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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLooking for a quote. I don't know who wrote it but Cornell West said
it on AC 360 "america is the only country that could go from innocence to complete corruption with nothing in between". Something like that. I think the George Floyd protests are about a loss of innocence for white privilege and growth that will come from that for the country.
sheshe2
(83,319 posts)Sorry applegrove, he trashed Obama.
Cornel West and Tavis Smiley do a disservice to African Americans
This article is more than 6 years old
David Dennis
I used to revere these two prominent black intellectuals. But lately, their critical voices have turned to crude Obama-bashing
snip
West has called Obama a "Rockefeller Republican in blackface" and both recently criticized Al Sharpton's support of the president as an example of him being "on the Obama's plantation". These inflammatory remarks only discredit whatever valid criticisms Smiley and West may have about how President Obama has conducted himself over the past five years. And that's a shame because the two men would otherwise have so much to offer the country as true intellectuals.
snip
Last week, President Obama delivered a landmark speech in reaction to the George Zimmerman verdict. In his 17-minute speech, he broke down the problems facing black men in this country and articulated many of the vexed issues that explain why the Zimmerman verdict hit close to home for Americans like myself. The speech was widely celebrated in the black community and, from a personal aspect, was one of those pivotal moments I'll never forget.
Smiley and West didn't see it that way. West responded by pointing out how drone strikes make Obama a "global George Zimmerman", while Smiley said the speech was "weak as pre-sweetened Kool-Aid" (whatever that means).
snip
These comments are made only more disappointing because they seem to come from a place of personal disdain, more than any desire to push an intelligent discussion. West has gone on record saying his initial rift with President Obama came from the fact that he couldn't get tickets for his family to go to the inauguration. Smiley threw a tantrum in 2008 when President Obama couldn't make his State of the Black Union event (also saying "no thanks" to a proposal to have Michelle Obama come in his place).
These two shots at the Smiley and West egos inform their rhetoric about the president, thrusting their "criticism" into the territory of "bashing". Seriously, one of the foremost philosophers of our time has been insulting the leader of the free world because he didn't get a "hook-up"? Is that what's really important here?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/26/cornel-west-tavis-smiley-disservice-african-americans
highplainsdem
(48,718 posts)But I still couldn't resist a quick search of Twitter and Google to answer the question about the quote.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)intellectualism the way Trump dishonors democracy. Like too many of his sort, West earned his reputation as a thinker with self-aggrandizing work that hid his true feelings but once prominent started indulging personality flaws over intellect.
The truth is that many peoples have been overwhelmed when their worst elements, present wherever humans are, got control.
That it would happen here was our founders' greatest fear.
Our national conceit was that American exceptionalism meant it couldn't happen here.
So many assumed they didn't have to vote. Others thought they could safely enable the right out of the kind of anti-Democratic, anti-democracy spite characteristic of some on the dissident left -- whom Cornell West epitomizes. And some who believe their poison were deluded into trying to destroy.
"A republic" if you can keep it. ~ Benjamin Franklin
applegrove
(118,006 posts)and the whole democratic party including Biden are moving to the left. Obama admits he made some mistakes because he is a grown up and a great leader.
StarfishSaver
(18,486 posts)And if we're moving to the left, it has nothing to do with anything West has ever said or done.
Kid Berwyn
(14,642 posts)Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public. Cornel West
Tim Geithner used America's homeowners to ''foam the runway'' for the bankster landing.
Neil Barofsky, the former special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, has published a new book, Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street. It presents a damning indictment of the Obama administrations execution of the TARP program generally, and of HAMP in particular.
By delaying millions of foreclosures, HAMP gave bailed-out banks more time to absorb housing-related losses while other parts of Obamas bailout plan repaired holes in the banks balance sheets. According to Barofsky, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner even had a term for it. HAMP borrowers would foam the runway for the distressed banks looking for a safe landing. It is nice to know what Geithner really thinks of those Americans who were busy losing their homes in hard times.
CONTINUED w VIDEO and links and more letters...
http://washingtonexaminer.com/video-geithner-sacrificed-homeowners-to-foam-the-runway-for-the-banks/article/2502982
Here in Detroit, people have foamed the runway for centuries, from volunteering to fight in the Civil War to striking for fair working conditions to busting their chops as the Arsenal of Democracy to showing the world people of all races, religions and creeds could live and work together. Wall Street? Not so much.
StarfishSaver
(18,486 posts)That photo was taken before West turned on Obama because he hurt his feelings.
There's nothing "ideological" about calling President Obama a "black puppet," a "black mascot," a "brown-faced Clinton," and a Rockefeller Republican in blackface."
applegrove
(118,006 posts)highplainsdem
(48,718 posts)"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."
I didn't see that Anderson Cooper 360, but some googling turned up a Cornel West interview published in January, which includes this:
https://mronline.org/2020/01/11/cornel-west-interview/
Editing to add the link for the original source of that interview:
https://www.fusionmagazine.org/cornel-west-interview/
applegrove
(118,006 posts)ms liberty
(8,478 posts)I wanted to know as well, and was beginning to think this thread was going to offer nothing except editorializing about the person who made the quote rather than discussion of the quote itself.
A very interesting snip there, I see some truth in it.
dalton99a
(81,062 posts)JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,282 posts)The corruption will only be complete if RBG has to leave the SC before McConnell loses the senate early January 2021.