I have never taken one of Cornel West’s classes or read any of his books. I know him entirely through his frequent appearances on television, where he comes off as extremely funny, insightful in an original way, and maybe just a touch crazy. He has an infectious smile and a joyful, playful manner. It’s hard not take an instant liking to him, and that’s also why it’s easy to gloss over and forgive some of the nuttier things that he says. When it comes to criticizing Obama’s policies, he’s not much different from Jane Hamsher. But when West starts to question the president’s genuine blackness, Jonathan Capehart is right; West is no better than Donald Trump and Newt Gingrich.
The irony is that West has adopted a self-consciously anti-colonial viewpoint that probably jibes quite well with the viewpoint of Obama’s father. In other words, Newt Gingrich criticized the president for having a post-colonial Kenyan point of view and West is criticizing him for not having a post-colonial view. Maybe both West and Trump are behaving like idiots?
West seems to think that the genuinely black point of view is to be opposed to U.S. foreign policy in the Third World. He seems to insist that American blacks show solidarity first with black and brown people around the globe, and only later (if there is any solidarity left over) with their own countrymen. I think West is out of line. It’s fine to be critical of U.S. foreign policy and supportive of people who resist and oppose policies of ours that they find harmful. But to insist that this basically anti-American disposition is a requirement for true blackness is oppressive and unjustified.
Maybe West should consider what it means to be the president of the United States and be basically opposed to U.S. foreign policy at the same time. Changing the arc of our country’s foreign policy isn’t something that can be done overnight.
I could argue with West’s other points about the banks and Wall Street, but I don’t care that West sees no merit in the stabilization of financial markets, or the saving of the auto industry. Plenty of progressive people of all races feel the same way that West feels. That’s a political disagreement (although, one I find increasingly boring). What disturbs me is that West calls the president “deracinated” and contrasts him with “an independent black brother.”
West has valuable things to say and some valid critiques of the president and his team. But he does himself no credit by assigning himself as the referee of authentic blackness. And, maybe he should take it less personally that the president doesn’t return his phone calls.
