The insufferable colorism of .@CornelWest | #Racism on Blog#42

Cornel West’s almost constant use of the same repugnant racial language he decries, or worse, when speaking out about President Obama is nauseating. Such behavior is not only abhorrent but it completely cancels out his authority to speak out as an academic or cleric. West has long engaged in colorism with reference to President Obama’s mixed heritage and upbringing in a white family.

While I have found myself in agreement with many of his policy critiques, it has been years since I’ve found it appropriate to quote them publicly or bother with an analysis because of the racist or colorist insults Dr. West almost invariably includes with them.

I’ve been very sad to see Dr. West stoop so low over the past few years. I credit Dr. West for love and appreciation of Africana over many years. This latest appearance on CNN is only one in a long string of appearances in which he’s engaged in the very behavior he criticizes in others. I cannot tolerate or remain silent about it.

I am offended as a fellow citizen. I am offended as a person who has had to live with colorism her entire life. As a public intellectual and a cleric, West should be actively engaged in putting an end to colorism and not encouraging it by engaging in it.

Stop it, Dr. West! Just stop! It hurts.


Cornel West on Obama: “The First Black President Has Become The First Niggerized Black President” | Video | RealClearPolitics

June 22, 2015
Reacting to President Obama’s use of the n-word on Marc Maron’s podcast, Cornel West called him the first “niggerized” president in an appearance on CNN. West criticized Obama as “a person who is afraid and intimidated when it comes to putting a spotlight on white supremacy.”

CORNEL WEST: You can’t talk about wealth and inequality, you can’t talk about education, you can’t talk about massive unemployment and under employment and you can’t talk about drones being dropped on people in other parts of the world without talking about white supremacy and its ways in which it operates. It doesn’t have to be overt. The president is right about that.

But too many black people are niggerized. I would say the first black president has become the first niggerized black president.

CNN ANCHOR: What do you mean by that?

WEST: A niggerized black person is a black person who is afraid and scared and intimidated when it comes to putting a spotlight on white supremacy and fighting against white supremacy. So when many of us said we have to fight against racism, what were we told? ‘No, he can’t deal with racism because he has other issues, political calculations. He’s the president of all America, not just black America.’ We know he’s president of all America but white supremacy is American as cherry pie.

We’re talking about moral issues, spiritual issues, emotional issues. White supremacy has nothing to do with just skin pigmentation, it has to be what kind of person you want to be, what kind of nation we want to be. Democrats and Republicans play on both of those parties in terms of running away from the vicious legacy of white supremacy until it hits us hard. Thank God for Ferguson. Thank God for the young folk of all colors. Thank God for Staten Island and fighting there. Thank God in Baltimore, now the precious folk in Charleston.

 

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