an old white conservative Brit?

Not sure what "old white conservative Brit" you're thinking of, but if it's Christopher Hitchens, he's been dead since December 2011.

author of the article -
http://www.new.chris-floyd.com/Contact-Chris-Floyd.html

A well known American journalist and author.

Job App written all over that crapola.

Thank you, ellenrr! Cornel West built the freaking bus.

I admire him even more now than before. Some have maintained their principles despite the shit storm that such things provoked within the personality cult.

'choosing' whether they 'like' Malcolm X or 'like' Martin Luther King 'more' or 'less.'

I recommend that you learn more about Dyson and read some of his writing.

It's not just you. I think a lot of people on this thread are talking out of their ass without knowing a damn thing they're talking about. But they sure are willing to add their 'two cents' if it conforms to their limited and preconceived notions about whatever some black person should be or how a black person should behave.

Note. They don't all conform to your 'standards'.

but not really post #3, I kinda agree with post #3 and I'm very familiar with Michael Eric Dyson. I can't say I read much but I have listened since the early 2000s. The only book I've read was Holler if you hear me: Searching for Tupac Shakur. He was also a big part of the 50 to 50 documentary on the night Tupac Shakur died which was shortly after Mike Tyson's big fight and the relationship between the 2.

I'm not saying #3 isn't that way, I just see enough of the post to see that is picking sides except to say he agrees with Cornell West on a certain point. I have a lot of admiration for Cornell West but I think the OP is very bad bringing in Hillary or Sharpton as a pit bull against black dissent. I don't see #3 that way just based on the information available. The statement applies much further than either Dyson or Sharpton in terms of maintaining principles against the rush to defend against a personality cult which I took to be as a general statement because I agree with it way before this. Cornell West certainly deserves admiration rather than flip views because it is safer to do so.

He really doesn't think much about Black Folk, I see. Only an idiot would believe that Black folk must have Al Sharpton (or anyone else for that matter) to "keep them in line".

He's been working for the Feds for years.

His choice, I suppose.

Ahmed Obafemi is having flashbacks — about a briefcase.

Last week, when stunning new details emerged about the Rev. Al Sharpton’s role as an FBI informant in the 1980s, Obafemi kept thinking about a sitdown he had with Sharpton at a lower Manhattan restaurant in 1983.

And the briefcase that Sharpton brought with him.

“It was the way he sat it down,” Obafemi recalled.

Sharpton, according to Obafemi, set up the meeting to seek information about the whereabouts of Joanne Chesimard, who was a fugitive after being convicted in the killing of a New Jersey state trooper.

Sharpton thought Obafemi, an activist with ties to black revolutionaries, might be able to help, Obafemi said.

In an interview last week, Obafemi recalled the unusual attention Sharpton paid to that briefcase — how Sharpton kept it close to them, and between them.

Obafemi’s instincts — the hyperalert feelings of someone who was in touch with imprisoned and on-the-run black radicals — made him deeply suspicious, he said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/activist-recalls-1983-meeting-sharpton-bugged-briefcase-article-1.1754857

Being a mob informant is one thing with the NYPD & FBI that turned on him & everybody else for speaking out against overzealous policing that disproportionally target African-Americans. I don't know if he is genuine or it is about himself but the logic of what he says makes sense. Now, if he does anything at all he is called a "racial arsonists" or Giuliani brings up how often the NY mayor or the White House met with Al Sharpton but then there is the other thing. If the above story true, then I start to have questions. Assata Shakur was a major COINTELPRO target, they everything they could at her hoping something will stick. She was a passenger in a car where the driver & a passenger opened fire on New Jersey police on the turnpike. A lot of COINTELPRO agent provocateurs can lead to paranoia but is it "Its not paranoia if they're really after you." which they were but she didn't plan or organize it & her trial was grossly unfair where you have an officer tell a lie to the grand jury, admit it was a lie in trial but the lie was she pulled the trigger that killed one of the officers -- they wanted so bad to pin the whole thing on her. Chris Christie saying she shot the officer execution style wasn't even the prosecutors' argument (the few forensics experts debunked any theory like that shot with her hands up made her unable to fire any shots back at the officers.

Anyways, and like I said if the above article is true why was Shaprton involved and what might the police have over him or wth is going on?

Last edited Sun Apr 26, 2015, 12:50 PM - Edit history (1)

I say embrace Dr. West and let HRC and Dyson fade away into the sunset

People are still falling for his Jesus Juice.

Thanks for posting this ellenrr... It also included Dr. West's response to Dyson's piece, which when one considers the venom directed his way was delivered from much higher ground...

and recommended!

Period.

Helping no other human ever.

you might say that.

He was born in 1953.



Try. Again.

It has continued the whole time...it's just that the white media machine decided it didn't matter anymore after 1968 or so(and that's the real reason the white press were so obsessed with stopping Jesse Jackson in 1984 and 1988...they didn't want their "and they all lived happily after after" narrative challenged by someone who dared to point out that the struggle isn't over and may never be.

Important.

You have to be white.

He was the ONLY progressive presidential candidate in the entire 1980's-the only one who cared about what the black freedom movement had been about-Mondale, Hart, Dukakis and Gore didn't. You know that.

Yes, the guy had flaws...but who the hell else was even out there in that decade, at least in presidential politics? Who, at the presidential politics level was even talking about not only the freedom movement, but workers' rights, social justice, and peace?

Ron Dellums was great, but he was never going to move out of Congress.

Why assume you had to be white to think that Jesse's campaigns mattered? Who in the black leadership in that decade was doing anything that was of greater value? No black leader that backed Mondale or Dukakis against Jesse was still fighting for the cause. None that backed Clinton in the primaries in '92 was, either. All of them were sellouts.

If you think Jesse wasn't important in the Eighties, then who the hell was? Who the hell else was saying anything? Doing anything? What was the better alternative to backing his campaigns? Supporting Mondale or Dukakis or Gore was giving up.

Arrogant assholes one an all.

Clueless white liberals love them.

Obama isn't progressive...he's a decent guy, but on economics he's a corporate lackey and he just saved a pro-1% mayor in Chicago.

I know there are a lot of good grass-roots types out there working from below...and I admire all of them...but who would you prefer in public life at the level of electoral politics?

And I'm being civil to you, so I don't understand why you're being hostile to me. Please engage. We don't have to be enemies.

I'm not sure what this whole attack on the guy is about, btw.

He's kind of an embarrassing joke.

Refresh that. Not "Kind of" an embarrassing joke.

He is absolutely an embarrassing joke.

He is Kanye West times infinite blazing suns.

What is wrong with devoting your life to speaking out? What is wrong with speaking truth to power?

Dyson hasn't ever done that...all he's ever been about is ingratiating himself with power...in other words, checking his conscience at the door to get "a seat at the table&quot and remember, those "seats at the table" have all proved to be at the table back by the men's room).

Why shouldn't Dr. West have devoted his life to being a public dissident? It's not like he could have done anything of value by being an Obama apologist. Doing that would have giving up his soul, like Dyson has.

What they have in common beside skin color eludes most of us.

links to Dyson's articles in this thread, below.

We are today under a tremendous pressure of what we should unashamedly call enemy propaganda – let me quote Alain Badiou, “The goal of all enemy propaganda is not to annihilate an existing force (this function is generally left to police forces), but rather to annihilate an unnoticed possibility of the situation.” In other words, they are trying to kill hope: the message of this propaganda is a resigned conviction that the world we live in, even if not the best of all possible worlds, is the least bad one, so that any radical change can only make it worse.


West has seen the growing hypocrisy of our times and has thus become even a bigger critic and that is not permitted when he points out the truth.

from his part in the Civil Rights Movement all the way through to today.

And he is courageous enough to state his views, which when conflicting with the status quo, naturally make him a target of those who like things they way they are.

He lives by his convictions. Too bad people cannot simply disagree respectfully, instead they hire these smear campaigns because it is difficult to argue AGAINST what he stands for.

In downtown Detroit, 2005 or 06; he was a speaker at an organization I worked for then. Just him, me and a coworker. Great conversation, dinner and just a couple drinks. We discussed history. By then, I considered George W. Bush the worst president in U.S. history. Dr. West felt Andrew Johnson was the worst. Hard to argue with either at the bottom. Anyway, a fascinating evening, and he was kind enough to autograph a copy of his new book for my daughter.

I suggest DUers read more of Chris Floyd's work...

The go-to source, along with Bruce Dixon, when someone wants to show that some black folk hate Obama too.

Are we supposed to be surprised that Glen Ford is sticking up for Cornel West?



Sid

Pointing out the obvious!

And if Dyson was mean, what about Cornel West on Melissa Harris-Perry?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/22/the-sad-but-self-inflicted-fall-of-cornel-west.html

West has been consistently way closer to correct than wrong about a wide range of subjects over a long period of time and despite whatever Dyson may accuse him of having lost as he has become "too long in the tooth" still seems sharply dead on today.

Dyson is just angling to be a Turd Way goto man. He even managed to kiss Larry Summer's ring as a central support in his weak ass "takedown" and even sneaked in a turd dropping on King for going all West (who he had now, he felt, had been brought down more than a few pegs) before his assaination having gone after the Vietnam War and economic justice.

Apparently Dyson's assignment is set the limits for the boundaries of acceptable advocacy and political goals of the left in general but of blacks on the left in particular within the confines of neoliberal orthodoxy and that you are some kind of petty, out of touch crank otherwise.
His worldview is clear no matter how much he tiptoed around it and rationalized.

Dr West did this t himself by acting the way he did. Jealousy turned him into a bitter man.

But he can kiss it!

My favorite.

Sorry...I just couldn't resist.

And it just seems incredibly mean spirited.

Cause, that's how Dr West talks about black leaders these days. Not to mention all the crap he said about Professor Harris Perry. That piece was tame compared to the vile venom that comes from Dr West.

If you were a strong believer in Democratic Socialism & foreign policy especially you'd have big problems with more than a few of President Obama's actions. He campaigned for, supported, & backed Obama in 2007.

Cornel West: “He posed as a progressive and turned out to be counterfeit. We ended up with a Wall Street presidency, a drone presidency”
http://www.salon.com/2014/08/24/cornel_west_he_posed_as_a_progressive_and_turned_out_to_be_counterfeit_we_ended_up_with_a_wall_street_presidency_a_drone_presidency/

I don't see that as jealously because I certainly agree with that statement. I see as genuine because his criticisms are mostly grounded in reality. If he was jealous it would likely be unhinged like the Republicans who many still believe he faked his birth certificate as part of an elaborate scheme to sneak USSR socialism as part of a Marxist Muslim coup. The person who wrote books on Marxist thought certainly doesn't feel that way & feels unhappy with some of the policies which a lot of which were continuation from a long line of prior Presidents.

After he had already shown his jealousy over those stupid tickets for the ball and went on a rant about it. After the inaguration, it was a downward slide. Now he's becone known for calling people house negroes and other incendiary language. It's all about him. He has become a parody.

He seems to be on Amy Goodman quite a bit but the "Rockafeller Republican in Blackface" quote led to the MHP slam then the video clip with Michael Eric Dyson defending Obama on MSNBC then asking Cornell West's opinion which begins with "I love Mike Dyson". Certainly I agree it is incendiary but I doubt his much to do with Cornell West because I can't see him defending Obama with the ideological differences he has & none of it changes he did campaign, rally, & back him & certainly doesn't change the reality of Obama's policies a lot of which Obama campaigned on the opposite of those ideas. The day 1 memo mentioned a lot of good reasons why things shouldn't be hidden for reasons on transparency, one of them "subjective fears" a year later torture photos are blocked using subjective fears to name just 1 example

This is an Amy Goodman interview from 2014
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/10/6/cornel_west_on_obama_eric_holder

I don't see the parody when he makes a lot of sense. The effort and I didn't really buy the OP but is starting to make some sense but not for those reasons is put into creating this illusion as if his ideology somehow changed that he was brilliant before but he isn't anymore. I agree he is harsh sometimes but he makes a lot of sense on a lot of things. Before 2014 he mentions (I can't locate this one as quick) of going to the establishment to say you're not a radical explaining how you have someone like John Brennan appointed head of the CIA (he defended EITs, rendition but drew the line at water boarding but so did Robert Gibbs a week after the "torture memos" oddly enough by explaining to the press after correcting the use of the word "torture" with EDTs saying that water boarding doesn't fit with the standards of the EITs). At any rate, the logic of it made sense

A lot of Dyson's criticisms doesn't. Repackaging of old hits with Race Matters & Democracy matters, he used "Marxist Thought" more than once for a title which were some of his early works but all of it points to a consistent ideology & it isn't like there isn't evidence backing up his criticisms but I somehow don't see him taking a different view especially when it comes to foreign policy. "He is definitely not a socialist."

He has a ego that won't quit, and it is fed by white progressives who think that Dr West is the epitome of Black intelligencia. White liberals put much more stock in Dr West and his ranting. And they are quick to ignore his disrespect, while black folks are all about respect.

What you are failing to realize is that Dr West has been out of pocket for a long ass time. The reason black people are tired of Dr west is Dr West. You may not mind him running around calling blacks who support Obama House Negroes, but we take that shit seriously. He speaks to what YOU want to hear out of a black leader, not what WE want for ourselves.

The escalating deaths and sufferings in Black and poor America and the marvelous new militancy in our Ferguson moment should compel us to focus on what really matters: The life and death issues of police murders, poverty, mass incarceration, drones, TPP (unjust trade policies), vast surveillance, decrepit schools, unemployment, Wall Street power, Israeli occupation of Palestinians, Dalit resistance in India, and ecological catastrophe.

Character assassination is the refuge of those who hide and conceal these issues in order to rationalize their own allegiance to the status quo. I am neither a saint nor prophet, but I am a Jesus-loving free Black man in a Great Tradition who intends to be faithful unto death in telling the truth and bearing witness to justice. I am not beholden to any administration, political party, TV channel or financial sponsor because loving suffering and struggling peoples is my point of reference. Deep integrity must trump cheap popularity. Nothing will stop or distract my work and witness, even as I learn from others and try not to hurt others.

But to pursue truth and justice is to live dangerously. In the spirit of John Coltrane’s LOVE SUPREME, let us focus on what really matters: the issues, policies, and realities that affect precious everyday people catching hell and how we can resist the lies and crimes of the status quo!

https://www.facebook.com/drcornelwest

Me personally I'd prefer he leave the labels out of it or certainly his rhetoric & focus primarily on the issues because he is 100% right most of the time, I can't really say he isn't. I study foreign policy - foreign politics and he is literally the only one that is on the same page I am & that isn't to say he is wrong or we are both wrong when most Americans don't care or when they do care they are focused on how it affects Americans as if lives are less valuable outside the borders. So you saying he has been out of pocket, to me he is the only one that really gets it and you have Eric Dyson that went further in rhetoric with this after he was critical of MSNBC employees who started with coming after him on personality reasons. Certainly I can argue aspects of MHP was fair but when he calls her a "liar" there is probably a point to that because he has been focusing on the same issues before or after Obama talking about the same things no wavering at all.

I'm saying he is out of pocket and has been since he did not recieve inaguration tickets. This man you respect so much was pissed as hell that the bagman at the hotel got a ticket to the ball and he did not. Ever since, he has been a holy terror. That's when he started using the same rhetoric as tge far right in relation to Obama and his supporters. Because he thought so highly of himself, and expected a spot in Obama's inner circle, like he was a Mentor to O. He is not his mentor, never was, they are contemporaries. He spends his time bashing the first Black president, and has for about 6 years. And all this started over ticket to a ball. If you look it up, you can see him whining about how even the bagman got a ticket, while he stayed in his room like Cinderella. He will never regain the respect of the black community again. If he is so important to black intellegencia, why is he not working at an HBCU? Because it don't pay as well. But he can preach his crap to white liberals, and have them thinking black people are on his team, because they are dumb enough to go along with his bullshit, in order to get a pass on talking shit about Obama. He is the shield they use, along with his BAR. Mostly white folks read the BAR, but they swear to god that th BAR is what black people read.

he wasn't upset because of the bag-man got a ticket & he didn't but he was making an overall argument of betrayal on several levels. He mentions all the campaigning and so do The New Republic which I'll get to in a second but also mentions Obama confronting him over him not saying he isn't a progressive as if the facts don't speak for themselves. Obama is upset over him saying he isn't a progressive using foul language Cornell West didn't say that part in the same source which Eric Dyson could have used which mentions the context of the event of where Obama made speech in promotion of ideas that aren't progressive (charter schools). He selects a portion of the entire quote to focus on a jealously grudge but yet there is Michael Eric Dyson saying Obama isn't "Mose, he is Pharaoh" which turned the crowd against him which he went "I'm not ragging him" "its the office" so MED rhetoric was fine as long as used qualifiers.

Even his second article at the New Republic he brings up Jay-Z again, kicking it at his townhouse as somehow this makes him a hypocrite on "allegiance to the status quo" when the issues are entirely political. Cornell West didn't become a problem until he became a MSNBC employee & there was always a long effort to discredit him because he makes a lot of sense. I don't feel special because I agree with him therefore I have illusions who might be one my side. You bring up the 1st black President when MED used a Jackie Robinson analogy by comparing him to waiting for Willie Mays on deck, but in all this he leaves out all his criticisms. So far 2 long articles that are "vital & necessary" yet leaves out all his own history of rhetoric except for some strongly worded criticisms Obama all there is the Cornell West Facebook post. Whose ego is it really about? This is from MED's article

Obama welcomed West’s support because he is a juggernaut of the academy and an intellectual icon among the black masses.

So it was OK for Obama to seek his endorsement (MED criticizes his work like he only had 1 good book which he posted the former editor's slams of a book of that book, the same editor was wildly incorrect on the Iraq War & urged the judge to give his friend Scooter Libby a lighter sentence) so he uses the analogy of a scorned lover of a serial cheater -- the more I read the more it justifies his claim that he is a sell-out. It is clear from the source he cites to justify the jealously is that was far from the only issue which Cornell West would of been better off keeping it too himself because it distracts from all the other things from the same article.

------

“What it said to me on a personal level,” he goes on, “was that brother Barack Obama had no sense of gratitude, no sense of loyalty, no sense of even courtesy, [no] sense of decency, just to say thank you. Is this the kind of manipulative, Machiavellian orientation we ought to get used to? That was on a personal level.”

But there was also the betrayal on the political and ideological level.

“It became very clear to me as the announcements were being made,” he says, “that this was going to be a newcomer, in many ways like Bill Clinton, who wanted to reassure the Establishment by bringing in persons they felt comfortable with and that we were really going to get someone who was using intermittent progressive populist language in order to justify a centrist, neoliberalist policy that we see in the opportunism of Bill Clinton. It was very much going to be a kind of black face of the DLC [Democratic Leadership Council].”

Obama and West’s last personal contact took place a year ago at a gathering of the Urban League when, he says, Obama “cussed me out.” Obama, after his address, which promoted his administration’s championing of charter schools, approached West, who was seated in the front row.

“He makes a bee line to me right after the talk, in front of everybody,” West says. “He just lets me have it. He says, ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself, saying I’m not a progressive. Is that the best you can do? Who do you think you are?’ I smiled. I shook his hand. And a sister hollered in the back, ‘You can’t talk to professor West. That’s Dr. Cornel West. Who do you think you are?’ You can go to jail talking to the president like that. You got to watch yourself. I wanted to slap him on the side of his head.

“It was so disrespectful,” he went on, “that’s what I didn’t like. I’d already been called, along with all [other] leftists, a “F’ing retard” by Rahm Emanuel because we had critiques of the president.”

http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/the_obama_deception_why_cornel_west_went_ballistic_20110516

I can't post the entire 3 page article (just like Dyson's) but he clearly says the deception was on 2 levels both the personal & the way a lot of people agree especially those that agree on the idea. Bill Maher never gives up talking about the same things, he takes him down in epic fashion & rarely see people do it on a similar level any more. This was 4 years ago (foreign policy related)

Obama was never his friend for him to take it personal. And yeah, Sistah Soldjah was 100 percent correct in her assesments of Anerica and that is true to this day. Obama never said he was a far left activist, that is what West expected, though. He forgot to temper his expectations with a cold dose of reality.
Dr West is so used to being told he is right. He has spent far less time with average back folks in the intervening years, than he did even back then. It's called going Hollywood. He like's the idea of being the radical and he is supported by folks like you. Not the black community. If something happens that might get alot of attention, he shows up to get arrested on TV, so that he get's that attention he needs.
Listening to Dr West, one might think that the problems in the black community just started under Obama. Sadly, he is beating up the wrong person. The problem is not Obama. The problem is the evil way the system was designed in the first damn place. What she was saying was spot on.
Critiquing is one thing, his bullshit is on a whole nother 'personal' level.
I noticed how much Dr West loved bill clinton though. Clinton was to the right of Obama, but Dr West has love for him, remembering staying up on the phone talking to Bill. Obama won't do that shit with him. So he has a sad. Sad as fuck. Remember, Clinton did welfare reform. That was one piece of legislation that was DESIGNED to hurt the poor and especially the black community. Where is Dr West on that? No fucking where, because that is not the point!!! The point is for Dr West to get attention. Everything about him is a cry for attention and adoration. Fuck that. His time is up. All the hawking of his 'new' book, that is just a repeat of the old one won't change that. You can be a black radical without constantly attacking black folks who disagree with you. He is just battling to stay on top, and is vicious to any and all who disagree. I'm way to the left of Obama. Other presidents have gone out of their way to harm or ignore the plight of the black community. He at least listens to us instead of campaigning against us. Unlike many or most of the White dudes who held th office before him. Expecting the black community to turn on him was the mistake Dr West made. It's like expecting us to hate on MLK. Never happen.

joining Bain Capital mgmt. after lobbying for TPP. Just the way things are going in some areas.

This entire page is an utter disappointment. Cornel West is a self-aggrandizing hypocrite who cares more about name dropping in his (more recent) uninspiring books than he does about promoting the interest of Black Americans. Michael Eric Dyson's article is a response to West's flagrant mis-characterization of him, Melissa Harris-Perry etc. It isn't him jockeying to be a part of the Democratic machine. He has criticized a lot of what Obama has done.

West has hated Obama for awhile, even questioning his blackness, because Obama did not kowtow to West's self-imposed authority in American intelligentsia. Meanwhile, as evidenced in his writing, he was absolutely elated with Pres. Clinton because he got to stay up all night talking to him even though Clinton's policies had a negative effect on communities of color.

who hates instead of publishes. Cornel West's last meaningful contribution to public discourse is decades old.

It is as predictable as the fucking path of the sun, but far more amusing.

Google : cornel west inauguration ticket

And what a predictable steaming load of smear responses. Same old shit.

Anyway, thank you ellenrr.

As you say, 'In trying to bring down Obama, West has done absolutely NOTHING but mortally damage his own credibility and sever ties with the black community, the community he loves above all others.'

Dyson's original piece was borne from pain and a long stretch of patience, sitting back while his friend, mentor and colleague insulted him and many other good people in an explosive & deeply personal manner. West has burned a lot of bridges. His brief response to Dyson's original piece seems to indicate he doesn't much care.

I'll always hold a place in my heart for Dr. West. He's a brilliant man & electrifying presence I had the privilege of seeing him speak twice, once in New Haven when a friend was attending divinity school & I went up from NYC, another time a few years later in Ann Arbor. He blew my mind. Up to & including Race Matters, his writing is eloquent & incisive. I too would love for him to cut the crap. He doesn't appear much to want to make any amends with Dyson or anyone else, at this point. Did you read his one-paragraph Facebook response? I mean, really. Citing John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Shameless. At least reference Funkadelic's One Nation Under A Groove, lol.

Maybe in time he'll drop the schtick. Maybe in time.

Amen. Tell it.

principle."

I think that sums it up pretty nicely.

You are, sadly, correct, imho. I think MED knew precisely what he was doing in bringing this dispute public. I think many will learn a lot from it. I know I certainly have. Thanks for your great posts, jag.

because the OP is so bad I found it unreliable but Dyson's is way more off-base & if you're relying on one version over another, it comes across as worse bringing up his feelings as a protege but then slam him for jealously reasons. It comes across as character assassination you have him calling him a "ghost" acknowledges the ideological split very briefly

“I would rather have a white president fundamentally dedicated to eradicating poverty and enhancing the plight of working people than a black president tied to Wall Street and drones,” he told The Guardian.

There is a lot of mentioning of protege & friend -- here is a criticism (don't know if it is the criticism, it all seems to stem from MHP slamming him & playing a clip of Dyson defending Obama's record then asking his opinion right after the video.

"I love Brother Mike Dyson, but we're living in a society where everybody is up for sale," West said. "Everything is up for sale. And he and Brother Sharpton and Sister Melissa and others, they have sold their souls for a mess of Obama pottage. And we invite them back to the black prophetic tradition after Obama leaves. But at the moment, they want insider access, and they want to tell those kind of lies. They want to turn their back to poor and working people. And it's a sad thing to see them as apologists for the Obama administration in that way, given the kind of critical background that all of them have had at some point."

West has clashed heatedly with both Sharpton and Harris-Perry before. He and Sharpton had a legendarily hostile encounter about the Obama administration's record on MSNBC in 2011. In February 2012, he called Harris-Perry a "fake and a fraud," which may have had something to do with a 2011 column she wrote calling him a "self-aggrandizing" man who "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."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/cornel-west-msnbc-black-hosts-sharpton-harris-perry-obama_n_2121549.html

While Dyson went on and on with a very lengthy op-ed describing the fall as if his ideology changed, I certainly agree West makes it more personal but a black prophetic tradition debate is one I should stay out of but overall just seems to be shooting the messenger. This is what West said more recently

----

West, in an apparent reference to Dyson's lengthy analysis, said on social media that "character assassination" is used as a tool for those who attempt to "rationalize their own allegiance to the status quo." West's post attempted to turn the public's focus to the recent killings of unarmed black men, global violence and economic disparities.

"I am neither a saint nor prophet, but I am a Jesus-loving free Black man in a Great Tradition who intends to be faithful unto death in telling the truth and bearing witness to justice," said West.

http://www.salon.com/2014/08/24/cornel_west_he_posed_as_a_progressive_and_turned_out_to_be_counterfeit_we_ended_up_with_a_wall_street_presidency_a_drone_presidency/

making sense and speaking truth to power.

... I say that the bottom of the barrel has now officially been scraped.

I have finally realized - DUH! - that the barrel is bottomless.

A bottomless barrel of ignorance. I hope some reading this thread will read Micheal Eric Dyson's original brilliant article in its entirety. I know you will if you haven't already. I hope you're doing well. I can understand why you left for a while. I'm looking for other message boards where black lives matter and aren't a 'wedge issue.' Where modern progressives are well past that nonsense. Someone suggested I check out Wonkette and Jezebel. If you or anyone else reading this have any other suggestions, they're much appreciated.

... for alternate sites to check out, and possibly participate in.

I am particularly interested in sites that are, ya know, pretty much what DU used to be back in the day.

I'm checking out Wonkette & Jezebel in the coming weeks.

and for a supposed religious person, I have to wonder about his hateful expressions he throws toward this President Obama. It is one thing to disagree with the President on various things, but West goes beyond that, accusing President Obama of being "most comfortable with upper-middle-class white and Jewish men who consider themselves very smart."

and why pray tell did West find it necessary to use "Jewish" men in his attack against Obama. Could it be that the tolerant Mr. West is not particularly tolerant when it comes to Jews?

and of course as only Mr. West could express himself, he referred to the President

“He posed as if he was a kind of Lincoln,” ... “And we ended up with a brown-faced Clinton.”

In 2012, he called him a “Rockefeller Republican in blackface.”

So, based on Mr. West's comments, he obviously believes their is a certain litmus test for the way African Americans should behave, and if they don't follow West's standards, then the wrath of Cornell is on them. What an arrogant presumptive person to assume that all African Americans should have the same mindset as he does, and any African American who disagrees with him on the President he calls a fake and a fraud as he did Al Sharpton, Melissa Harris-Perry, and Michael Eric Dyson.

Mr. West as everyone, is entitled to own their opinion

West describes himself as a "non-Marxist socialist"

I love them both. I'd be surprised if any of this has a thing to do with Hillary Clinton though it might.

Michael Eric Dyson is a very intelligent dude, he used to be on Real Time all the time when it first started. So was Aaron McGruder, brilliant people that made a lot of sense but now A-listers are favored or someone with notability.

It is a shame, I like them both. I'll have to look into both. Al Sharpton I never saw him as a pit bull in that light. He used to be on Hannity & Colmes all the time making excellent logical arguments defending whatever Hannity is offended by on the day. None of that was ever controversial but now even associating with Sharpton brings up a lot of hate from the racists. Even on DU bashing him for showing up at a victim's funeral, asserting that the family didn't want them there (though I'd love to see if it was backed up but didn't saw the 2 or 3 DUers bashing Sharpton though -- I don't get it).

Love Cornell West for many reasons but he is more likely to speak the truth & get himself called a radical not that it is a bad thing. The Radical Republicans of the late 1800's were probably one of my favorite political parties ever. Now you'd be radical if you disagreed with their primary platform, except for the context & a "man of his times" or all the justifications that come with racism or the institution of slavery.

If I were his colleague, I'd suggest he take some time off and start writing some personal stories.

He needs some sort of catharsis to move out of his rut.

I won't listen to Smiley or West again until Obama is out of office.

Did I wish to hear 24/7/365 denunciations of the President, I would turn on Fox "news".

Apart from that, Dr. West is a distinguished scholar who has done some fantastic work.