Is It Me... Or Are The Same People Complaining About Bernie Sanders Not Connecting With POC...

[WillyT]

Some of the same people throwing a Cornel West fit ???

If I'm wrong, I apologize.

If not... please... do explain.

[JI7]

1. maybe they need to be taught

[WillyT]

2. Yes... And The Full Quote...

You can't talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can't talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry... Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong... with capitalism.... There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism". ~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Frogmore, S.C. November 14, 1966. Speech in front of his staff.

Link: http://keywiki.org/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.

From: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026950552

[rusty quoin]

3. My God, MLK was ahead of his time.

[Hydra]

86. No, he and Malcolm knew what was wrong

The problem was that for a VERY short period, capitalism worked for a lot of people. The middle class has always been the best defense the Rich have against the people who want to change the system.

They seem to have forgotten that now, and as more people lose out in the system the more people ask, "Why are we doing this? Isn't there a better way?"

[artislife]

17. Is it just the words West used or is it the sentiment?

Because West seemed to have riffed off a speech made in 1963
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/mmt/mxp/speeches/mxt17.html


Or is it just the target? And the timing of it?

I have heard two sides to this...but mainly complete anger toward West, for sure. I wasn't surprised at the outrage from the Black community, but I do know there were many who agreed with West as well.


There is a pretty big division there.


One thing I can take from all of this: Bernie is fearless and he will meet with anyone who expresses an interest in hearing him out. And he is willing to hear them out.

Whatever that means to each of us....

[Major Hogwash]

4. Nailed it.

Some of them seem upset simply because a black man stood up with Bernie.

[sheshe2]

12. Hey Major.

I am not really sure what Willie means here.

Is It Me... Or Are The Same People Complaining About Bernie Sanders Not Connecting With POC...

Please explain this to me. It is a strange sentence.

Are The Same People Complaining About Bernie Sanders

Not Connecting With POC

Is it, that if we complain about Bernie there for we do not connect with PoC? I have no clue what he is trying to say. If I don't agree with bernie...then I am in a disconnect with PoC?

What bothers people about cornel and tavis is petty hate of this President.

Cornel West v. Barack Obama

Professor West says that Obama has “a certain fear of free black men.” But this is a pissing match—not prophetic witness.
By
Melissa Harris-PerryTwitter
May 17, 2011

Professor Cornel West is President Obama’s silenced, disregarded, disrespected moral conscience, according to Chris Hedges’s recent Truthdig column, “The Obama Deception: Why Cornel West went Ballistic.” In a self-aggrandizing, victimology sermon deceptively wrapped in the discourse of prophetic witness, Professor West offers thin criticism of President Obama and stunning insight into the delicate ego of the self-appointed black leadership class that has been largely supplanted in recent years.

West begins with a bit of historical revision. West suggests that the president discarded him without provocation after he offered the Obama for America campaign his loyal service and prayers. But anyone with a casual knowledge of this rift knows it began during the Democratic primary, not after the election. It began, not with a puffed-up president but when Cornel West’s “dear brother” Tavis Smiley threw a public tantrum because Senator Obama refused to attend Smiley’s annual State of Black America. Smiley repeatedly suggested that his forum was the necessary black vetting space for the Democratic nominees. He needed to ask Obama and Clinton tough questions so that black America could get the answers it needed. But black America was doing a fine job making up its own mind in the primaries and didn’t need Smiley’s blessing to determine their own electoral preferences. Indeed, when Smiley got a chance to hold candidate Clinton “accountable” he spent more time fawning over her than probing about her symbolic or substantive policy stances that impacted black communities. Fiercely loyal to his friend, Professor West chose sides and began to undermine candidate Obama is small and large ways. Candidate Obama ceased calling West back because he was in the middle of a fierce campaign and West’s loyalties were, at best, divided. I suspect candidate Obama did not trust his “dear brother” to keep the campaign secrets and strategies. I also suspect he was not inaccurate in his hesitancy.

West may have had principled, even prophetic reasons, for choosing this outsider position relative to Obama, but it is dishonest to later frame that choice as a betrayal on the part of the president. After what I had written about Senator Clinton during the campaign I wasn’t expecting an offer from the State Department.

Furthermore, West’s sense of betrayal is clearly more personal than ideological. In Hedges’s article West claims that a true progressive would always put love of the people above concern with the elite and privileged. Then he complains, “I couldn’t get a ticket [to the inauguration] with my mother and my brother. I said this is very strange. We drive into the hotel and the guy who picks up my bags from the hotel has a ticket to the inauguration…. We had to watch the thing in the hotel.” Let me get this straight—the tenured, Princeton professor who collects five figures for public lectures was relegated to a hotel television while an anonymous hotel worker got tickets to the inauguration! What kind of crazy, mixed-up class politics are these? Wait a minute…

http://www.thenation.com/article/cornel-west-v-barack-obama/

[Major Hogwash]

16. Well, I tried to talk to you about this before.

You weren't here at the DU in 2011 when Melissa-Harris Perry said that about Dr. West.

You obviously don't know how to promote the candidate of your choice to other people, so the only thing you have left is to attempt to tear down my candidate.

Cornel West didn't say anything bad about Hillary, he simply said something supportive about Bernie Sanders.
There's nothing wrong with that.
That's the American way.

[sheshe2]

25. Actually,

I was talking about what West said about Obama. I never mentioned Hillary.

I have some great Bernie friends here. However, I got it. You made it clear. Hell you made it loud and clear. I lost a friend tonight.

I tried through mail to contact you that you shut down because you were getting to much mail. I tried on the board that you ignored. Ha, you say I don't talk to you.

Your reply was hurtful, I am use to that.

All I can say is good night and wish you and yours the best.

she~

[beam me up scottie]

34. Not Good Enough, Bernie

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026737025

If we call out race baiting and claims that Bernie is a racist from white Hillary supporters does that mean we don't connect with poc?

Clean your own house.

[Ino]

39. No, I think poster meant...

in far more many words...

"Are the same people who complain that Bernie is not connecting with POC, some of the same people who are throwing a Cornel West fit?"

[brush]

29. Come on! Are you serious?

"Some of them seem upset simply because a black man stood up with Bernie".

That's so far from reality I can't really believe I read here on DU.

I, being an AA myself, want more black people in the Sanders campaign — just not well known and despised Obama haters like Cornell West. Surely there are other prominent AAs that don't come with West's negative baggage that can stand with Sanders.

That campaign wants to woo Obama coalition votes from Hillary but chooses an Obama hater to help — kinda counter intuitive doncha think?

What were they thinking? Were the researchers asleep at the wheel by not uncovering West's unpopularity in the black community?

Duh!

I will give Bernie the benefit of the doubt and go with his advisers being the ones who made the decision to bring on West.

Given that, I must say Bernie was not well served by his advisers in this instance. I do hope less tone deaf, better researched decisions are made in the future as those are important characteristics I look for in a candidate and a president.

[Scootaloo]

30. Yes, he is serious.

There are posters here on DU who have basically staked the last five months on constantly insisting "Bernie hates black people hate Bernie." Any contrary evidence has been met with apoplectic rage, summary dismissal, and an occasional de-blacking. Cornell west is apparently no different.

if that is not your angle, that's great. But it is still the angle of a not-insignificant amount of DU'ers shuffling around here.

[beam me up scottie]

32. Yep. It's become a mantra for some.

[kwassa]

64. No, your statement is untrue.

What people have been saying that Bernie started out his campaign very tone-deaf to the concerns of black people.

He did that. I heard him do that, and so did many others.

He has changed his approach, which is great, but many here on DU insist it never happened. Your characterization of the arguments on DU over the past few months about Bernie and black people is essentially false. Most of those criticizing Bernie's initial approach are not committed to any candidate, or committed to Bernie.

The arguments about Cornel West are entirely different, but you are ignoring them. West is wildly unpopular in the black community for his attacks on Obama, who enjoys huge support there, in the 80-90% range. West will drag Bernie down, not help him.

[SouthernProgressive]

38. They are serious.

They truly have no idea how offensive it is.

[brush]

55. A couple of links for you then

"The Rise and Fall of Cornel West" by Michael Eric Dyson..

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121550/cornel-wests-rise-fall-our-most-exciting-black-scholar-ghost

Melissa Harris-Perry on Cornel West

http://www.thenation.com/blog/160725/cornel-west-v-barack-obama#

[Recursion]

5. West has had an uneasy time with younger black activists and thinkers

c.f. West and Coates. I like West in a lot of ways but I do think Coates had a point that he's behind the times when he goes on Tavis Smiley and thinks of the two of them as "the black community".

[Chitown Kev]

44. Coates is also an atheist

and some people think that Coates' atheism accounted for some of West's nonsensical vitriol at Coates (remember, in his shameful critique of Coates, West emphasized how much of a "Jesus-loving black man" that he was.

[Recursion]

45. I really came out of that spat with less respect for West, sadly

I'm still not going to attack the man (notice which threads I've avoided), but that was very disappointing. I'm Coates's age, within a few days. I actually knew him (vaguely) when he was at Howard. I think I see the world much more closely to his view than I do to West's. But West was one of the people who got me there, so I won't turn my back on him.

[Chitown Kev]

47. See, I'm an atheist as well

and the religious bent of both West and Dyson are big turnoffs to me.

West outright lied about Coates that Coates hadn't criticized Obama.

[Recursion]

48. Yes. West was just wrong in every way there

And like I said it cost him a lot of my respect.

[olddots]

6. that appears to be the program

and its a bad re runs .

[elleng]

7. I've not been counting or even reading most of what's been posted but

I don't think these issues are relevant or mutually exclusive. Many of West's views in recent years have been rude and off the wall, MAYBE starting with his slams of President Obama, clearly a POC. I do NOT think connecting with POC requires approving of West and his diatribes.

[GitRDun]

8. I don't see a lot of complaining or fits, that's just the view through your lenses

Bernie needing to assemble the Obama coalition is a fact..not complaining. People saying he's not connecting yet is an observation. Seems you take it as complaining.

Cornel West's association with Bernie Sanders has been observed to be bad strategy because many connected to the AA community say he's unliked. Observing his crude language and saying it's disrespectful is nothing more than the President himself has said. I don't think anyone would accuse the President of "throwing a fit".

I don't really care one way or another if BS connects with POC or has Cornel West in his campaign. If he can't build a coalition, he won't get my vote, but that's really up to him. No President can succeed without a big tent constituency, no matter how some might think that's not so.

The lack of self reflection, the unwillingnes to learn from each other, the projection of "fits" and "whining" by others who just disagree is truly disheartening.

It would be nice to read thru just one thread and not see folks telling someone how they think or should think and suggesting they need education. Reasonable people can disagree. It's not whining or throwing a fit.

Let's all try to remember there is a person at the other end on a keyboard, just like you.

[liberal_at_heart]

9. We need to be having discussions on issues, not on who the candidates are associating with.

Some Hillary supporters will use any argument to try and bring Bernie down. I remember when it was as silly as his hair. Now it is that he doesn't have enough black people in the crowds at his speeches. The only real criticism I have seen about Bernie are his past votes on guns. Truly that is the only real criticism I have seen on DU about Bernie.

[GitRDun]

10. Bernie is a thoroughly decent guy..that is true

So is Martin O'Malley.

So is Hillary Clinton.

People may not like Clinton's hawkishness, corporate ties (I don't), but she's not a "shill", a "liar", "untrustworthy".

Being evasive on TPP, Keystone is political fear, not dishonesty. She's getting bad advice from handlers...nothing new there.

The extrapolations need to stop IMO.

Flamethrowing at the candidates and each other means no one learns anything. How can that be good for all of the DUers who go out as campaigners.

Wouldn't it be better if the Bernie activists could hear from Cha or others why the AA community might not like West? They can be prepared better to deal with it. Denying it is bad for Bernie. Accepting it might be true allows you to prepare a response for when your in the field..it's that simple for me.

We're just doing it wrong.

[liberal_at_heart]

14. Some people in the AA community don't like West. Others in the AA community admire

him a great deal for his accomplishments, and his activism in the AA community, and for speaking the truth about economic inequality in this country. My guess is is that is the very reason Bernie appeared with West. You are never going to please everybody. In fact that is one of Hillary's problems. That is one of the reasons she is slipping in the poles. She tries to please everybody including the very people who are economically exploiting the AA community. The American people want someone who is not afraid to tell the truth and to stand up to the corruption.

[GitRDun]

15. What difference does it make if some like West and some not?

Isn't it better to listen, learn why some don't like him and accept it? Then you can prepare an answer for when you are in the field working for Bernie? or talking to people in the community about Bernie?

Sure Hillary is slipping but we can only surmise why. Pretending to know it is a fools errand.

How does anyone know collectively what the American people want? Everyone wants something different. Some don't want to hear anything. Some cannot even see the corruption. Hell half the people think the President is a Muslim.

Too much presuming we know just what people need, we know just what they are thinking, and not enough learning from them.

If people prefer to yuck it up, make fun of people who think differently than they do, scold them for the motives we assign to them I guess that will just have to be the way it is.

It doesn't have to be though, and Bernie would be better for doing it differently.

[liberal_at_heart]

18. Really? We cannot surmise what the American people are thinking? With more and more people

going from middle class to poverty, CEOs making hundreds of times more than the average worker, recession every few years, part time work, low wages, college debt up to their eye balls, houses lost in the housing crash, less than $100,000 in retirement accounts, choosing between paying rent, eating, and buying medicine, we can't surmise what the American people want? I think we can. You want to ask why some don't like West, go ahead. West is not the issue. West is a distraction. Poverty is the issue, and some of us refuse to be distracted. You want to be prepared for the field then arm yourself with statistics on incarceration rates, poverty rates, mortality rates, education gap rates, income gap rates. You want to know what to say when someone asks about West. You educate them on the issues. If you still want something specifically you can tell people about West research his bio. Someone on here recently posted some of his activist accomplishments such as working to stop the stop and frisk police profiling, and helped establish the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, and worked alongside the Occupy movement. As for the rest of us we will continue to focus on the policy issues that Bernie has voted on in order to fight income inequality.

[GitRDun]

21. Congratulations!

That sanders supporter id finally came out!

Bravo!

Enjoy your certainty.

[liberal_at_heart]

23. Bernie's voting record speaks for itself. I don't vote on popularity or electibility, I vote on

a candidate's voting record. If others decide to vote for Hillary that is up to them. Personally, I don't try to persuade people who to vote for. All I know is who I am voting for and yes in that I am certain. Am I a Sanders supporter? Yes, and damn proud of it. Sanders has a solid voting record for fighting income inequality. I have voted Democrat for over twenty years and have sat by and watched my family suffer under the current economic system. I do not believe Hillary will do anything to change our economic system. I know Bernie will fight to change our current economic system. He will fight the corruption. He will fight for economic justice. So, yes I am certain of whom I am voting for. Damn it, I let myself get sucked into your provocation. I promised myself I wasn't going to do that anymore. You vote for who you want to vote for. I will vote for whom I want to vote for and we can leave it at that. I have more important things to do than to allow myself to get sucked into these damn pointless provocations on the internet.

[GitRDun]

24. You also seem certain

About a lot more than just yourself.

That's the Sanders supporter way 'round these parts.

I'm glad for you.

[Ron Green]

11. Seems to me those speaking against Bernie, or with "concern" about Cornel West,

are all about the strategy, building a coalition, being correct, getting the votes.

Those with Bernie are about the issues, the truth.

Enough of the former; let's go with the truth.

[brush]

50. Ahhh . . . he can't win without the votes

You do want him to win, right?

[Ron Green]

59. The question is: Can he get the votes without the pandering, triangulation, marketing

and trickery? This is the test for America: Can we hear Brother West's voice in its truth and forgive its harshness, or must we continue with ad hominem thinking? Can we demand talk of the issues from the TV pundits or must we continue with the "horse race?"

We may yet fail this test, but my hope is that Bernie's momentum will bring along enough disaffected people to make a real revolution - no more nose-holding, but something authentic and courageous.

[zappaman]

13. Why bother?

You're not listening.
Therein lies the problem.

[Bonobo]

19. Yes, they believe...

uninvited black speakers should TAKE the mic with force to deliver a controversial message

but invited black speakers should be forced to SURRENDER the mic to not give a controversial message.

[Maedhros]

20. Succint, and accurate. [n/t]

[Live and Learn]

22. Or some people of color are more equal (at least in terms of speaking their opinions)

than other people of color or something like that. nt

[beam me up scottie]

36. What they're really saying is shut up and sit down Dr. West.

The disconnect is stunning.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

26. #BLM "white supremacists" good; Cornel West "white supremacists" bad.

It's quite the puzzle.

[TM99]

31. Nailed it!

West's writings clearly describe 'white supremacy' for what it truly is - a history of institutionalized and system racism - structural not personal.

The twits using BLM as mouthpiece for their personal rage use 'white supremacy' as an attack on white people who are their allies in the fight against institutionalize and systemic racism. They have made it personal and not structural which will fail us all.

Outside of a few AA voices against West the past two days, several more AA and bi-racial voices have spoken out here positively about West and his kick-ass intro for Sanders this past weekend.

If it wasn't for the white Clinton supporters and their hypocritical identity politics and condescending loud voices, you would see that the AA community, like any other community, has some who respect and value West and others who do not. We are not a monolithic entity.

[Catherina]

41. +1000 and so did you Brother. Nailed it especially that last paragraph

I've never had so many White people whitesplaining my own community to me and how we're supposed to feel about Brother West than in the last few weeks.

Anyone who doesn't think Brother West connects just needs to watch the reception he gets in places like Ferguson and the one he got at Benedict College. Black neoliberals don't speak for all of us any more than White neoliberals speak for all White people.

What racist, condescending drivel to tell us we all think the same and come herd us when we're out of line.

But please, the same loud repetitive Clinton supporters and lovers of the status quo, keep on driving that racist wedge with the "hypocritical identity politics and condescending loud voices" because it didn't work out the way you thought in 2007 and it's backfiring the same way now.

[polly7]

43. I've been watching this and am worried that these type of attacks might work.

But I really, really hope not. He's been demanding justice and equality for people of all races all over the world for a long, long time. I found some quotes the other day when his name first came up here. How could anyone disagree with his vision and work?


http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6176.Cornel_West?page=3

“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public”
― Cornel West

“Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough courage to do something about it. In a way, empathy is predicated upon hope.”
― Cornel West

“To accept your country without betraying it, you must love it for that which shows what it might become. America -- this monument to the genius of ordinary men and women, this place where hope becomes capacity, this long, halting turn of 'no' into the 'yes' -- needs citizens who love it enough to re-imagine and re-make it.”
― Cornel West

“You must let suffering speak, if you want to hear the truth”
― Cornel West

“In these downbeat times, we need as much hope and courage as we do vision and analysis; we must accent the best of each other even as we point out the vicious effects of our racial divide and pernicious consequences of our maldistribution of wealth and power. We simply cannot enter the twenty-first century at each other's throats, even as we acknowledge the weighty forces of racism, patriarchy, economic inequality, homophobia, and ecological abuse on our necks. We are at a crucial crossroad in the history of this nation--and we either hang together by combating these forces that divide and degrade us or we hang separately. Do we have the intelligence, humor, imagination, courage, tolerance, love, respect, and will to meet the challenge? Time will tell. None of us alone can save the nation or world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so.”
― Cornel West, Race Matters

“Without the presence of black people in America, European-Americans would not be "white"-- they would be Irish, Italians, Poles, Welsh, and other engaged in class, ethnic, and gender struggles over resources and identity. (p. 107-108)”
― Cornel West, Race Matters

“Market moralities and mentalities-- fueled by economic imperatives to make a profit at nearly any cost-- yield unprecedented levels of loneliness, isolation, and sadness. And our public life lies in shambles, shot through with icy cynicism and paralyzing pessimism. To put it bluntly, beneath the record-breaking stock markets on Wall Street and bipartisan budget-balancing deals in the White House lurk ominous clouds of despair across this nation.”
― Cornel West, Restoring Hope: Conversations on the Future of Black America

“When ordinary people wake up, elites begin to tremble in their boots. They can't get away with their abuse. They can't get away with subjection. They can't get away with subjugation. They can't get away with exploitation. They can't get away with domination. It takes courage for folk to stand up.”
― Cornel West, Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom

“When you bring together the national security state and the military-industrial complex, when you bring together the prison-industrial complex and all the profits that flow from it, when you bring together the corporate media multiplex that don’t want to allow for serious dialogue... and then, when you bring together the Wall Street oligarchs and the corporate plutocrats, and they tell any person or any group, 'If you speak the truth, we’ll shoot you down like a dog and dehumanize you the way we did to dehumanize the brothers in Attica,' the only thing that will keep you going is you better have some love in your heart for the people.”
― Cornel West

“And when you love people, you hate the fact that they’re being treated unfairly. You tell the truth. You sacrifice your popularity for integrity. There is a willingness to give your life back to the people given that, in the end, they basically gave it to you, because we are who we are because somebody loved us anyway.”
― Cornel West


So good to see you, Catherina.

[Catherina]

60. Those are some great quotes Polly

I hope you don't mind that I'm copying them so I can add them to my diary. I'm bolding one of my favorite ones. I don't thing these attacks will work. People had 8 years to analyze what happened in in 2000, 2004 and 2008. Everyone's on to their little games now.

“Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public”
― Cornel West

“Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough courage to do something about it. In a way, empathy is predicated upon hope.”
― Cornel West

“To accept your country without betraying it, you must love it for that which shows what it might become. America -- this monument to the genius of ordinary men and women, this place where hope becomes capacity, this long, halting turn of 'no' into the 'yes' -- needs citizens who love it enough to re-imagine and re-make it.”
― Cornel West

“You must let suffering speak, if you want to hear the truth”
― Cornel West

“In these downbeat times, we need as much hope and courage as we do vision and analysis; we must accent the best of each other even as we point out the vicious effects of our racial divide and pernicious consequences of our maldistribution of wealth and power. We simply cannot enter the twenty-first century at each other's throats, even as we acknowledge the weighty forces of racism, patriarchy, economic inequality, homophobia, and ecological abuse on our necks. We are at a crucial crossroad in the history of this nation--and we either hang together by combating these forces that divide and degrade us or we hang separately. Do we have the intelligence, humor, imagination, courage, tolerance, love, respect, and will to meet the challenge? Time will tell. None of us alone can save the nation or world. But each of us can make a positive difference if we commit ourselves to do so.”
― Cornel West, Race Matters

“Without the presence of black people in America, European-Americans would not be "white"-- they would be Irish, Italians, Poles, Welsh, and other engaged in class, ethnic, and gender struggles over resources and identity. (p. 107-108)”
― Cornel West, Race Matters

“Market moralities and mentalities-- fueled by economic imperatives to make a profit at nearly any cost-- yield unprecedented levels of loneliness, isolation, and sadness. And our public life lies in shambles, shot through with icy cynicism and paralyzing pessimism. To put it bluntly, beneath the record-breaking stock markets on Wall Street and bipartisan budget-balancing deals in the White House lurk ominous clouds of despair across this nation.”
― Cornel West, Restoring Hope: Conversations on the Future of Black America

“When ordinary people wake up, elites begin to tremble in their boots. They can't get away with their abuse. They can't get away with subjection. They can't get away with subjugation. They can't get away with exploitation. They can't get away with domination. It takes courage for folk to stand up.”
― Cornel West, Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom

“When you bring together the national security state and the military-industrial complex, when you bring together the prison-industrial complex and all the profits that flow from it, when you bring together the corporate media multiplex that don’t want to allow for serious dialogue... and then, when you bring together the Wall Street oligarchs and the corporate plutocrats, and they tell any person or any group, 'If you speak the truth, we’ll shoot you down like a dog and dehumanize you the way we did to dehumanize the brothers in Attica,' the only thing that will keep you going is you better have some love in your heart for the people.”
― Cornel West

“And when you love people, you hate the fact that they’re being treated unfairly. You tell the truth. You sacrifice your popularity for integrity. There is a willingness to give your life back to the people given that, in the end, they basically gave it to you, because we are who we are because somebody loved us anyway.”
― Cornel West

It's great to see you my friend, warrior girl!

[polly7]

61. Don't mind at all!

Those are inspirational quotes ...... no one thinking that way is as hateful, racist and the horrible person they're trying to make this man out to be.

I'm glad to see you don't think they'll get far with this.

[jeff47]

42. They're not?!?!

If it wasn't for the white Clinton supporters and their hypocritical identity politics and condescending loud voices, you would see that the AA community, like any other community, has some who respect and value West and others who do not. We are not a monolithic entity.

Wait, you mean they don't get together and all agree to do one thing?!? But that's when they (insert every dumbass food/activity stereotype in the corporate "don't be a racist asshole" training)

[Skittles]

27. yup

they are fucking ridiculous

[underthematrix]

28. It's you

[beam me up scottie]

33. No, it's not.

[murielm99]

35. ROFL

You win the thread.

[SouthernProgressive]

37. West is an asshole.

That has nothing to do with connecting with POC. How would one even begin to connect the dots of how you get from point A to point B with your "thought" excercise here?

[Sunlei]

49. why do you say that?I admire West, don't agree/w every word he says but I do listen to what he says

[SouthernProgressive]

54. "why do you say that?"

That question is insignificant and a majority of people know the answer to it. Even many of his supporters. Still, your questions has zero bearing on the failed thought experiment of the op. West is an asshole. Might want to ask the op why a comment on one POC makes a blanket statement about the person making that comment. What the op is doing is using POC as pawns in their little game. It is extremely offensive. But teams and all of that.

[Sunlei]

56. Well I think West is much more similar in views to Sanders & West will be helpful to progress

Sanders platform to something more Americans will hear & understand.

Yeah, I didn't like when West spoke out against President Obama, it was harsh. Probably gave President Obama something to consider and perhaps did make a difference after he heard that.

IMO, Obama has always been a moderate. And I still will always love him and have his back.

[Catherina]

40. No, it's not just you. And it's no surprise either

the status quo that's excused neoliberalism at every turn and pretended there was nothing wrong with it, who mocked and marginalized grave issues facing our nation these last 8 years because they took any criticism of Obama's policies personally are the same ones throwing a fit because they know Brother West connects with the poor and the victimized.

Sounds and whispers... While we're standing in the welfare lines...

[kwassa]

66. I don't think the poor and victimized connect with Brother West.

if they even know who he is.

[Catherina]

67. You're very funny. Ask the poor and victimized in the Bronx, in Ferguson who Brother West is

They almost all know.

Everyone in the fucking projects knows who Brother West is. Brother West is greeted like a ROCK STAR in Ferguson and other hot spots. A few very young and non-Black protesters might not but they learned quick.

These other Black progressives that Clinton supporters are so eager to see us ditch Brother West for, no serious activist even cares who they are so Haha, no dice.

The Ferguson activists meeting with Bernie Sanders tomorrow morning are huge admirers of Brother West and if you were down with the biggest civil rights struggle going on right now, you'd know that, you'd know what a rock star Brother West.

On another note Kwassa, which I've been meaning to tell you for some time, do me a huge personal favor, when it comes to Brother West and dispensing unsolicited advice about MY community, get back to me when you've been born into it and lived it your whole life from the projects to the burbs, not just married into it ok? How condescending of you to try to school me, a Black woman who's lived this shit all her life, on MY people. It's fucking OFFENSIVE. It's privileged whitesplaining at its finest. Yeah we (in MY community) have divisions, we have greedy assholes, we have sell-outs like your own community does but how about you stop splaining shit to me mkay?

[kwassa]

70. Cornel isn't a rock star anywhere ...

except in his own mind, which seems to be losing it's clarity for a number of years now, and perhaps among a small contingent of the far left.

You can reject my opinion if you want. You clearly do. I'm sorry that you find my opinions offensive, but my opinions are widely shared by lots of black people, and that I know. I'm not just married into it, I've discussed it for decades with other black people. I study the subject. I know that I can't personally experience the racism, and respect deeply the opinions of those that have. Most of those come to different conclusions than you have.

I've watched Cornel embrace his bitter disappointment with Obama's election to office, and loss of status as a chief spokesman for black folk. His vanity was mortally insulted, and he strikes out at any and all perceived rivals.

So, I'm sorry you don't like my opinion, but I will still be giving it. You can put me on ignore, if you like.

[Catherina]

75. Missed my whole point did you? Whitesplaining not welcome. Thanks. Bye. n/t

[kwassa]

80. Whatever. That wasn't your whole point.

I addressed your points, all of them.

[Catherina]

82. No. You whitesplained my points. And very poorly at that.

If you want people to awe and ohhh at your whitesplaining, you know which forums are encouraging that right now.

Keep driving that wedge baby.

[kwassa]

85. Should I dump Michael Eric Dyson on you? Is he black enough?

in an epic takedown of his former mentor? Will his blacksplaining qualify as a critique? All 10,000 words of it? Dyson goes into great detail ....

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/121550/cornel-wests-rise-fall-our-most-exciting-black-scholar-ghost

Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned” is the best-known line from William Congreve’s The Mourning Bride. But I’m concerned with the phrase preceding it, which captures wrath in more universal terms: “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned.” Even an angry Almighty can’t compete with mortals whose love turns to hate.

Cornel West’s rage against President Barack Obama evokes that kind of venom. He has accused Obama of political minstrelsy, calling him a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface”; taunted him as a “brown-faced Clinton”; and derided him as a “neoliberal opportunist.” In 2011, West and I were both speakers at a black newspaper conference in Chicago. During a private conversation, West asked how I escaped being dubbed an “Obama hater” when I was just as critical of the president as he was. I shared my three-part formula for discussing Obama before black audiences: Start with love for the man and pride in his epic achievement; focus on the unprecedented acrimony he faces as the nation’s first black executive; and target his missteps and failures. No matter how vehemently I disagree with Obama, I respect him as a man wrestling with an incredibly difficult opportunity to shape history. West looked into my eyes, sighed, and said: “Well, I guess that’s the difference between me and you. I don’t respect the brother at all.”

West’s animus is longstanding, and only intermittently broken by bouts of calculated love. In February 2007, West lambasted Obama’s decision to announce his bid for the presidency in Illinois, instead of at journalist Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union meeting in Virginia, calling it proof that the nascent candidate wasn’t concerned about black people. “Coming out there is not fundamentally about us. It’s about somebody else. [Obama’s] got large numbers of white brothers and sisters who have fears and anxieties, and he’s got to speak to them in such a way that he holds us at arm’s length.” It is hard to know which is more astonishing: West faulting Obama for starting his White House run in the state where he’d been elected to the U.S. Senate—or the breathtaking insularity of equating Smiley’s conference with black America.

[Catherina]

87. No. I specifically requested no more whitesplaining about "suitable negroes"

Last edited Wed Sep 16, 2015, 12:53 AM - Edit history (1)

We can figure out who we want to listen to the same as White people can. Gee what a surprise huh!

Do we have your permission to fret over who you listen to? And pick and choose which ones are acceptable? Lemme know 'cause I have a long list.

Edit: You don't get it. Keep ALL the neolib lovers/sympathizers/lovers you want. They're yours for fucking eternity. Please, please, PLEASE PLEASE KEEP THEM.

[haikugal]

81. I love her, just love her......

Another excellent, kick ass post....with music!

[99Forever]

46. Yep

Dirty campaigners campaign dirty.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

51. West doesn't get along with Obama, they love Obama, therefore they don't like West.

West has been very outspoken in his criticisms of Obama for the whole Presidency, which has caused a lot of ardent supporters of the President to seriously dislike West. It's pretty straightforward, actually.

And not surprising, since West is actually some sort of high muckety muck in the Democratic Socialists, that he would criticize Obama for being so far to the right end of the Democratic spectrum, or that he would support Bernie, the Democratic Socialist in the race.

[SidDithers]

53. Many of those you characterize as "throwing a Cornel West fit"...

were critical of Cornel West long, long before West had anything to do with Bernie.

Interesting that many now throwing their suppport behind West knew nothing of the man until he became Bernie's new BFF.

Sid

[Comrade Grumpy]

58. Interesting that you would just pull shit..from the ether.

"many now throwing their suppport behind West knew nothing of the man until he became Bernie's new BFF."

How could you possibly know that?

Cornel West has been around for a long time. "Race Matters" came out in 1994. People who are actually interested in these issues have long been aware of Cornel West. Can't speak for you, though.

[WillyT]

62. I Went To High School With Cornel West... Didn't Know Him Personally, But...

I've watched his career over the past 42 years.

[SidDithers]

74. People critical of Cornel West are "race baiting"?...

Did you really just fucking write that?



Sid

[DisgustipatedinCA]

76. Are you doubting your own eyes?

I saw race baiting here at DU, and I chose to mention it without first clearing it with you. That's how I conduct my life, Sid. And yes, I see that you're going through the motions of acting aghast so that the jury will be more sympathetic toward your alert. But you forgot to add the obligatory "wow, just wow".

[SidDithers]

77. True colours shown...

Wish I was surprised, but I'm really not.

Sid

[DisgustipatedinCA]

79. Good. Surprises can be nasty sometimes.

I'd thank you for the personal attack, but I'm really not that magnanimous.

[lunasun]

57. And what about the white people who dont like Trump?He's calling for more taxes on Wall Street gains

What is up with
those people?

[Bobbie Jo]

63. Is It Me...

Last edited Tue Sep 15, 2015, 05:34 PM - Edit history (2)

Or Are The Same People Heaping Praise Upon Cornel West,

the same people who have been throwing a Barack Obama fit for the last 8 years???

If I'm wrong, I apologize.

If not...please...do explain.

[rhett o rick]

65. Some people have tried to hold Obama feet to the fire because he is the president

and he made some big promises as a candidate. Some have higher expectations of him than of Dr. West.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

78. I don't know if it's JUST you, but you're incorrect. And yes, I'll explain.

First, I reject your premise that people have been "throwing a fit" about Obama for 8 years. Invalid.

Next, for my part, I'm not heaping praise on Cornell West, but I'm also not excoriating him or trying to impugn his character. Asked and answered.

[Number23]

88. Oh no it is most CERTAINLY not just you! And the fact that certain folks in this crowd

see no difference between black people screaming to be heard re: the wholesale slaughter of black Americans by police and the black man screaming because he didn't get tickets to President Obama's inauguration comes as no surprise to ANYONE either.

NO ONE.

[Major Hogwash]

89. Not me.

Cornel West is an American.
He has the right to criticize the President.
He has the right to speak up for Bernie, as well.

Civics 101.

You're welcome.

[Bobbie Jo]

91. Huh?

Although I appreciate the "civics lesson," please point out where I said or even implied that West didn't have the right to criticize.



You're welcome???

Mob behavior continues to fascinate me. Seems in your haste to join the pile-on, you failed to understand what was said.

[betsuni]

93. Major Hogwash. You're welcome.

[betsuni]

90. Exactly.

What a huge bore these sorts of posts are, begging for mindless recs just for the attention.

[Raine1967]

68. Willy, what if some are one and the same?

what is your takeaway about it?


I know from what I read here on DU that there are people who feel that Bernie is not connecting with POC, and I have seen people identifying as people of Color say this: they are not pleased with Mr. West.

What do you make of that?

Personally, I just read it as it is.

two separate issues. There are members of DU who don;t feel like Bernie is connecting with POC and there are POC who don;t really feel a strong fondness for Cornell West for what he has been saying in the past few years.

Now, having said that, there are a lot of people who still appreciate the man, myself included, regardless of the things he has said that I deeply disagree with.


So I ask, what is the response that you are seeking with this OP?

[WillyT]

69. Seriously...

[Raine1967]

71. It was an honest inquiry.

I am not sure what you were asking or trying to get at with the OP.

[WillyT]

72. Oh... I'm Not Saying It Wasn't... I Thought It Might Be Rhetorical...

What I was thinking when I posted that OP...

Was that it was... with the attacks on Cornel West... becoming a political ping-pong game using People of Color as the ball.

And while I realize that POC like every other group votes upon individually held beliefs...

I was wondering if anybody else was seeing a pattern that was not very flattering to any side involved.

[Raine1967]

83. It wasn't a rhetorical question.

I think what you are seeing might be something very different from what others are seeing.

I am not seeing what you are seeing.

[WillyT]

84. And That's The Way The World Works, No ???

That's what I believe.

[HereSince1628]

92. I could only know that if I made lists of DUers based on the content of their posts

I don't. So I can't answer that.

[betsuni]

94. What's a "Cornel West fit"?

Please ... do explain.