Huh? You can’t be serious. West may be many things, but he has never aligned himself with the far right. In fact, in the debate mentioned above, he was a constant and vocal critic of Gingrich throughout. And I seriously doubt you’ve read “Race Matters” if the message you received from it was that West blames black culture rather than economic disparity (and, if you did actually read it, I seriously doubt your comprehension of said material)> And did you really just compare one of the foremost scholars of African-American intellectual history to the Uncle Tom character in Django Unchained? Shameful. I know this is supposed to be a website encouraging civil debate, but my mind is reeling from the outright stupidity of your post.

Unfortunately this is not the first time he has aligned himself with Newt Gingrich and the far right, one only needs to read “Race Matters”, in which Mr. West blames black culture rather than economic disparity as the source of urban plight. We’ve heard this argument before, he sounds a little like Mitt Rommey and his 47% remarks. It would serve Mr. West to look at himself through the eyes of Samuel Jackson’s Stephen in Django to get a perspective of who he has become. Mr. West like Travis Smiley, Michael Steele, Alan Keys and the like will not make the history books, our children and grandchildren will never know their names, they will be forgotten tomorrow. The President however, has made history and will be remembered as long as America stands.

Don’t be sorry. Your admission that you see a professional performer doing an act reveals that you might be the one generating cynicism here. I’m one of those people that is blown away by Obama’s overall performance and inaugural address-in that I am surprised by what I see as so much good. However, I do not find West’s on going criticism of the Obama administration as to generate cynicism as you do. I in fact see him as performing the role of a public intellectual quite well. Public intellectuals, as you know are often provocateurs, think Zizek, Baudrillard, Butler or Hitchens. You seem to be dismissing West on this quality alone when you say he is a “professional performer, doing an act”. I see the role of the public intellectual as a highly important role. As for him generating cynicism about a political leader I just don’t see it. Whether you agree with him or not he is among the most cheerful of ‘scientists’.

In terms of “second thoughts” West has been highly critical of Obama’s actions for the past four years concerning a number of things, not so much Obama’s words. His criticism has to do with Obama’s words not matching his actions. Given this the content of Obama’s inaugural speech really doesn’t apply here-at least at this point.

Best,

David

I also found West’s criticism problematic. But I would say
that he’s being intentionally provocative, and not gratuitously so. Remember he
starts off from an emotional premise, and then develops it from there. He said
he was upset by the use of the MLK bible. I see no reason to doubt that he was genuinely upset. Did you ever consider that his provocative presentation and defensive stance, which you seem
to be dismissing as theatrics, are genuine? Much of his academic presentation
style is obviously influenced by his faith and Southern upbringing—for example
referring to people he’s debating with as ‘brother’ or ‘sister’. I find this wonderful and I am perplexed by why it seems to bother you. This background is also undoubtedly related to
his feeling of anger around the use of the MLK bible in the inaugural ceremony—he
actually stated this.

I think the problems with his criticism of the use of the MLK bible are self-evident so I won’t go into that. But a more interesting question might ask instead; what might be useful about such a provocative stance? To me it seems that West is reminding folks on the ‘left’—such as you and
myself— not to let our being enamored with Obama make us complacent or blind us.
He’s trying to use his position as a public intellectual to wake up progressives and allow them to see problems they might not overlook under a conservative president. And West named many of
these problems, wire tapping, drone strikes, poverty ect. Obama is a highly competent politician,
who can take, and I’m sure appreciates, such criticism.

Best,

David Peppas