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Six Reasons Why Dr. Cornel West Might Be The Greatest Black Man On Earth.

October 24, 2014 by  
Filed under News, Opinion, Politics, Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) When I chose to become a public scholar in the 1990s, there were three people who inspired me the most:  Michael Eric Dyson, Julianne Malveaux and Cornel West.  I also found myself to be a strong supporter of the great Minister Louis Farrakhan and Rev Jesse Jackson.  Rev. Al Sharpton might be one of the smartest public figures I’ve ever met, but I confess that we don’t always see eye-to-eye.

All of these individuals have made significant contributions to our society in their own way.  However, in a time of political turmoil, Dr. Cornel West stands alone in his willingness to go to war for black and brown people around the world.  In fact, the world needs him now more than ever.

Just this year alone, Dr West has been arrested in Ferguson, Missouri.  He’s gone head-to-head with the most powerful government on earth.  He has inspired an entire generation by showing us that love is always stronger than hate.  He is a scholarly version of Muhammad Ali, fighting at the age of 61 with the ferocity of an energetic 19-year old.   Even his enemies have a hard time hating him because, deep down, they know he’s right.

If you’ll notice, most of those seeking to discredit Dr. Cornel West (i.e. Melissa Harris-Perry and a few others) have a difficult, if not impossible, time proving that Cornel is wrong.  Instead, they tried to make us believe he was crazy, obsessed, petty, neurotic and hostile.  This is how political operatives operate, and the last four years have led to Dr. West emerging as the winner of the stealth game of “IncogNegro Politics,” where numerous black surrogates have been well-paid to undermine the legacy of a man who only wanted to help his people.

It is for these reasons that that Dr. Cornel West could be the greatest black man alive.  They wanted him gone, and it only made him more visible.  They tried to break his back, and his spine transformed to iron.  They tried to shut him down and it was like pouring grease on a bonfire.  Cornel West is no longer a man….he has officially turned himself into a LEGEND.cornel-west-2014

Here are six reasons that Dr. West is the kind of leader who only comes along once in a generation:

1) Because he’s brilliant:  Few people can articulate the struggle of the masses with the same style and articulation as Dr. Cornel West.  He’s not just highly educated, he’s spiritually-developed enough to know what to do with that education.  He isn’t just powerful, he’s focused enough to know where that power should be applied.  This is an excellent contrast to the our perpetual cast of influential buffoons or people seeking to step on the poor so they can stand higher than the rest of us.

2) He’s courageous:  Dr West has no problem saying things that are unpopular, which he has done consistently over the last several years.  He didn’t just gain this courage in 2008, he’s been a consistent advocate for the disenfranchised for his entire 35-year career.  Most people don’t know how many friends Dr. West lost when he began to speak up for poor, black, brown and incarcerated Americans.  He’s lost more money than most, and found himself banished from the crowd of black elites who got rich off the Obama presidency.  His willingness to serve as a one-man army on behalf of the forgotten people of the world is nothing short of extraordinary.

3) He’s humble:  Cornel West typically wears the same suit and shoes for the entire year.  As a tribute to the struggles of those in poverty, Dr West doesn’t waste his time obsessing over fancy cars, big houses, and all the other trappings that serve to distract many of the black public figures on television.  He accepts the magnitude of his purpose, but doesn’t believe that he’s better than anyone else.   He is determined to connect with everyone and to hear every voice, even those with whom he disagrees.  He was even able to be kind toward Sean Hannity, which I was unable to do.

4) He cares about people: During our New Paradigm forum in New York last year, Dr. West and I spent several hours together.  During that time, I saw him interact with people of all races, genders and socioeconomic classes.  One thing I noticed is that Dr. West treated the janitor with the same respect he would have given The President of the United States.  He often shows love in his words, deeds and actions, and everyone he meets seems to love him.   Despite being pulled in every direction imaginable, he has the patience of a pastor dealing with a congregation of 50 million.  This kind of spiritual balance is valuable and rare and serves as a critical component for his advocacy.

5) He can’t be bought:  The reason that most of your favorite black people on television are hesitant to speak the truth is because they’re too well-paid to do so.  Steve Harvey is hanging out with Paula Deen.  Al Sharpton is doing book deals with Lil Wayne.  Snoop Dogg is apologizing to a white female rapper, but never apologized for appearing at an awards show with black women on leashes.  Most of our major black media outlets (TheGrio, Essence, TheRoot, BET, and even a large percentage of NewsOne) are owned by whites.  As Cornel has stated in the past, it almost seems that the entire world is eager to sell out.

We live in an age where you’re considered stupid if you’re not willing to be corporatized or bought out by the highest bidder.  We’ve traded lives of substance for an empty existence centered around worshipping the dollar bill.   As a Finance professor, I can speak to the power and importance of money and the building of wealth.  But as a black man, I can also talk about the dangers of a one-dimensional focus on the size of your bank account without considering the consequences of having a white supremacist benefactor. Fortunately, Cornel West is one of the few people who is able to remember that there are some things in life that are more important than money.

6) He’s not ashamed of being a black man:  One of the greatest losses to the black community in the age of Obama has been the almost instaneous willingness to trade authentic black advocacy for some kind of weak, diluted, unfocused multi-culturalism that puts the struggles of black men, women and children at the back of the bus.  Dr. West has been one of  a very small number of black public figures with a national platform who has been willing to remind the world that black families are falling apart, black men are being eaten alive by the criminal justice system, and black children are dying in the streets.   In other words, he truly loves his people and isn’t willing to let go of his blackness in order to receive mainstream acceptance.

Let’s be clear:  Dr. Cornel West is the closest thing we have to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Like Dr. King, there are people seeking to villify him at every turn and there are some who would rather see him gone altogether.  But the spirit of Dr. West is so extraordinary, so forthright, and so powerful that his light will shine long after he is gone from this earth.  So, enjoy his presence now, because this man will surely be in the history books of your great grand children.

Dr. Cornel West is truly one of a kind and might be the man who saves an entire generation.

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.


Comments

15 Responses to “Six Reasons Why Dr. Cornel West Might Be The Greatest Black Man On Earth.”
  1. Keith Stark says:

    Wow! Six non-specific, subjective personality traits that one could use to describe ANYONE.

    It’s sad to see 40 million people (many of whom, not all), see the need for “A Leader of their community”…and then to pick Al Sharpton, Farrakhan and West…

    None of the above have ever publicly stated the obvious: “Most all mistakes and consequences of all people are most closely tied to their own decisions and actions”.

    Sadly, I will not live to see a full generation of my fellow Americans who happen to be Black realize what Indian-Americans have done in one… They average $118,000 / year vs. Whites @ $62,000…Blacks @ $35,000. They follow the success playbook.
    They are 99% married in young adulthood… 99% of children born into married households… the children are (too) monitored (for my taste), but education is not a buzz word… It’s absolutely the GOAL.

  2. Pete,
    .
    I followed up on your comment:
    .
    Pete Mansfield captured Cornel West’s
    Image And Character So Well In This
    Comment That I Just Had To Make A
    Poster:
    .
    “Cornel West = Algonqin J. Calhoun + Don King”
    .
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=792923564088990&set=a.136305753084111.28278.100001140610873&type=1&theater

  3. “Cornel West = Algonquin J. Calhoun + Don King.”

    Pete, that’s priceless – and, a perfect description. If you don’t mind, I’d like to use that in one of my articles. I’ll give you credit.

  4. LOL!!!
    .
    Yeah, @Peerless, @Reality, nothing gets me going like a self-righteous phony – and it’s so obvious in this case. When Tavis and West started losing credibility in the Black community they went from the subject of poverty to the war – they were trying to appeal to a new constituency. And notice how they ALWAYS time their books to come out just before an election. Also not how just after the 2012 election, and they sold all the books they could sell, they just disappeared. What happen to their passion for the poor then? We couldn’t drag then out during the demonstrations against Walmart, because they were both benefitting from Walmart. But now West runs out to Ferguson for a photo op of him struggling with the police.
    .
    Cornel West is one of the biggest phonies ever produced by the Black community – and Tavis and Boyce are right there with him. But they’re going to pay a big price. They’re not going to get a pass like the Uncle Toms who used to call Martin “Martin Luther Coon.” Those people have been obscured by the fog of history, but do to the flawless memory of the internet, the clueless treachery of people like Tavis, Cornel, and Boyce, their names and faces are going to live on in infamy with just the mere touch of a button.
    .
    I’d hate to be a member of any one of their families, because Barack Obama is ALREADY being spoken of as one of the greatest Presidents that this country has ever had. These “brothers” are running around talking about what he HASN’T done, but they need to be looking at what he HAS done, including saving the world from going into a second Great Depression. How do they think Black people would have been living then? Black children yet unborn are going to demonize these three clowns, so I hope they’re enjoying the publicity.
    .
    Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman: Obama among the most ‘successful presidents
    in American history’
    .
    Initially an Obama critic, Nobel laureate Paul Krugman now says,
    .
    “For much of the country, consequential presidencies are defined by a handful of landmark events. Years from now, when someone utters the name “Barack Obama,” the thumb-nail sketch may very well be a president who rescued the nation from the Great Recession, overhauled a broken health care system and brought coverage to tens of millions of people, brought some accountability to Wall Street, and started the country on a path towards climate sanity, among other accomplishments.
    It may seem odd to think about Obama now as a historical giant, but Krugman probably won’t be the last to see him as among the most “successful presidents in American history.”
    .
    http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/krugman-obama-among-the-most-successful-presidents-american-history
    .
    Forbes Magazine
    *
    It’s Official: President Obama Is The Best Economic President In Modern Times
    *
    [AND THIS IS IN SPITE OF A RACIST AND OBSTRUCTIONIST CONGRESS!!!]

    http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/09/06/its-official-president-obama-is-the-best-economic-president-in-modern-times

  5. reality_check says:

    As Wattree pointed out, I don’t take a black man seriously who purports to love black people oh so much, yet uses his intellect, training and scholarship to teach WHITE PEOPLE’S CHILDREN all that he knows. West, like most of these doctorally-qualified, black pseudo-intellectuals are more concerned about being celebrities and teaching at Top-25 colleges and universities (where the black population is usually negligible) than they are about actually advancing black people.

    Sorry, but this black man isn’t impressed with Dr. West. Nothing Dr. Watkins has presented here has changed my mind or otherwise given me food for thought.

  6. Peerless Perception says:

    Damn Brother Wattree! Tell ’em how you really feel. Oh & Brother, I’ll be the 1st to buy that book you spoke of. Mom always said “Nothing hurts a DUCK worse than his BILL.” Once he starts quacking…

  7. Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
    .
    Dr. Ben Carson is revealing Himself to be an Idiot Savant
    .
    http://wattree.blogspot.com/2013/10/dr-ben-carson-is-revealing-himself-to.html

  8. Chris G,
    .
    Are you insane!!!? Why don’t you just go all the way and add Steppin’ Fetchit’ to the list!!!?

  9. Marcus Vessey says:

    CD Smith…I define Blackness as those African descendants of American slavery who self-define themselves as Black. I don’t think it needs to be any more complex than that.

  10. jdgwisd says:

    Dr. Watkins:

    I’m disappointed with the tenor of your essay. It is good that you have a wonderful relationship with a man you respect. However, I don’t see many of the attributes you outline in your essay about Dr. West. I do not see a man that actually works in the communities he claims he cares about. I really was looking for one really substantive social,political, or spiritual contribution that one can see in a community……..I’m still waiting. I feel you may have written this essay to publically prop up a man who has lost a substantial amount of prestige in the very community he claims to love. Remember, many black people may love a pimp, but at the end of the day, we know that he is a pimp: A man who exploits others for his/her own gain.

  11. Pete Mansfield says:

    Cornel West = Algonquin J. Calhoun + Don King

  12. bill fish says:

    This must be a satirical article.

  13. Chris G says:

    That’s interesting.

    Have you ever considered people such as Dr. Ben Carson, Lt. Col. former Rep. Allen West, or Dr. Thomas Sowell? All of them are brilliant, honorable people who have vecome successful for their respect for hard work & honesty, a lot of which is missing in today’s “I deserve it ‘cuz I’m black” society.

    We, as frellow Americans, have had enough of the Trayvon Martins & Mike Browns. Stop the violence & begin to follow the Golden Rule for a change you can really believe in.

  14. Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
    .
    An Open Letter to a Clueless Dr. Boyce Watkins
    .
    Dr. Watkins, you said,
    .
    “If you’ll notice, most of those seeking to discredit Dr. Cornel West (i.e. Melissa Harris-Perry and a few others) have a difficult, if not impossible, time proving that Cornel is wrong. Instead, they tried to make us believe he was crazy, obsessed, petty, neurotic and hostile. This is how political operatives operate, and the last four years have led to Dr. West emerging as the winner of the stealth game of “IncogNegro Politics,” where numerous black surrogates have been well-paid to undermine the legacy of a man who only wanted to help his people.
    .
    “It is for these reasons that that Dr. Cornel West could be the greatest black man alive. They wanted him gone, and it only made him more visible. They tried to break his back, and his spine transformed to iron. They tried to shut him down and it was like pouring grease on a bonfire. Cornel West is no longer a man….he has officially turned himself into a LEGEND.”
    .
    Are you Kidding!!! You’re making yourself sound like a completely bamboozled, hero-worshiping idiot. Independent thinkers are not followers; they seek to become their own heroes. This is EXACTLY why I started to question your intellect and stopped writing for “Your Black World” – and that was BEFORE I recognized that you were an undercover conservative who supported ANYONE who was against the first Black President of the United States. You, Cornel West, and Tavis Smiley are clueless in so many ways that my woman is pressuring me to write a book about it so I can buy her a house with a gazebo in Beverly Hills – and she’s trying to sweeten her argument by insisting that I owe it to the Black community. How is this for a few reasons to prove that your hero, Cornel West, is a self-serving, egotistical, maniac?
    .`

    Is Cornel West A Judas Goat – When Was The Last Time You Heard Him Attack A Conservative Republican?
    .
    During the 1960s J. Edgar Hoover disrupted the Civil Rights movement by using provocateurs to infiltrate the various civil rights groups and disrupt their activities. The operation was called “Cointelpro.” One tactic that was used was to have loud and disruptive Judas goat “super-militants” join the groups and divide the membership by accusing the groups’ leadership of being weak, or “Uncle Toms.” That seems to be the very tactic that Cornel West has been using very effectively every since the 2000 election where he was very effective in helping to get George W. Bush elected.
    .
    In my previous article, The “Black Prophetic” Mouth of Cornel West is At It Again – And As Usual, Just In Time To Sabotage Democrats In The Upcoming Election, I pointed out the following:
    .
    After Ralph Nader was rejected for the 2000 presidential nomination by the Democratic voters, instead of acknowledging his rejection and falling into line to help defeat the Republicans, Nader went into a petulant snit and ran as a third party candidate. It was clear that he purposely ran as a third party candidate with the mean-spirited intent of sabotaging the Democratic effort, because third parties never win; the only purpose that third parties ever serve is to help elect the people that you like least, because they divide the vote of like-minded people.
    .
    Cornel West joined Nader in this foolish – or treacherous, you make the determination – campaign, and as a result, George W. Bush won the election over Al Gore by winning Florida by a mere 537 votes. The Nader/West coalition peeled off 97,488 votes from Gore in Florida alone. So when I say that Cornel West is more than a little responsible for George W. Bush becoming President of the United States, and thus, your current economic condition, don’t take my word for it – you do the math.
    .
    Most people, if they were sincere, would look at the disastrous results of their activities and be devastated. After all, causing Bush to be elected was the worst possible outcome for everything West is SUPPOSE to represent. So most people would conclude that they had made a grave error, and that they would never do anything to divide the progressive vote again. But not Cornel West, he teamed up with Ralph Nader yet again in the 2012 election against Obama, and tried do the very same thing that they’d done in the 2000 election that resulted in Bush’s presidency. The only thing that stopped them was, this time the people weren’t buying it.
    .
    So yes, in September of 2011 Ralph Nader and Cornel West teamed up to try to sabotage the Democratic Party yet again. They canvassed the country for Democratic opponents to challenge Obama in the primaries. According to Nader, “Without debates by challengers inside the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries, the liberal/majoritarian agenda will be muted and ignored.” And he goes on to say, “The one-man Democratic primaries will be dull, repetitive, and draining of both voter enthusiasm and real bright lines between the two parties that excite voters.” What he failed to say, however, was it kept the liberal voice solid and united. So if Nader and West had been successful, they would have divided the Democratic Party just enough for Mitt Romney to squeak out a victory, and the nation would now be under conservative leadership. Now, just take a moment and think about what life would have been like for poor people then.
    .
    Yet, there’s still room to give West the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he’s just politically naive and has more passion than he does common sense. One could say that, I guess, but over the years, too many issues have popped up where West’s position just HAPPENS to coincide with what’s in the best interest of conservatives and the Republican Party – his close association with Tavis Smiley, for example. Smiley just HAPPENS to be the biggest corporate shill in the Black community, and his closest business association is with ALEC-connected Walmart, the biggest abuser of the working poor in America. Now is that the kind of association that you would expect from someone who claims to “love” the poor and minorities? I don’t think so.
    .
    So Cornel West is a man who should be watched very closely. Another clear demonstration of just how untrustworthy, disingenuous, and wishy-washy West can be is how he tried to revise history after Barack Obama won the 2008 election. When Barack Obama won the Presidency and didn’t roll out the red carpet to the White House for West, he tried to frame the situation in a way that made Obama look like an ingrate. He complained that after he went out campaigning for Obama, he couldn’t even get a returned phone call from the newly elected Obama. But he failed to point out what a fool he acted on Tavis Smiley’s “State of Black America” broadcast on the very day that Obama threw his hat in the ring to run for President. He all but flat-out alleged that Obama couldn’t be trusted. He even asked Obama, “Where’s your money coming from?” But in spite of that, when it became clear that Obama could actually win, only THEN did Cornel West jump the fence on Tavis Smiley and started campaigning for Obama.
    .
    So the question is, why would West campaign for someone that he insisted couldn’t be trusted, in the first place? The answer is very simple – Cornel is “Have Mouth, Will Travel.” He jumps onboard whatever train he thinks is going his way. At the time that the video below was shot, West benefitted from the exposure that he could gain from Tavis Smiley, and since it was assumed that Hillary Clinton was going to win the election, West had everything to gain by slamming Obama for not coming to kiss Tavis’ ring on Tavis’ dog-n-pony show. But again, when it became clear that Obama just might win, West jumped the fence on Tavis Smiley and started grinning in Obama’s face – and without a bit of shame.
    .
    A MESSAGE TO CORNEL WEST AND THE OTHER ‘WILLIE LYNCHERS’
    .
    Black People Don’t Resent Criticism of Obama – But We do Resent Slander – Which is What You Engage In:
    .
    1). President Obama is “a war criminal.”
    2). President Obama is “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs . . .”
    3). President Obama is “a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.”
    4). President Obama is “a Rockefeller Republican in Blackface.”
    5). President Obama “has a certain rootlessness, a deracination.”
    6). President Obama Is “Afraid Of Free Black Men.”
    7). President Obama is “a global George Zimmerman.”
    8). Dr. Harris-Perry is “a fake and a fraud”
    9). Dr. Michael Eric Dyson “is a sellout.”
    10). Al Sharpton “is a sellout.”
    11). MSNBC is the “Rent a Negro Network.”
    .
    Yet, when comedian Steve Harvey called him an Uncle Tom, he said, “When you are trying to talk about issues that affect the people, name calling gets in the way. Name-calling is nothing but another weapon of mass distraction.”
    .
    So name-calling is only objectionable when it’s directed at him. Such unmitigated hypocrisy is mind boggling – but for once, he’s right. Not one of the above assertions is a disciplined, constructive, or scholarly assessment of the facts. On the contrary, they’re the reckless and intellectually undisciplined rants of a bitter, self-serving, and severely discredited academic fraud.
    .
    For Cornel West, there’s something ‘racially defective’ about every Black person who has the audacity to preempt Cornel West from the limelight. West has a propensity for trying to denigrate the character of people whose been in the trenches for years, while West, himself, has done absolutely nothing beyond running his mouth. In order to gain clear evidence of that fact one simply has to ask oneself, what efforts have West made to try to improve the plight of the Black community?
    .
    1). Is he in the community teaching 3rd grade to help ensure a better education for our children, or teaching at an Historically Black College or University to help “enlighten” young Black students?
    .
    No. He’s never taught at a school that more than 1% of Black students can even afford to have lunch in throughout his entire career. He’s rather gain props for teaching the children of the economic elites, who he CLAIMS, is the enemy, whenever he MANAGES to do a
    “Drive-by” in the hood.
    .
    2). Is he in the community teaching our young men to cherish, honor, and respect our Black women – the very womb of our culture?
    .
    No. He’s out trying to sell books filled with inane and misleading information, doing $30,000 an hour speeches, and trying to become a hip hop star.
    .
    3). Is he advising his good friend and business partner, Tavis Smiley, to be consistent with his sermons by being “accountable” to the community, and returning the money that he made on the Wells Fargo “Ghetto Scam” loans that he helped to herd over 30,000 poor minorities into?
    .
    Nope, not a peep.
    .
    So what West and his ilk actually sees is Black outrage over his indulging in the crabs-in-a-barrel tradition that was inbred in us as slaves. Black people recognize that many of President Obama’s Black critics, including Cornel West, aren’t really interested in policy; they’re just using public policy as a pretext for attacking the President himself, and they’re so steeped in their Willie Lynch mentality that they either don’t realize, or don’t care that they’re doing a grave disservice not only to the African-American community, but to Black people all over the world.
    .
    Because the fact is, many of Obama’s White conservative critics aren’t really interested in policy either. Like Obama’s Black critics, they have an ulterior motive as well, but their motive has nothing to do with crabs-in-a-barrel. Their primary motive is defending their claim of White superiority, and President Obama, in his soft-spoken, laid-back way, is dragging that claim through the mud. That’s why racists and conservatives hate him so.
    .
    Conservatives recognize, as we all should – and especially Black people – that President Obama is not just another president. President Obama is the most high-profile symbol of Black competence in the world. In addition, what he has accomplished is the perfect equivalent of a conquered slave rising to become the emperor of Rome – and, one of its greatest. So Barack Obama is going to be remembered by posterity as one of the greatest men in ALL of human history, and his story will be inspiring Black children a thousand years from now.
    .
    Racists and conservatives recognize that fact, so naturally, they’re desperate to tear down Barack Obama’s image, and build up the image of criminals like Ronald Wilson Reagan, and there is no excuse for Black idiots like Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and Boyce Watkins not to recognize that fact. That’s what makes them so detestable. Instead of trying to help racists tear down this Black icon, they should be offering RESPECTFUL suggestions in an attempt to ensure that Barack Obama is remembered as one of the greatest Presidents that this nation has ever had, even if they have to drag him up Mt. Rushmore kicking and screaming. But instead, they’re allowing themselves to be pointed to by racists who are claiming, “See, even Black people know he doesn’t live up to the standard of White presidents.
    .
    Thus, people like West are giving their own egos, self-service, and their Willie Lynch-inspired need to tear-down a Black historic icon priority over Black history, and the role that history is going to play in helping to raise the self-concept of the Black culture. In short, they’re trying to sabotage the self-esteem of Black children who are yet unborn. The mere thought of that kind of ignorant selfishness is absolutely disgusting – and especially when clothed in faux scholarship. Cornel West and the others like him are not Black leaders, they’re clueless Black cultural afflictions, and if I wanted to take the time, I could take apart every argument that Watkins has put forward. But the short version is, there are some things we have to do for ourselves – and with good reason.
    .
    As alleged “educated” men, they should all realize that Obama is merely President, not King. And the United States Constitution is very specific in giving SOLE power over spending to the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans (that’s why they could refuse to pay the light bill and shutdown the government). So President Obama can’t do a damn thing for us without getting the Republicans to go along with him. That’s why he has to slip us everything on the down-low, because if the GOP know it’s for us, they’re going to dig-in.
    .
    So Cornel – and also you others who share his backward-thinking proclivities – you need to use some of that alleged brain power to think, instead of burning it up trying to maintain your image, or attempting to hide your true motivations for attacking this President. I didn’t hear you saying a damn thing when Bush was in office. So you can try to clothe your true motivations in a tux, but it still has the funky smell of Willie Lynch all over it.
    .
    About the Rise And Fall of Cornel West
    .
    I used to be a big fan of Cornel West. I’ll never forget how during the Clarence Thomas confirmation when some old condescending senator started talking down to him West said something to the effect of, “Wait a minute, senator. I have more education than you do.” I loved that, because at the time I thought it was simply a Black man being assertive and “standing his ground,” as it were. But only later did I begin to recognize that the senator had played right into West’s hands, and what I took for assertiveness was merely an introduction to the Cornel West show. But before I became aware of his “shtick,” he immediately became my main man.
    .
    But later on, after West started making intellectually reckless and questionable remarks, I began to research him, and it became increasingly clear that his reputation, and his entire persona, was all smoke and mirrors. Now, upon reflection and the insight derived from 20/20 hindsight, it’s become perfectly clear to me how West rose to prominence.
    .
    Cornel West came up during the time when there was a raging debate going on over the racist claim that due to the “artificial boost” that Black professionals were getting from affirmative action, they weren’t as competent as their White counterparts. And during that same time there was a debate going on over the claim by some White scholars that Black people were innately intellectually inferior to White people and the rest of the population.
    .
    As a result of those debates, and the fact that West had an association with White Ivy League universities, the Black community embraced him as the poster child for Black intellectual competence, but without taking the time to vet him like we should have. It was that mistake that has led to the flawed intellectual monster – and the total embarrassment to the Black community – that we have today. http://wattree.blogspot.com/2013/08/black-racists-and-their-thinly-veiled.html
    .
    But Cornel West has allowed himself to become a little too bigheaded, and as a result, he’s allowed his card to be peeped. And as I pointed out above, he’s betrayed to any objective observer the fact that he’s at best, the Liberace of faux intellectualism, and at worst, a Harvard anointed preacher searching for a flock. As Stanley Crouch pointed out, he’s revealed himself to be a mile wide and an inch deep. So he’d be doing himself a tremendous service if at this point he’d simply shut up, but he doesn’t even seem to have sense enough to do that. . . (MORE)
    .
    So, Dr. Watkins, what you are is a Cornel West wannabe, and I hope you succeed, so you can join West and Tavis Smiley in the ash can of Black history – and when you get there, give my regards to Steppin’ Fetchit.
    .
    http://wattree.blogspot.com/2014/10/is-cornel-west-judas-goat-when-was-last.html

    Eric L. Wattree
    http://wattree.blogspot.com/
    Ewattree@Gmail.com
    Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
    .
    Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like me – it’s just that God does.

  15. CD Smith says:

    Dr. Watkins,

    Please write an article defining what is “blackness”.

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