He and Tavis Smiley:
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.
Smiley and West were supposed to be two of the thinkers helping to place Obama's eight years in office in a wider context. They ought to have been our moral barometers, men who would advocate for the change Obama promised in 2008. With the spotlight on an African-American president and the state of race relations in this country, it was only natural that Smiley and West would shine, becoming iconic leaders their previous work seemed to prepare them for. So, for people like myself who grew up on the example they set, the spectacle of Smiley and West engaging in crude Obama-bashing is more embarrassing than inspiring.
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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?
The shame is that Smiley and West would have been in prime position to make legitimate criticisms of the president, calling for more action and amplifying the public's cries for the change we've been promised. Instead, to coin a phrase from my age group's vernacular, Smiley and West are just "haters".
More https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/26/cornel-west-tavis-smiley-disservice-african-americans
All about free tickets. *sigh*
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