Filed under: News
From the Root:
Tempers are flaring as members of the black intelligentsia are getting in on the melee surrounding Dr. Cornel West's controversial comments about President Barack Obama.
You know the slam heard around the world in Chris Hedges' posting on Truthdig earlier this week: "I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men," West said. "It's understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he's always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation. When he meets an independent black brother, it is frightening. And that's true for a white brother." Ouch.
Writer Adam Serwer threw down the gauntlet, lighting into West about his comments, calling them "petty" in a piece written for the American Prospect. Tuesday night, Ed Shultz invited West onto his The Ed Show on MSNBC, enumerating the digs (disguised as quotes, some would argue) that West has made about President Obama, including calling him a "black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats." West also said that the president "now has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it." Ouch again.
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