AMY GOODMAN: You were talking in the first part of our interview about President Obama, and we had to end the broadcast there. You ended by saying he’s wrong. Explain. CORNEL WEST: Yeah, I think that he not only falls outside of the black prophetic tradition, but unfortunately he’s oftentimes been identified with it and confused—and it leads toward confusion, because people think that somehow Barack Obama is the culmination of Frederick Douglass and Martin and Malcolm and Ida and Ella and others, and it’s the exact opposite, that he is as establishmentarian, he is as much pro-status quo, as a Bill Clinton or a Hillary Clinton or any other neoliberal opportunist. And that needs to be said over and over again. It leads toward unbelievable confusion, and in the end it leads toward capitulation. AMY GOODMAN: You were a big supporter of his, to start. CORNEL WEST: In 2008, I thought, in fact—well, I was a critical supporter, and I thought that he was much better than what the mean-spirited, cold-hearted Republican Party would put forward. But when I talked with him for five or six hours, my question was: What is your relation to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.? And I was convinced that he was much more progressive. I’d use examples like Harold Washington, talked about González from Texas, those who were inside of the system but were very progressive. But I also promised him that the day he won, I would breakdance in the afternoon, and then next morning, I would emerge as his major critic. And I’ve been true to my word in that sense. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But for many African Americans, even activists, who see the constant racial attacks from the right on Obama, the constant belittling of his presidency, it becomes very difficult for them to at the same time raise independent left criticisms of him. CORNEL WEST: That’s exactly right, brother. You’ve hit the nail on the head. And we have to do both. That’s when I say when I love the brother, it means we have to tell the truth about him. He’s not a Muslim. AMY GOODMAN: I mean, even the Secret Service issue today with the lack of protection of him. CORNEL WEST: Secret Service issue, the flawed—the lack of protection, you know, and the right wing lying on and calling him a Muslim, lying on and calling him a socialist. He’s definitely not a socialist. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Twenty-five percent of Americans don’t even believe he was born in the U.S. CORNEL WEST: Don’t even believe he’s born in the U.S., absolutely right. But we have to be able to separate those kind of lies from— AMY GOODMAN: They don’t realize that— CORNEL WEST: —the kind of lies and crimes that the system that he heads promotes. And somehow you’ve got to walk that tightrope. AMY GOODMAN: It might make many Hawaiian separatists happy to believe that Hawaii isn’t a part of the United States. CORNEL WEST: That’s true. That’s true. AMY GOODMAN: But I don’t know if that’s what they’re thinking. CORNEL WEST: That’s very true. That’s very true. But I do think that awakening’s set in, though. I think that there’s fewer, fewer illusions about the present administration. I think it’s fairly clear that the Wall Street links to him are tight. It’s fairly clear that the assassination of American citizens with no due process or judicial review needs to be called into question. It’s very clear that the drones really are crimes against humanity. And the same is true in the Middle East in terms of Palestinian babies killed without any kind of impunity [sic] whatsoever on behalf of the Israeli occupiers. Those are the kind of issues people see more and more clearly, and I think they begin to acknowledge the degree to which some of the things that we critics have been saying are not just personal catharsis, but actually based on evidence. AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to President Obama referring to Ferguson in his address at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual awards dinner recently. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I know that nothing any of us can say can ease the grief of losing a child so soon. But the anger and the emotion that followed his death awakened our nation once again to the reality that people in this room have long understood, which is, in too many communities around the country, a gulf of mistrust exists between local residents and law enforcement. Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement, guilty of walking while black or driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness. We know that statistically, in everything from enforcing drug policy to applying the death penalty, to pulling people over, there are significant racial disparities. That’s just the statistics. One recent poll showed that the majority of Americans think the criminal justice system doesn’t treat people of all races equally. Think about that. That’s not just blacks, not just Latinos or Asians or Native Americans saying things may not be fair; that’s most Americans. AMY GOODMAN: That’s President Obama addressing the Congressional Black Caucus. Cornel West, his dealing with issues of race, of mass incarceration? CORNEL WEST: Yeah, I mean, part of the problem is, is that anybody who believes deep down in their soul what he said would make it a priority in their actions in the administration. And it’s fairly clear that the vicious criminal justice system, which itself is criminal, has not been a major priority of the Obama administration. The new Jim Crow, prison-industrial complex, even with Eric Holder—Eric Holder has been decent on civil rights. He gets an F for civil liberties. He gets an F when it comes to protecting the mass surveillance. He gets an F in protecting his Wall Street friends—no prosecution of any Wall Street executives. When it comes to new Jim Crow, he made some gestures, but it was not a major priority. So when you have a speech like that, you’re looking for action, you’re looking for policy, not just words in the air. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, it’s interesting. He says the polls show that most Americans believe that the criminal justice system is unfair. He didn’t say, The criminal justice system is unfair. And I’m going to do something about it. CORNEL WEST: And he said, And many minority youth feel as if. Feel as if? It’s an objective fact. And not only that, but how do you feel about it, Mr. President? We want to hear normative claims coming from your soul. And we do get those normative claims when he’s in front of other groups, you see. He doesn’t go in front of AIPAC and say, Well, Jews feel as if they don’t have security. No, no, he lays it out. And he goes to the Catholics, says the same thing. Goes to the Business Roundtable. He doesn’t say, Wall Street feels as if. No, no, he lays it out. Gets in front of black folk, you know, we get the superficial performance.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 04:25:18 +0000
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