Posted on 04/21/2015 2:23:11 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The career assassination of Cornel West: A messy intellectual divorce reveals layers of broken heart — and to what end?
Independent of one’s stance on the rift between Michael Eric Dyson and Cornel West — a rift years in the making and now clearly delineated in the form of Dyson’s essay on West in the New Republic, “The Ghost of Cornel West” — this has all the hallmarks of a messy divorce between two public, black intellectuals who were, perhaps, better served keeping things offline. Maybe try to squash their beef in the privacy of an on-campus office or in a cozy, warm living room with beer or tea shared. Rather, what we have is this: the proverbial tea spilt online, on social media, and I keep asking myself, “Why now? And to what end?”
The essay in question, a veritable bomb lobbed online this past Sunday amid the “Game of Thrones” and “Mad Men” tweets, makes no attempts to hide its intent: The title itself, “The Ghost of Cornel West,” suggests that West, an intellectual powerhouse and elder to many young policymakers, thinkers and writers, is not only in the twilight of his career, but has already passed away, reduced to walking carrion with his relevance trapped squarely in the past. A relic to be remembered and lamented and examined with the white heat of a spotlight meant to sear whatever living, breathing pieces remain of West’s legacy. Dyson — whom West mentored for more than 30 years — wields his pen with career assassination in mind, looking to finish off the man who, once upon a time, Dyson considered to be his friend and, perhaps, much more.
As I said, the very title of the essay foretold ill intent, but before reading it, I had my doubts — or hopes, maybe. I knew in passing of the connection between Dyson and West, and I knew there was a falling out between the two, centered around the rise and eventual inauguration of President Barack Obama. Still, I had my hopes. Maybe the essay—harsh title notwithstanding—would be an open letter of love to Cornel West, last seen being hauled off to a jail cell in Ferguson, Missouri, this past fall. “It could be a plea,” I thought, “for the power and penetrating rhetoric, buoyed by a once-in-a-generation intellect, to return now, now, when we, black Americans, and the nation in whole, need it the most.”
Still, I couldn’t shake the title. “The Ghost of Cornel West” dredged up dread; it evoked the image of dead bodies piling up at the hands of police; it brought to mind the fear that another black life can be easily cast aside; it reminded me of the hashtagged names of black men and women killed by senseless violence, their very names uttered in veneration as an antithesis to the media-dragging these victims receive, with police records and criminal proceedings placed on display for judgment.
My hopes waned—then scattered completely—as the essay opened with a YouTube video of Cornel West speaking on his issues concerning President Obama’s use of Martin Luther King’s Bible for his second inauguration. The video, which appears later on the actual webpage containing the essay, showed up first, before the text, when I saved the article to my Pocket app. I had no intentions of reading the essay Sunday night. I wanted to save it for another time. I knew I had to read it, but I didn’t want to. I wished it didn’t exist at all.
I have no personal stake in this breakup, for lack of a better word. I don’t claim to be a “public intellectual” and any rhapsodizing I do is rare, and often confined to my Twitter timeline, and any vitriol is stepped on by snark. In other words, I offer opinions when I have one to share, and in this case I have some thoughts, but I need to make something clear before we continue. To put it colloquially, I neither ride nor die for Dyson or West. I’m familiar with their work, but not deeply entrenched. I have watched both of them deliver stunning, poignant ideas, as well as ridiculous and tired truisms, on many panels aired primarily on C-SPAN or BET back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. My thoughts on race, on politics, on pop culture, and my place within this world in general, all have been influenced, albeit partly, by West and Dyson, both. In that sense, watching all of this unfold is like watching two senior family members—more distant cousins to me than uncles, maybe—attempt to wound each other. And while blades are brandished and blood is shed, I’m still left asking, “Why now? And to what end?”
“To what end?” seems clearer, or maybe easier to pinpoint. There are layers to Dyson’s essay; to pull them back reveals not so much the flaws and failures of the essay’s subject, but rather the pain and betrayal felt by the essayist himself. Dyson shows his hand, but first tries to hide it with fair, if uncomfortable, criticisms of West from a scholarly point of view. “[West] hasn’t published without aid of a co-writer a single scholarly book since Keeping Faith,” Dyson writes, “which appeared in 1993, the same year as Race Matters. West has repeatedly tried to recapture the glory of that slim classic by imitating the 1960s-era rhythm and blues singers he loves so much: Make another song that sounds just like the one that topped the charts. In 2004, West published Democracy Matters, an obvious recycling of both the title and themes of his work a decade earlier. It was his biggest seller since Race Matters.”
Dyson continues to dissect West’s output, more oratory than written at this point in his career, and raises salient points regarding the “ecstasies of the spoken word, when scholarship is at stake, leave the deep reader and the long listener hungry for more.” Dyson continues, “Writing is an often-painful task that can feel like the death of one’s past. Equally discomfiting is seeing one’s present commitments to truths crumble once one begins to tap away at the keyboard or scar the page with ink.”
And while these points are fair and worthy of further discussion, Dyson—the hurt, perhaps rightfully so, and jilted pupil of West—drives the narrative toward the petty. Accusing West of “highly staged and camera-ready gestures of civil disobedience, such as in Ferguson last fall,” Dyson goes further, writing, “West likewise hungers for the studio, and conspicuously so. There he is on CNN, extolling his prophetic pedigree. There he is on MSNBC, discussing his arrest in Ferguson while footage of the event rolls. There he is in the recording booth making not spoken word or hip-hop, but a grimly earnest sonic hybrid of speech and music […] There he is in The Matrix sequels, doing something he’s become tragicomically good at—playing an unintentional caricature of his identity.”
In all, the essay—north of 9,000 words long—is a grueling, disquieting tome so dedicated to the annihilation of West, one can see the splashes of tears that presumably fell from Dyson’s eyes. In my experience, hate does not generate this kind of deadly prose; hateful text tends to expose the author’s ignorance and no matter how anyone feels about Dyson, before and after this publication, he appears to be anything but ignorant. Rather, this is an angry exposé powered by love, and there is no doubt in my mind that a broken heart fueled this essay, part-takedown, part-memoir.
That love is why, more than anything else, I wish that this was handled privately, delicately and with some modicum of grace. For all I know, there were words exchanged between the two: Dyson might’ve sent the essay to West, or West said a word or two that forced Dyson’s hands. I don’t know. I know that two highly publicized members of the black intelligentsia have severed ties and, whether they know it or not, placed the younger generation—my generation—in an awkward position. People are choosing sides, or choosing to abstain (a side all the same), and the divisiveness in the current climate, when Black Lives Matter needs to remain in the public eye, is unfortunate, and possibly the real casualty. Still, what’s done is done. Dyson’s essay is the kind that can never be walked back, and he knew that going into the endeavor. Still—why now?
April 17, 2015: Washington Free Beacon: Feds Spent $410,265 Studying ‘Satisfaction’ Levels of Young Gay Men’s First Time "....The four-year study, being conducted by Johns Hopkins University, is examining the “meaning and function” of first “penetrative same-sex sexual experiences.”
“Prior work has demonstrated that same-sex relationship trajectories support the development of self-esteem in young gay and bisexual men, while opposite same-sex relationships may be associated with homonegativity,” a grant for the project, which began in 2012, states. “Little is known about the meaning and function of first same-sex experience in [African-American] AA adolescent men and whether satisfaction with first penetrative same-sex experience impacts sexual trajectories.”....
April 20, 2015 - EIB: A Happy Conservative Black Woman on the Gay Agenda and Black America ".......RUSH: Well, now, I have to say that you've got a point about that. She's talking about the TV show Empire. I get your point here. You think there's a long-term effort being made here to dissolve the natural opposition to homosexuality, gay marriage, in the black community and turn that into support?
CALLER: Of course. I don't "think;" I know. I know wholeheartedly that that's what's going on. And this study... I do want to bring to your attention one thing in this study, Rush.
RUSH: Okay.
CALLER: Because I went and I looked at the study after you mentioned it. One thing that it says really caught my attention. It said, "The study will also examine why some young African-American gay men seek out older partners, finding that older partners had 'emotional immaturity, could expose them 20 'more life experiences,' and help young memorandum sort through, 'sexual position and how to perform in relationships,'" unquote."
Now, I'm going to let you in on a really closely held secret about black America, Rush. I grew up in a housing project, and in that housing project -- and in just about every poor black community in this country -- everyone in the community always knew who the older black men were who were plying these young fatherless boys with gifts, with candy, with money, with toys, you name it. This has always happened.
I mean, I haven't lived in that particular lifestyle for a very, very long time. I've been very fortunate to be very successful in this country. But I know that that lifestyle still exists. You have a bunch poor, fatherless boys, and a bunch of older men who prey upon those boys. Now, it used to be a bad thing. It used to be called pedophilia. But apparently now it's called (chuckles) "giving them emotional maturity." You know, this is a study to me that is dangerous in many ways.
Because it's one thing to say that, you know, homosexuality is great; it's the best thing since sliced bread. It's another thing to say older men who prey on young adolescent boys -- and an adolescent is still underage -- are no longer doing something bad, but they're doing something great. They're helping shepherd them into this journey on homosexuality. And that's a problem. I'm not buying it, and I hope there are other intelligent people that are not buying that either......."
05/12/12 - YouTube video 14:19 - Harry Jackson, anti-gay Pastor v Michael E Dyson - President Obama's Endorsement of SSM - Pastor Dwight McKissic: "President Obama has betrayed the Bible and the Black church with his endorsement of same-sex marriage. The Bible is crystal clear on this subject."
May 15, 2013, Ebony: Did 'Outraged' Pastors Support Obama Before His Same-Sex Marriage Comments? "......Prominent Pastor Dwight McKissic said, "President Obama has betrayed the Bible and the Black church with his endorsement of same-sex marriage. The Bible is crystal clear on this subject and the Black church strongly opposes same-sex marriage. His endorsement is an inadvertent attack on the Christian faith.".....
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"Inadvertent?"
Aren’t they both pretty execrable?
Yes. They are.
Eric Dyson “I only wanted you to hold me!!!”
Cornell West “you got the bonus package homey!!! “
My God, Dyson and West have had a falling out? Has the universe not been split in two? How do we go on with life? I’m going back to bed, curl up into a fetal ball and have a good cry.
Heh—they can put some ointment on that rift.
Oh the trials and tribulations of self described intellectuals.
It’s so upsetting I think I’ll have a second cup of coffee and watch fox and friends.
Neither one of these frauds is an intellectual.That would require some intellect!
Cornel West with his antique Afro, rich capitalist suits, Chiclets teeth & 60’s radicalism that seems quaint nowadays, is facing the twilight that brings no closure.
He should relocate to Cuba. Now, while it’s still a decaying Stalinist showcase.
May the rocks fall on them both. Let the Left devour its own as it always has.
In other news: Ivory Towers Teeter As Tweedledum Divorces Tweedledee.
Yes indeed. I remember watching a debate about race on C-Span a few years ago between Ward Connerly and that puffed-up nincompoop West. The audience was mostly black and totally in West's corner.
Every logical utterance by Connerly was greeted by the audience with either silence or grumbling. Every nitwit remark by West was greeted with cheers and hosannas by the crowd like they were listening to a preacher at a revivalist meeting.
What West said amounted to intellectual sludge. None of it made a lick of sense. But the audience lapped it up like it was manna from heaven. I doubt they understood a word of the gobbledygook that came out of his piehole.
Note to author of original post. Get to the point!!
I think he’s intimating this is a lovers’ spat.
“Squash” does not equal “quash”.
Pet peeve.
Perhaps, but who knows given the deluge of largely meaningless and meandering mutterings of Mensah Demary. Pardon the alliteration.
Pretentious, overwritten tripe, but then it suits the subject. The White Privilege drivel that so stinks up racial discourse these days may be laid at West’s door (among others). “Public intellectual”, incidentally, may be reliably translated as “jive-talking celebrity” to anyone but the true believer. He’s the one with the thousand-dollar suit and the megaphone.
Ha, ha. Had to stop reading when the author called Cornell West an “intellectual powerhouse.” I’m glad it came early.
I’m thinking he meant to say “intellectual outhouse”, like Dyson.
I gotta stick with the honestly crazy guy, rather than the sneakily malicious one.
Plus, he has more significant hair.
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