General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Sad But Self-Inflicted Fall of Cornel West
Barrett Holmes Pitner
Michael Eric Dyson is on the money: Theres a new model now of black intellectual leadership, and West is yesterdays news.
Michael Eric Dysons blistering takedown of Cornel West in The Ghost of Cornel West for The New Republic not only closed the door on a decades-long friendship that arguably led the way in black American thought at the end of the 20th century, but also displayed how the roles of black leaders have evolved during Barack Obamas rise to prominence.
Dyson starts off by describing Wests animus toward the president as a love that has turned into a hatred so severe that it would make the heavens shudder. He mentions the times when West called Obama a Rockefeller Republican in blackface, on Democracy Now! and a brown-faced Clinton in Salon magazine. He discusses a moment when West told him, Dyson, that he does not respect the brother at all, referring to Obama. All this in the first two paragraphs.
As the piece winds its way to the conclusion that solidifies the end of their personal and professional relationship, a narrative of West emerges as a man of supreme intellect who thought that he had reached the pinnacle of African-American thought. West had even gone so far as to start referring to himself as a prophet. He believed that he was the voice that the black community would run to when in need of clarity. Dyson was one of those voices early on, so Wests fall from grace in his eyes is all the more striking. He was a self-anointed prophet, who has publicly lost one of his most significant disciples and a friend.
Apparently, it was the release of Race Matters in the mid-90s that placed West at the pinnacle, and he intended on staying there for life. He did not need to publish new, thought-provoking works. His lack of output was disappointing, and so were his verbal attacks toward others in the black community, especially at MSNBC contributor and professor Melissa Harris-Perry.
Still, he potentially could have recovered from both of these errors. Yet he decided to rest on his laurels from here to eternity, and as he did so, time, unbeknownst to him, began passing him by. When Obama showed up, and politely challenged Wests idyllic place at the summit, West responded venomously to challenge this young, brash usurper.
more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/22/the-sad-but-self-inflicted-fall-of-cornel-west.html
-------------------
Barrett Holmes Pitner is a politics and race-and-culture journalist based in Washington, DC.
Late Night Is About to Get Real on Race
Apr 9, 2015 5:15 AM EDT
Tweetstorm behind him, Trevor Noah is prepping for the anchor chair.... MORE
How John Roberts Made Hillary President
Apr 16, 2015 5:15 AM EDT
Okay, it hasnt happened yet. But if she raises $2.... MORE
http://www.thedailybeast.com/contributors/barrett-pitner.html
tridim
(45,358 posts)I hope he's not too proud to ask for help.
KG
(28,751 posts)SamKnause
(13,091 posts)have not changed my opinion of Dr. Cornel West.
I respect and admire Dr. Cornel West !!!!
I saw no blistering takedown of Dr. Cornel West.
Nuclear Unicorn
(19,497 posts)West also seems lacking in substance. Of course the OP doesn't really focus on details, claims and counter claims; it just seems to be the kid standing in the school hallway yelling, "Fight! Fight!"
JustAnotherGen
(31,810 posts)Too! Your thread that is!
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)it's really hard for writers, intellectuals and artists not to simply find a groove and stick in it. Their comfort zone.
They stop purposely seeking new vantage points, challenging points of view and are reluctant to expand their horizons any further. All of that is easier when we are young and con brio. When we get older, we often get less flexible physically and intellectually. We shy away from that which can be uncomfortable.
Once you get into a habitual groove, emotional outbursts become the way for us to feel energized. No longer the thrill of breaking new ground, we go for jolts from a different part of our brain.
One curative is to purposely move towards more personal,autobiographical topics. We can use our emotions and venture inwards and experience catharsis.
A problem for successful intellectuals is when their habitual spiel is popular and gets them air-time and brings in income.
JustAnotherGen
(31,810 posts)A very low opinion. It's been everyone Gen X and younger - who dares to 'defy his authority'.
Dyson? He's a hard intellectual who doesn't come from a place of 'Jesus Juice' - which has always been part of West's schtick.
Dyson - Melissa - Booker - Donna - these are much more relatable people for many of us.
Just my two cents for whatever its worth. He's so busy accusing people of being House Negros - he doesn't have time to say - there are people who want to lift you up if you just give them your hand.
I can get more from a Chris Gardner book than I can from anything West has written. A man who came from poverty, rose up (he had a few doors opened for him), has more money than god - but still advocates for the last, the least, and the lost.
I can learn more from Chris Gardner - and right now affluent, rich, and wealthy blacks are being courted by the Republicans. Denigrating the man that so many of us helped get elected twice, and and people who we relate to (see the names above) is just stupid.
And while he's carrying on and on about drones - he could be supporting Bookers take on the massive disparities in how poor minorities are treated in our criminal justice system. Not that you can't do both -
But if he has time to bad mouth every black person in America who doesn't think like him and praise him at every turn as some kind of God - he has time to go out and be and advocate, get radical and be uh - er - well . . .
A community organizer.
Maybe not necessary in Princeton though. I mean - it's pretty cushy down the road there . . .
Number23
(24,544 posts)Every word.
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)Barack Obama was beyond wise to make his announcement in a neutral setting.
A lot of the agita about President Obama from some quarters is entirely misplaced... Our whole political system is designed to militate against fundamental change and its concomitant checks and balances only allows the executive to do so much.
I am happy with my votes for President Obama. It would allowed me to vote for the first black president and put the government on as liberal a path as the system allows.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)Cornel West fell into a narcissistic rage over Obama, I don't see him coming back up anytime soon.
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)lovemydog
(11,833 posts)In my opinion it's a brilliant piece, well worth reading in full.
I saw West speak twice a while ago (once when he was teaching at Yale Divinity School, I drove up from NYC, another time a few years later in Ann Arbor when he was reaching rock star levels of popularity). One of the greatest orators I've ever seen. His best writing days are long past. Up to and including Race Matters, it's brilliant incisive work.
Like many public intellectuals, he just didn't have much left to write, and many have supplanted him in terms of relevance and level-headedness (as well as intellectual rigor). For me he jumped the shark when he appeared in the sequel to The Matrix. His criticisms of President Obama, as Dyson points out, reek of inclusiveness turned to outrageous & poorly reasoned jealousy.
That's not to diminish the greatness of his early work. Just that there's much better current discourse that properly acknowledges President Obama's significant role as a black progressive of historical importance and current vitality.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)to understand everything if this is, as it was for me, somewhat unfamiliar territory.
Dyson is a potent and engaging intellect and a hell of a writer.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)It's important and necessary to have public figures who are black, but if someone is expected to be the voice for all black people everywhere, it's setting them up to fail.
If MLK had aged, how many divisive things would he have said? And would his message not have been diluted by later controversy?
(I feel the same way about JFK, Kurt Cobain, and John Lennon. Dying young has its perks.)