[img]583|left|||no_popup[/img]It is a curious yet instructive phenomenon watching Black male academics rush to the defense of Dr. Cornel West after he called President Obama a “Black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs.”
They also stood by when West went on to say that “Obama has a certain fear of free black men.” They said it was perfectly legitimate for West to comment on the political environment, as he saw it.
But when Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry, West’s female colleague, indicated that West’s comment “smacks of birtherism,” they recoiled in shocked horror. How dare she publicly attack her colleague in that manner. They accused her of being motivated by either sour grapes or professional envy. Hmmm, okay. But tell me, what makes Prof. West more sacrosanct than the President of the United States?
Anyone who considers West’s remarks toward President Obama merely an objective and scholarly critique of the political environment needs a refresher course in freshman English and forensics. His words were a racist, petty, personal tirade by a woefully presumptuous and undisciplined mind, less than constructive and nonspecific. His critique was saturated with unsubstantiated personal attacks against the president. They were Palinesque in nature and intent.
Prof. West’s behavior was unprofessional and disrespectful to the President and the office. There is ample evidence he was motivated by what he considered a personal slight. Combine that with his close association with Tavis Smiley, who also is smarting from what he considered a slight by the President, and it is reasonable to view West’s behavior as the irate petulance of an embittered egomaniac.
Prof. Perry couldn’t avoid attacking West’s character because that was at issue. Prof. Perry’s criticism of Prof. West was the more legitimate. Considering Prof. West's behavior, her remarks constituted a detached, clinical assessment of facts. Her position was reasoned, specific and substantiated. Prof. West’s criticism of Obama was reckless, overly broad, and filled with unsubstantiated generalizations.
Yet, in his article, Melissa Harris-Perry’s Attacks on Cornel West: Melissa, Are You Hiding Something?
Dr. Boyce Watkins says,
“One of the interesting things about all the criticism being thrust at Professor West is that much of it presumes that Cornel is attacking President Obama for personal reasons. There are rumors that he is angry that he was never invited to the inauguration, or that he felt dismissed because the administration won’t return his phone calls. There is no end to the reasons that people are coming up with to explain why Professor West has done what he’s always done, which is to advocate for black, brown, poor and working class people.”
But the “rumors” that Dr. Watkins speak of are not rumors at all. West is quoted as saying the following:
“I used to call my dear brother [Obama] every two weeks. I said a prayer on the phone for him, especially before a debate. And I never got a call back. And when I ran into him in the state Capitol in South Carolina when I was down there campaigning for him he was very kind. The first thing he told me was, ‘Brother West, I feel so bad. I haven’t called you back. You been calling me so much. You been giving me so much love, so much support and what have you.’ And I said, ‘I know you’re busy.’ But then a month and half later I would run into other people on the campaign and he’s calling them all the time. I said, wow, this is kind of strange. He doesn’t have time, even two seconds, to say thank you or I’m glad you’re pulling for me and praying for me, but he’s calling these other people. I said, this is very interesting. And then as it turns out with the inauguration I couldn’t get a ticket with my mother and my brother. I said this is very strange. We drive into the hotel and the guy who picks up my bags from the hotel has a ticket to the inauguration. My mom says, ‘That’s something that this dear brother can get a ticket and you can’t get one, honey, all the work you did for him from Iowa.’ Beginning in Iowa to Ohio. We had to watch the thing in the hotel.”
Further, I don’t see how the fact that Prof. Perry worked down the hall from Prof. West at Princeton has any bearing. If Dr. Watkins is suggesting that she had an ulterior motive, what evidence does he present? None. That makes it clear that Dr. Watkins is stretching for an equivalence that’s just not there. On the one hand, Prof. Perry presents direct evidence from the mouth of West himself substantiating her position that Prof. West felt slighted by the President, which led to his reckless behavior. While Dr. Watkins doesn’t present evidence leading to the conclusion that Prof. Perry had an ulterior motive for her criticism of Dr. West, the only thing he presents is speculation and vapors.
I’m not surprised Dr. West has engaged in such behavior. His fixation on personal affectations suggests the vanity of an undisciplined mind. I’m not alone. Syndicated columnist Stanley Couch said in the New York Daily News: that “serious black intellectuals privately dismissed West many years ago as no more than an academic loudmouth with a good show business game.”
I am indeed shocked to see a respected scholar such as Dr,. Watkins engage in such sloppy thinking. His article suggests the following syllogism: All dogs have fleas. My cat has fleas. Therefore, my cat is a dog.
What kind of logic is that?
I’d like to pass on to these gentlemen a piece of advice given to me by the demure Ms. Immel in my freshman English class many years ago: “Eric, if you expect to survive this class, every time you make an assertion, I expect you to start backing it up with compelling facts in the next sentence, or no later than the following paragraph.”
That has served me well over the years. You may benefit, too.
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet and musician, born in Los Angeles. A columnist for the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Black Star News, a staff writer for Veterans Today, he is a contributing writer to Your Black World, the Huffington Post, ePluribus Media and other online sites and publications. He also is the author of “A Message From the Hood.”
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree.blogspot.com or Ewattree@Gmail.com
Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like me – it’s just that God does.
