat to the Titanic. Remember where you heard it first.

Eric

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Peter says:

November 19, 2012 at 9:03 pm

Dr. Watkins,

I forgot to remind you of your own quote: “We need more Phdos than PhDs.”

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Peter says:

November 19, 2012 at 9:01 pm

We talk too much! Dr. Watkins, you have a PhD in finance, we are waiting for your Mar shall plan or New Deal about Black America. I hope this will be your next book!!!

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Eric L. Wattree says:

November 19, 2012 at 8:40 pm

Bro. Watkins,

Many of the people who go around talking about Obama hasn’t done anything for the poor and middle class generally break down into two categories – self-serving demagogues who are out to mislead the people for their own gain, and the victims of those demagogues who are basing their opinion on what they’ve been told, since most of them obviously haven’t read anything beyond the sports page in twenty years.
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While the former group are disgusting for trying to mislead the people for person gain, at least they’re trying to better their condition. The latter, on the other hand, are not only disgusting, but sad. These people are obviously too lazy-minded to, at the very least, keep themselves informed enough to protect their own families.
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Many of them can tell you the name and birthdate of the bat boy who cleaned the bat that was used to scored the winning run in the 1936 World Series. Yet, these same people won’t spare a couple of minutes to make sure their families aren’t victimized by demagogues. Maybe it would be more effective if instead of telling them that corporate fascists intend to enslave their families, we told them that the fascists are going to abolish ESPN and the Soul Train Awards. Maybe then we’d end up with a nation full of political scholars.
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I mean, they don’t have to be brilliant to obtain this information. All they have to do is go to Google and look it up. So what has Obama done for the Poor, you ask? He’s done the following – and this is just the short list:

1). He stopped the nation from hemorrhaging 800,000 jobs A MONTH under Bush. I’d say that helped the poor and middle class.

2). He stopped the nation from going into a second Great Depression. I would think, that also helped the poor and middle class.

3). He save the American auto industry. I’m pretty sure that also qualifies as helping the poor and middle class.

4). He was the first president to successfully passed healthcare reform in 70 years. That not only helped, but will save the lives of many of the poor and middle class.

5). He created more jobs in 27 months than Bush did in 7 years. That definitely helped the poor and middle class.

6). While he was doing all of the things above, he also managed to get Osama Bin Laden in his spare time – and if you remember, Bush spent 7 years, upward of a TRILLION dollars, and killed or maimed thousands of American troops in that effort. But Obama managed to pull it off with two helicopters and a handful of men.
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Bush and Cheney’s incompetence and greed in this matter destroyed and/or disrupted thousands of poor and middle class families, while the rich had to look at their ever swelling war profits just to know that the nation was involved in conflict. The war had no impact on them, because the rich don’t send their kids to die for this country – that’s a job for poor folks. Thus, Bush and Cheney’s mismanagement of both the economy, and the war in Iraq, played a major role in what got us in this economic quagmire in the first place. Yet, we didn’t hear a word from critics like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West during George W. Bush’s fiasco. Where were these two defenders of the poor and middle class then?
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But Obama didn’t complain about that – he didn’t have time to complain, and he didn’t have time to respond to the ridiculous charges of envious Black-on-Black racists. The president is an adult, with adult concerns, so he was, and is, much too busy cleaning up the mess left behind by the relative ear-splitting silence during the Bush administration of those who have suddenly discovered a newfound concern for “the least of these.”
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While others were plotting, fighting for attention, and whining, President Obama was busy doing following: . . . MORE

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-has-obama-done-for-poor-and-middle.html

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