Comments on: Cornel West gets into a blackness contest with Obama

By: Denise

Denise — Sat, 21 May 2011 17:30:14 +0000

Mr. Aubrey – Not to localize this board too much, but that’s an excellent description of the Kilpatrick – Hendrix race for mayor. Poor Mr. Hendrix also had the misfortune of being, like our president, of mixed racial heritage. No way could he win in a blacker-than- thou contest.

I don’t know if this will hurt or help Pres. Obama very much because the national constituency thankfully, is considerably more discerning than Detroit’s. I suspect it won’t make much of a difference.

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Sat, 21 May 2011 13:37:18 +0000

The question of who’s blacker occasionally surfaces in Detroit politics. Except that the winners of the blackness contests who win elections because of it are frequently jailed shortly thereafter.

By: br549

br549 — Sat, 21 May 2011 10:47:24 +0000

None of this stuff is by accident. What West is on about will end up to the benefit of Obama. Just like Trump and the birth certificate. If Obama had the birth certificate all this time, why did he not immediately show it? It did not make make a particle of sense to me. But when he did show it, it worked wonders. Even if he is the only person on the planet who knew where it was and could find it, and evidently has the only copy.

By: expat

expat — Sat, 21 May 2011 03:46:17 +0000

West’s Wiki bio says his mother was a teacher. So was Jeremiah Wright’s. Both would have been expected to go to college in the 60s, but the emphasis then was on the poor uneducated blacks from the South. So they used their own advantages to become spokesmen for the poor. And now they criticize the Clarence Thomases of the world. I knew blacks caught up in this turmoil in the 60s. The sensible decent ones were trashed by the radical chic. I think this was one of the first realizations that put me on the course away from liberalism. There I was going into the homes of the poorest and actually talking with them and trying to understand their real problems, while the Wests and Wrights hung out with the Bernsteins. It’s all a variation on the DSK phenomenon. The middle class radical socialist/anarchist who loves to f**k the truly poor.

By: Oblio

Oblio — Sat, 21 May 2011 02:57:52 +0000

I once heard it said that he definition of an intellectual is, “someone who has found something more interesting than sex.”

Based on the intellectuals I have run into, that’s not true.

By: Occam's Beard

Occam's Beard — Sat, 21 May 2011 01:12:14 +0000

Cornel West, a Princeton University professor and leading black intellectual

Damning if true.

By: JHB

JHB — Sat, 21 May 2011 01:11:01 +0000

Look at me! Look at me! A wacademic wants another 15 minutes of shame-fame. Trollnel West has simply been in the loony bin known as higher education for too long. The race angle is merely a means to that end.

This isn’t complicated.

By: mizpants

mizpants — Sat, 21 May 2011 00:10:14 +0000

I recognized DNW’s analysis of West’s view of blacker-than-thouness (thank you, Steve H, for simplifying it) from the incoherency at the heart of “difference” feminism.

By: Curtis

Curtis — Fri, 20 May 2011 23:14:11 +0000

Talking past each other here.

I agree with you that Obama’s childhood was abandonment and also that he probably would be a nice guy, like Bill Clinton, except for that fact that he’s President.

I don’t share your disgust with West’s treatment, however, of Obama. It’s apt because it’s true that Obama’s blackness is affected.

By: Curtis

Curtis — Fri, 20 May 2011 23:06:36 +0000

Okay, I get it. West, if he argues for superiority of the black race can’t say he was discriminated against by the reverse argument.

But he can. There’s no logical impossibility presenting here, given it’s the truth that the black race is superior. And this is his claim. He’s not broken a single logical law.