To my thinking, Doctor Cornel West saves his most telling point for number 8.
"8. To Be Successful and Black, One Must Turn One's Back on the Poor
"To be a highly successful black professional or politician is too often to
be well adjusted to injustice and well adapted to indifference toward poor
people, including black poor people. The black prophetic tradition is
fundamentally committed to the priority of poor and working people, thus
pitting it against the neoliberal regime, capitalist system, and imperial
policies of the U.S. government."
This is not unique to Black Americans. Most oppressed People
experience the same phenomena as they struggle for equal status in a
society.
In fact, I am very familiar with this process within the Organized
Blind Movement.
All too well I remember the time when the National Federation of the
Blind was the outside underdog, fighting the cruel establishment of
sighted caretakers and oppressors. The NFB leadership told its
members what to think and how to behave toward the sighted world.
Those who questioned or challenged the "Proper Thought", were
ridiculed and cast to the side of the road. I was taught that there
was one way and only one way to train blind people. The Federation
Way. Men and women, we were all "Blind Guys". We received our
monthly teachings via tape, from Doctor Jernigan Himself. We were
instructed to never speak to those wrong thinkers in the ACB. We were
not allowed to negotiate with the evil agency directors without
careful instructions from Doctor Jernigan.
We "manned the barricades" and swore the solemn oath that we would
"Never Go Back!"
Then the NFB was embraced by the establishment. As grants and
government contributions began to trickle in, the NFB began looking
more and more like the very establishment whose attitudes they had set
out to change.
Today the NFB looks very much like the American Empire. The Ruling
Class, those blind people in the top circle, directing a carefully
selected core of hard working field hands, and suppressing the Masses,
the ignorant blind whose thinking must be controlled.
Thus, the struggle comes full circle. The evil sighted oppressors
have now been replaced by the elite blind oppressors.
Carl Jarvis
On 10/12/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
> Point 2 is the one most emphasized in many of the articles that I've found
> on Black Agenda Report. But basically, all of the points are included in
> the
> material.
>
> Miriam
>
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Cornel West's 8 Most Eye-Opening Critiques of Barack Obama's Presidency
> ________________________________________
> AlterNet [1] / By Terrell Jermaine Starr [2]
>
> Cornel West's 8 Most Eye-Opening Critiques of Barack Obama's Presidency
>
>
> October 6, 2014 |
> Very few progressive voices articulate more vitriol and uncompromising
> disdain for President Barack Obama than Cornel West. During Obama's six
> years in the White House, West has critiqued every layer of the president's
> policies, from his use of drones in the Middle East to what he feels is the
> president's cozy relationship with Wall Street.
> In 2011, West wrote in the New York Times [3] that Obama has fallen short
> of
> epitomizing Dr. Martin Luther King's dream.
> "The age of Obama has fallen tragically short of fulfilling King's
> prophetic
> legacy," he wrote. "Instead of articulating a radical democratic vision and
> fighting for homeowners, workers and poor people in the form of mortgage
> relief, jobs and investment in education, infrastructure and housing, the
> administration gave us bailouts for banks, record profits for Wall Street
> and giant budget cuts on the backs of the vulnerable."
> West's commentary is a breath of fresh air for some who feel they'd be
> blacklisted in liberal circles for criticizing the president, while others
> see his remarks as coming from a space of personal bitterness. Regardless
> of
> where you stand on West's opinions, his remarks are always worthy of
> further
> inspection. In an excerpt from his new book [4] Black Prophetic Fire, West
> outlines why he believes Obama has turned his back on the black
> philosophical traditions that put him in the White House. Here are eight of
> the most insightful quotes.
> 1. African Americans Have Done Worse Under Obama
> "The great irony of our time is that in the age of Obama the grand black
> prophetic tradition is weak and feeble. Obama's black face of the American
> empire has made it more difficult for black courageous and radical voices
> to
> bring critique to bear on the U.S. empire. On the empirical or lived level
> of black experience, black people have suffered more in this age than in
> the
> recent past. Empirical indices of infant mortality rates, mass
> incarceration
> rates, mass unemployment and dramatic declines in household wealth reveal
> this sad reality."
> 2. Leadership In The African-American Community Has Weakened
> "First, there is the shift of black leadership from the voices of social
> movements to those of elected officials in the mainstream political system.
> This shift produces voices that are rarely if ever critical of this system.
> How could we expect the black caretakers and gatekeepers of the system to
> be
> critical of it?"
> 3. Upward Mobility Is The Worst In The Modern World
> "Second, this neoliberal shift produces a culture of raw ambition and
> instant success that is seductive to most potential leaders and
> intellectuals, thereby incorporating them into the neoliberal regime. This
> culture of superficial spectacle and hyper-visible celebrities highlights
> the legitimacy of an unjust system that prides itself on upward mobility of
> the downtrodden. Yet, the truth is that we live in a country that has the
> least upward mobility of any other modern nation!"
> 4. Leaders Who Challenge the Statue Quo Are Silenced
> "Third, the U.S. neoliberal regime contains a vicious repressive apparatus
> that targets those strong and sacrificial leaders, activists, and prophetic
> intellectuals who are easily discredited, delegitimated, or even
> assassinated, including through character assassination. Character
> assassination becomes systemic and chronic, and it is preferable to literal
> assassination because dead martyrs tend to command the attention of the
> sleepwalking masses and thereby elevate the threat to the status quo."
> 5. Mass Media Ignores Voices That Take on Issues Such as Use of Drones and
> War Crimes
> "The central role of mass media, especially a corporate media beholden to
> the U.S. neoliberal regime, is to keep public discourse narrow and
> deodorized. By 'narrow' I mean confining the conversation to conservative
> Republican and neoliberal Democrats who shut out prophetic voices or
> radical
> visions. This fundamental power to define the political terrain and
> categories attempts to render prophetic voices invisible. The discourse is
> deodorized because the issues that prophetic voices highlight, such as mass
> incarceration, wealth inequality, and war crimes such as imperial drones
> murdering innocent people, are ignored."
> 6. Obama Doesn't Really Care About Protecting Working People
> "The state of black America in the age of Obama has been one of
> desperation,
> confusion, and capitulation. The desperation is rooted in the escalating
> suffering on every front. The confusion arises from a conflation of symbol
> and substance. The capitulation rests on an obsessive need to protect the
> first black president against all forms of criticism. Black desperation is
> part of a broader desperation among poor and working people during the age
> of Obama. The bailout of Wall Street by the Obama administration, rather
> than the bailout of homeowners, hurt millions of working people."
> 7. First Lady Michelle Obama Legitimizes Obama's "Symbolic Status"
> "Needless to say, the presence of his brilliant and charismatic wife,
> Michelle-a descendent of enslaved and Jim-Crowed people, unlike
> himself-even
> more deeply legitimizes his symbolic status, a status that easily
> substitutes for substantial achievement."
> 8. To Be Successful and Black, One Must Turn One's Back on the Poor
> "To be a highly successful black professional or politician is too often to
> be well adjusted to injustice and well adapted to indifference toward poor
> people, including black poor people. The black prophetic tradition is
> fundamentally committed to the priority of poor and working people, thus
> pitting it against the neoliberal regime, capitalist system, and imperial
> policies of the U.S. government."
> Toward the end of the book, West writes how modern black leadership has
> abandoned the traditions that have helped position it and President Obama.
> "What does it profit a people for a symbolic figure to gain presidential
> power if we turn our backs from the suffering of poor and working people,
> and thereby lose our souls?" he writes. "The black prophetic tradition has
> tried to redeem the soul of our fragile democratic experiment. Is it
> redeemable?"
> [5]
>
> See more stories tagged with:
> cornel west [6],
> barack obama [7]
> ________________________________________
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/cornel-wests-8-most-eye-opening-critiques-barack-oba
> mas-presidency
> Links:
> [1] http://alternet.org
> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/terrell-jermaine-starr-0
> [3]
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/opinion/martin-luther-king-jr-would-want-a
> -revolution-not-a-memorial.html?_r=0
> [4]
> http://www.salon.com/2014/10/05/cornel_west_the_state_of_black_america_in_th
> e_age_of_obama_has_been_one_of_desperation_confusion_and_capitulation/
> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Cornel West's 8
> Most Eye-Opening Critiques of Barack Obama's Presidency
> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/cornel-west
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/tags/barack-obama
> [8] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
> Home > Cornel West's 8 Most Eye-Opening Critiques of Barack Obama's
> Presidency
>
> AlterNet [1] / By Terrell Jermaine Starr [2]
>
> Cornel West's 8 Most Eye-Opening Critiques of Barack Obama's Presidency
> October 6, 2014 |
> Very few progressive voices articulate more vitriol and uncompromising
> disdain for President Barack Obama than Cornel West. During Obama's six
> years in the White House, West has critiqued every layer of the president's
> policies, from his use of drones in the Middle East to what he feels is the
> president's cozy relationship with Wall Street.
> In 2011, West wrote in the New York Times [3] that Obama has fallen short
> of
> epitomizing Dr. Martin Luther King's dream.
> "The age of Obama has fallen tragically short of fulfilling King's
> prophetic
> legacy," he wrote. "Instead of articulating a radical democratic vision and
> fighting for homeowners, workers and poor people in the form of mortgage
> relief, jobs and investment in education, infrastructure and housing, the
> administration gave us bailouts for banks, record profits for Wall Street
> and giant budget cuts on the backs of the vulnerable."
> West's commentary is a breath of fresh air for some who feel they'd be
> blacklisted in liberal circles for criticizing the president, while others
> see his remarks as coming from a space of personal bitterness. Regardless
> of
> where you stand on West's opinions, his remarks are always worthy of
> further
> inspection. In an excerpt from his new book [4] Black Prophetic Fire, West
> outlines why he believes Obama has turned his back on the black
> philosophical traditions that put him in the White House. Here are eight of
> the most insightful quotes.
> 1. African Americans Have Done Worse Under Obama
> "The great irony of our time is that in the age of Obama the grand black
> prophetic tradition is weak and feeble. Obama's black face of the American
> empire has made it more difficult for black courageous and radical voices
> to
> bring critique to bear on the U.S. empire. On the empirical or lived level
> of black experience, black people have suffered more in this age than in
> the
> recent past. Empirical indices of infant mortality rates, mass
> incarceration
> rates, mass unemployment and dramatic declines in household wealth reveal
> this sad reality."
> 2. Leadership In The African-American Community Has Weakened
> "First, there is the shift of black leadership from the voices of social
> movements to those of elected officials in the mainstream political system.
> This shift produces voices that are rarely if ever critical of this system.
> How could we expect the black caretakers and gatekeepers of the system to
> be
> critical of it?"
> 3. Upward Mobility Is The Worst In The Modern World
> "Second, this neoliberal shift produces a culture of raw ambition and
> instant success that is seductive to most potential leaders and
> intellectuals, thereby incorporating them into the neoliberal regime. This
> culture of superficial spectacle and hyper-visible celebrities highlights
> the legitimacy of an unjust system that prides itself on upward mobility of
> the downtrodden. Yet, the truth is that we live in a country that has the
> least upward mobility of any other modern nation!"
> 4. Leaders Who Challenge the Statue Quo Are Silenced
> "Third, the U.S. neoliberal regime contains a vicious repressive apparatus
> that targets those strong and sacrificial leaders, activists, and prophetic
> intellectuals who are easily discredited, delegitimated, or even
> assassinated, including through character assassination. Character
> assassination becomes systemic and chronic, and it is preferable to literal
> assassination because dead martyrs tend to command the attention of the
> sleepwalking masses and thereby elevate the threat to the status quo."
> 5. Mass Media Ignores Voices That Take on Issues Such as Use of Drones and
> War Crimes
> "The central role of mass media, especially a corporate media beholden to
> the U.S. neoliberal regime, is to keep public discourse narrow and
> deodorized. By 'narrow' I mean confining the conversation to conservative
> Republican and neoliberal Democrats who shut out prophetic voices or
> radical
> visions. This fundamental power to define the political terrain and
> categories attempts to render prophetic voices invisible. The discourse is
> deodorized because the issues that prophetic voices highlight, such as mass
> incarceration, wealth inequality, and war crimes such as imperial drones
> murdering innocent people, are ignored."
> 6. Obama Doesn't Really Care About Protecting Working People
> "The state of black America in the age of Obama has been one of
> desperation,
> confusion, and capitulation. The desperation is rooted in the escalating
> suffering on every front. The confusion arises from a conflation of symbol
> and substance. The capitulation rests on an obsessive need to protect the
> first black president against all forms of criticism. Black desperation is
> part of a broader desperation among poor and working people during the age
> of Obama. The bailout of Wall Street by the Obama administration, rather
> than the bailout of homeowners, hurt millions of working people."
> 7. First Lady Michelle Obama Legitimizes Obama's "Symbolic Status"
> "Needless to say, the presence of his brilliant and charismatic wife,
> Michelle-a descendent of enslaved and Jim-Crowed people, unlike
> himself-even
> more deeply legitimizes his symbolic status, a status that easily
> substitutes for substantial achievement."
> 8. To Be Successful and Black, One Must Turn One's Back on the Poor
> "To be a highly successful black professional or politician is too often to
> be well adjusted to injustice and well adapted to indifference toward poor
> people, including black poor people. The black prophetic tradition is
> fundamentally committed to the priority of poor and working people, thus
> pitting it against the neoliberal regime, capitalist system, and imperial
> policies of the U.S. government."
> Toward the end of the book, West writes how modern black leadership has
> abandoned the traditions that have helped position it and President Obama.
> "What does it profit a people for a symbolic figure to gain presidential
> power if we turn our backs from the suffering of poor and working people,
> and thereby lose our souls?" he writes. "The black prophetic tradition has
> tried to redeem the soul of our fragile democratic experiment. Is it
> redeemable?"
> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Cornel West's 8 Most
> Eye-Opening Critiques of Barack Obama's Presidency
> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Cornel West's 8 Most
> Eye-Opening Critiques of Barack Obama's Presidency[5]
> See more stories tagged with:
> cornel west [6],
> barack obama [7]
>
> Source URL:
> http://www.alternet.org/cornel-wests-8-most-eye-opening-critiques-barack-oba
> mas-presidency
> Links:
> [1] http://alternet.org
> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/terrell-jermaine-starr-0
> [3]
> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/26/opinion/martin-luther-king-jr-would-want-a
> -revolution-not-a-memorial.html?_r=0
> [4]
> http://www.salon.com/2014/10/05/cornel_west_the_state_of_black_america_in_th
> e_age_of_obama_has_been_one_of_desperation_confusion_and_capitulation/
> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Cornel West's 8
> Most Eye-Opening Critiques of Barack Obama's Presidency
> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/cornel-west
> [7] http://www.alternet.org/tags/barack-obama
> [8] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blind-Democracy mailing list
> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>
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