Posted on 06/21/2011 2:33:31 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
President Obama's status as a black politician was the subject of debate last month between two black scholars who argued that the president had not urgently addressed black issues. Princeton professor Cornel West argued that Obama has been adopting a white, elite agenda, and Princeton scholar and Nation columnist Melissa Harris-Perry said the president has been hindered by right-wing racism against him. Erin Aubry Kaplan, contributing Opinion editor to the Times, said West and Harris-Perry's disagreement is bigger than Obama; it revives the historic argument between black leaders' strategies of assimilation and nationalism. Here's an excerpt:
>>>>>>But Obama is a product of institutions. He is a fortunate middle-class son of the post-'60s, pro-integration era whose own success was due less to black empowerment than adherence to mainstream mores and values. Black nationalism or any clear support of black unity or racial justice is an anathema to those values; it certainly would have doomed Obama politically. This is true even though politically speaking, the president owes blacks as much as he owes Jews or any other constituency that voted for him in significant numbers. […]
But putting aside the question of whether Obama is in a position to do much of anything, can principles of assimilation and black unity coexist at the top? Can they coexist at all? The big unstated fear among many blacks, including West, is that Obama will turn out to be yet another disappointing black politician, one who readily articulates the needs of those at the bottom but doesn't ultimately address them. That's a crisis of another color.<<<<<<
Readers are criticizing both West’s argument and Obama. Here is what they’re saying:
(Excerpt) Read more at opinion.latimes.com ...
I thought they meant “disappointing black politician” in terms of the failed black Democrat mayors of US cities over the past 50 years. They have taken corruption and malfeasance to unheard of levels and further destroyed our cities.
No matter where you look the blacks play the race card.
To me being a right winger is being a conservative, and anti big government spending.
To the blacks being conservative is now racist.
To the blacks being conservative is now racist.
To Blacks everything is race.
There are some really nice black people around, but given the right circumstances, they all go back to their roots.
I give you General Colon Powell and his vote for Obama, and I stll bet Condoleeza Rice voted for him too.
They daily practice an extreme racism and then claim to be the victims of racism. It is like a rattlesnake claiming to have been bitten by a rabbit.
How about that I agree with something Cornell West has said. Barack Obama indeed has an elitist agenda.
You made a good point about the present POTUS, he is inadequate as are many other “affirmative action” folks.
Millions of college degree’s and unqualified job titles were created to provide positions equal to those who worked to be prepared so non-producers could have “status”.
Hell be damned checks and balances that went away with LBJ.
You must, as I have, at some point in time heard West speak..if you can call unintelligible babble speaking. Every time I hear West spout off on C-Span or elsewhere, I wonder what drugs he’s on.
There is no substance to him.
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