Perhaps the single most influential and most celebrated member of the black intelligentsia, Dr. Cornel West, is under fire for some highly controversial remarks he made concerning President Barack Obama. Here’s what he said.
“I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men. It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation. When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening. And that’s true for a white brother.”
First of all, what so many of us, as well as our African-American leaders forget is that President Obama is the president of the entire country. He was NOT elected President of Black America only. In fact, he didn’t even really begin to gain the support of African-American voters until he had begun to prove himself as a viable candidate due to his popularity among White voters in the early primaries. Name a POTUS (even Bill Clinton, who we claimed as the first Black president based mainly on stereotypical behavior such as smoking marijuana, playing the sax, and sleeping around—a post for another day) who was able to really focus on the types of issues we’re asking our current president to deal with, including a grossly race-biased justice system, the strength of the Black dollar, lack of jobs and education.
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