feeling rebloggy
Cornell West is a black intellectual hero in the United States...or should I say, "He was..." His repeated criticisms of President Obama, some of them valid, left a lot of black people with a bad taste in their mouth.
I was hoping West would calm down or sit down once President Obama left office. I was thinking maybe West's disappointment in Barack Obama not performing as a industrial-sized black community leader on steroids while president would wane. At the very least, I figured there would be no point in West attacking President Obama once he was no longer president.
I was correct on the last count. But West has now changed targets. In fact he's changed targets a few times. His latest target is a black writer -- who's writing I adore-- named TaNehisi Coates. West has accused Coates of being a neo-liberal darling (a definition of which is in the article)... an accusation which smacks of professional jealousy.
In response to this attack, Coates closed his Twitter account. Some people may see this as childish or as Coates admitting defeat. But if it was me, and a (former?) black intellectual hero of the black community attacked me, I wonder if I would have any other choice but to go silent too.
I have been three-quarters of the way through my own post on what's happened to Cornell West's mind and attitude. And I will publish it eventually. But this nuanced article by Michael Harriot at THE ROOT is too good to miss.
It does a thorough job of discussing why Coates' near exclusive focus on white supremacy is important and why West's insistence that white supremacy 's intersections with patriarchy and capitalism are more important both have merit right now.
It discusses how race should be debated in this country, through what lenses it should be examined through and at least begins to discuss where and how Cornell West has been shooting his own arguments in the foot over the past decade.
Read More:
https://www.theroot.com/from-an-ex-neo-liberal-why-ta-nehisi-coates-keeps-talk-1821429336
Cornell West is a black intellectual hero in the United States...or should I say, "He was..." His repeated criticisms of President Obama, some of them valid, left a lot of black people with a bad taste in their mouth.
I was hoping West would calm down or sit down once President Obama left office. I was thinking maybe West's disappointment in Barack Obama not performing as a industrial-sized black community leader on steroids while president would wane. At the very least, I figured there would be no point in West attacking President Obama once he was no longer president.
I was correct on the last count. But West has now changed targets. In fact he's changed targets a few times. His latest target is a black writer -- who's writing I adore-- named TaNehisi Coates. West has accused Coates of being a neo-liberal darling (a definition of which is in the article)... an accusation which smacks of professional jealousy.
In response to this attack, Coates closed his Twitter account. Some people may see this as childish or as Coates admitting defeat. But if it was me, and a (former?) black intellectual hero of the black community attacked me, I wonder if I would have any other choice but to go silent too.
I have been three-quarters of the way through my own post on what's happened to Cornell West's mind and attitude. And I will publish it eventually. But this nuanced article by Michael Harriot at THE ROOT is too good to miss.
It does a thorough job of discussing why Coates' near exclusive focus on white supremacy is important and why West's insistence that white supremacy 's intersections with patriarchy and capitalism are more important both have merit right now.
It discusses how race should be debated in this country, through what lenses it should be examined through and at least begins to discuss where and how Cornell West has been shooting his own arguments in the foot over the past decade.
Lost in West’s criticism of Coates is an insidious undercurrent that repeatedly asks, “Why does he talk about race so much?”
In the New York Times interview that kick-started the beef between West and the public apparition of Coates (so far, Coates has declined to make this a “feud,” sticking to the Nas-vs.-Jay-Z philosophy of “keeping it on wax”), many of Coates’ fans laced up their 5411s, smeared Vaseline on their faces and were ready to ride out, insisting that West “keep Coates’ name out his mouth.”
I hesitate to call West’s callouts a “beef” because Coates is seemingly disinterested in becoming Biggie to West’s Tupac-ish shenanigans. (And yes, they have risen to the level of “shenanigans” because, even in the merit-based part of West’s argument, there is an undeniable level of saltiness that extends past the text of Coates’ writing.) Coates seems willing to defend his works, while it feels as if West wants to attack Coates personally. West’s disdain seems palpable. I fully expect West’s next op-ed to begin with a “Hit ’Em Up”-like preamble, “That’s why I ... ”—
You know what? Let’s not go there.
This is not to say that West’s characterization of Coates’ work has no merit. However one feels about former President Barack Obama, West’s contention that it is impossible to separate America’s unique brand of capitalism from white supremacy, thereby making the captain of the vessel—Obama, in this case—complicit in white supremacy, is worthy of examination. West also rightly points out that class, patriarchy and economics are all inextricably interwoven into the ball of yarn that is white supremacy...
~THE ROOT
https://www.theroot.com/from-an-ex-neo-liberal-why-ta-nehisi-coates-keeps-talk-1821429336
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