Althouse: Why did Cornel West call Obama "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats"?

May 28, 2011

Why did Cornel West call Obama "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats"?

What set him off? Glenn Loury and Joshua Cohen try to figure it out:

36 comments:

Lincolntf said...: I've got it still playing in another tab. Joshua Cohen is a terrible communicator, at least in this format.; 5/28/11, 9:36 AM
traditionalguy said...: I liked Cohen's speaking style. He has the intellectual's stammer down pat. Listeners get rewarded by an artfully chosen word after his hesitations.; 5/28/11, 9:50 AM
David said...: West needed another publicity fix. It beats doing actual research and scholarship.; 5/28/11, 9:58 AM
Mark O said...: There is no such thing as an intellectual stammer. I call bullshit on that. A real intellectual doesn't need that much time to pull up the right word and to "reward" a patient listener.

This is the level to which our educational system has fallen that his crap can be forgiven as "intellectual."; 5/28/11, 10:00 AM
traditionalguy said...: Mark O...Not all of us are as blessed with vocabulary as you. When I see a writer or a speaker trying out words, but editing them with better words as he goes it seems normal to me. Words have a taste like foods, and gourmet taste combinations of the right word beats quick hamburger helper hash.; 5/28/11, 10:11 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Maybe because Cornel West is a one-trick pony and race hustling is his one trick?; 5/28/11, 10:15 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Obama was the first presidential candidate to refuse public funding so that he could collect more money.

He collected $1 billion.

What in the fuck did they think he was?; 5/28/11, 10:15 AM
Tank said...: Because he helped bail out Wall Street, GM, Chrysler and AIG and his administration is a continuing revolving door for Goldman Sachs executives?; 5/28/11, 10:22 AM
Anonymous said...: ""Why did Cornel West call Obama "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats"?"

That's kind of a dumb question.

The better question is even though Barack Obama is nothing more than a leashed pit bull being walked down Wall Street by Goldman Sachs gangsters ... why will 95% of black voters pull the lever for him anyway?

Why are black people so easily led by a charlatan? What is it about black people that's different that cause them to herd this way?; 5/28/11, 10:29 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Why are black people so easily led by a charlatan? What is it about black people that's different that cause them to herd this way?

Two reasons. Number one, I won't discuss. You can go over to Steve Sailer's site, where he discusses it ad nauseum.

Reason Two: Because blacks ask the question whites are forbidden to ask: "What's in it for me?" Blacks don't hesitate to advance their tribal agenda. Neither do gays or that certain kind of woman.

Remember Althouse's posts about the horrors facing Saudi women drivers?

If white men were like blacks, they would tell liberals to fuck off with their ideals and demands for justice, and to instead ask: "What's in it for me?"

As we've discovered in the U.S., there's damned little advantaqge in advancing ideals and justice if you're a white hetero man. I no longer give a fuck.

Ask the question: "What's in it for me?" Blacks do. So do gays and women. White men need to stop being fools.; 5/28/11, 10:38 AM
virgil xenophon said...: Shouting Thomas speak heap big medicine..; 5/28/11, 10:46 AM
edutcher said...: Little Zero is acting white, or, in this, case, doing national security stuff a white Republican would do.

nevadabob said...

"Why did Cornel West call Obama 'a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats'?"

Why are black people so easily led by a charlatan? What is it about black people that's different that cause them to herd this way?

Maybe because the slave mentality is more deeply ingrained in black people, especially those who remain in predominately black communities, than we think.

Ex-slaves were led around by the nose by the carpetbaggers for a couple of generations. Then they jumped over to the Demos starting with the New Deal.

Perhaps once they settle on an ideological "Massa", they follow relatively blindly. We know a black woman who made a point of moving out of a black neighborhood because she didn't want her kids growing up in that kind of group culture that anyone of that race is more trustworthy than anyone else.; 5/28/11, 10:52 AM
Hagar said...: I do not know what or who Obama is fronting for, but one does get the feeling he is fronting for something; that there is something not quite real about him. Things happen around him; he is not leading or causing them to happen. He is just there making dull and platidinous speeches and otherwise voting present.; 5/28/11, 11:03 AM
edutcher said...: PS Disagree with shout. White people do the same thing ("what's in it for me?"), but stupid white people seem to vote Demo.

The ones who want to make money on their own, who don't want to rearrange their lives to Chuckie Schumer's dictates, who don't want twits like Gloria Steinbrenner or Al Sharpton telling them how to live, don't vote Demo.; 5/28/11, 11:10 AM
Phil 314 said...: Cornel West and Gil Scott Heron. Will this minority of the minority who fall in love with socialism/communism never die away?

And how do they manage to get so much attention? Does the rhetoric just resonate too much with so many journalist's campus revolutionary "speaking truth to power" sensibilities?

Will do so few see them as Ralph Ellison saw them, blind.; 5/28/11, 11:15 AM
Phil 314 said...: PS
And the conflict between Cornel West and Barack Obama is good for Obama.

Every politician needs a Sister Souljah.; 5/28/11, 11:16 AM
Anonymous said...: "Because blacks ask the question whites are forbidden to ask: "What's in it for me?"

I hate to be disagreeable, but this just isn't logical. I mean how can this possibly be? How can this be the explanation?

What's in it for black people who vote for Obama is 16% unemployment for black men. Black unemployment rose EVEN when overall unemployment was falling, according to the AFL-CIO.

Under Barack Obama, 35% of blacks now live in abject poverty, according to the Kaiser Institute.

And while blacks make up only 12% of the population, Obama and his mostly-white police force have jailed so many black people that now 40% of all people in jail are black. Only Obama racism explains that statistic.

Obama is scared of the true black man, so he's putting them behind bars.

Blacks can't find jobs, are underpaid when they can find jobs such that they're in poverty or imprisoned when trying to feed their families. That's black life under Barack Obama.

What's in it for them?

An estimated 17% of Latino homeowners and 11% of African-American homeowners have already lost their home to foreclosure or are now at imminent risk of losing their homes - according to the Center for Responsible Lending.

How can black people be voting 95% for this cracker Obama, who allows millions to be paid out to Wall Street executives living the high life.

What's in it for them is jail, poverty, homelessness and abject fucking misery.

I'm thinking maybe black people should hold a separate convention should get together and make an offer to Republicans. Then maybe they'd be taken seriously as a political force.

No, there must be something else causing black people to vote herd-like 95%. It can't be explained by them saying "what's in it for me?" Because there is nothing in it for them.; 5/28/11, 11:22 AM
ricpic said...: Cornel West doesn't have to justify a single word of a single idiot statement he's ever made. When he gets out of bed in the morning he knows that no one dasn't challenge him no matter what he says. And that's all day! It's like he's a...GOD!; 5/28/11, 11:25 AM
William said...: Nat Turner and Toussaint were house slaves, and not in any metaphorical sense either. Slavery is an African institution that dates back four thousand years. The closer an African American remains to his roots, the more likely he is to remain buried and manured. Truths of equality and freedom might, indeed, be self evident, but they only became so several hundred years ago and only among relatively privileged western Europeans.....There is a kind of paradox at the heart of Cornell West. His authenticity is a fabrication of white, Marxist intellectuals, and he is their parrot and mascot.; 5/28/11, 11:34 AM
Anonymous said...: Notice how pained the two Boringheads are to phrase the question as "why" did Cornell West say Barack Obama is a Wall Street Uncle Tom.

They don't even discuss the truth of the matter.

Apparently, it's self-evident and we only need to discuss why West is voicing his criticisms on TV.

The fact of the matter is that Barack Obama isn't an authentic black man. Except for his crack addiction, he's never lived the black experience.

He has no idea what the black man is going through.

Too busy golfing.; 5/28/11, 11:39 AM
Robert Cook said...: Maybe it's because Obama is a ...mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a puppet of corporate plutocrats.

(His skin color is irrelevent and superfluous; he's the President of the United States. It's his fucking job to be a mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a puppet of corporate plutocrats!); 5/28/11, 12:09 PM
Shouting Thomas said...: No, there must be something else causing black people to vote herd-like 95%. It can't be explained by them saying "what's in it for me?" Because there is nothing in it for them.

You forgot to go look at Reason #1 which is explicated ad nauseum in Steve Sailer's site.; 5/28/11, 12:21 PM
Kirk Parker said...: "What set him off?"

Uhhh, being Cornel West? That would sure do it for me...; 5/28/11, 12:35 PM
Anonymous said...: "You forgot to go look at Reason #1 which is explicated ad nauseum in Steve Sailer's site."

I can't discern what his blog is trying to say (other than there is a lot of racism against white people, and there is, but that's a different topic).

Blacks are voting against their interests in statistically impossible numbers. Something explains that. I haven't heard a good explanation for this math. But I'm searching for one.

It is simply not mathematically possible that 95% of ANY GROUP is voting alike.

I have the same question for Jews and hope there are some Jewish Althouse readers here who can help me understand it.

Question: Why do Jews vote for Democrats when Barack Obama wants to force Israel to give Holy Land to Palestinian terrorist murderers?

How can Jews in good conscience vote 78% for a man who by his actions is assisting in pushing Israel into the Red Sea? It's almost like voting for Hitler himself knowing the gas chamber awaits.

I don't get it.; 5/28/11, 12:45 PM
J said...: Google like "Goldman-Sachs, Larry Summers, no public option, extending BushCo tax slashes, BP, Kid Obama, defense spending, hymietown," etc and start over.

Obama may be superior to the likes of Bush-Cheney, Ryantard, Boner-, teabaggers, etc but he's still a caddy ..........to the Oppressor.; 5/28/11, 1:00 PM
Phil 314 said...: J;
he's still a caddy ..........to the Oppressor.

You must be thinking this was the Gil Scott Heron thread.

And besides its not "Oppressor", its

the MAN; 5/28/11, 1:13 PM
Shouting Thomas said...: I can't discern what his blog is trying to say (other than there is a lot of racism against white people, and there is, but that's a different topic).

Blacks on average score about 20 points lower in IQ than whites score on average.; 5/28/11, 1:17 PM
Methadras said...: I think he just wanted to find some way to say oligarchs and plutocrats.; 5/28/11, 1:20 PM
J said...: No, fools, Prof. West does use the word "Oppressor" at times, as well as "plutocrats" and "oligarchs"...but those words are from ancient greek and bit too deep for the Gumphouse anyway.; 5/28/11, 1:24 PM
Anonymous said...: "Blacks on average score about 20 points lower in IQ than whites score on average."

Even if you accept that premise as a fact (for the sake of argument, let's bypass that debate for now) this can't explain mathematically that blacks as a group are voting the same way by a 95%-5% margin.

It's statistically impossible for even stupid people to vote this identically. Even chance error would prevent this. It's mathematically and historically impossible.

There has to be a better explanation that satisfies both the politics and takes into account historic voting patterns worldwide.

For example, if you look at all other issues (such as ballot initiatives or taxes) blacks never sync up their votes like this. Never. Ever. Historically. Since they were given the vote.

20% of EVERY group is pissed off enough to vote against their own group members. This is a statistical mathematical certainty.

Something is very wrong with the black vote count.; 5/28/11, 1:42 PM
Shouting Thomas said...: It's statistically impossible for even stupid people to vote this identically. Even chance error would prevent this. It's mathematically and historically impossible.

Stupidity isn't the issue.

The issues are very complex, as Sailer writes.

I won't even begin to address them, because Sailer has done such a good job. I suggest that you abandon the thought that Sailer is a racist or, even, has a negative view of black people. He doesn't.

His writing on this subject is about the only sensible writing going on.

You'll have to read him at length to understand. Sailer writes about how people differ culturally and racially. This reality is taboo in common conversation.

Black culture has great positives as well as great negatives. But, it is different.; 5/28/11, 1:57 PM
Blue@9 said...: My take is that West is just pissed at the personal slight. Henry Gates got a personal beer summit and West couldn't even get tickets to the inaugural. ("I did favors for the man! And I'm black! He owes me!")

West may have a point that such behavior is illustrative of a deep problem, but it's still kinda crass to use the "He hurt me" narrative as a jumping-off point in a political criticism.

(Can you imagine Hitchens writing "I asked Kissinger to make me a cocktail once, and he refused; it was then I knew he'd be a war criminal."); 5/28/11, 5:13 PM
Paco Wové said...: Stopped clock, twice a day, etc.; 5/28/11, 5:22 PM
Methadras said...: J said...

No, fools, Prof. West does use the word "Oppressor" at times, as well as "plutocrats" and "oligarchs"...but those words are from ancient greek and bit too deep for the Gumphouse anyway.

J shows us again why retards are a protected class. Isn't that right, esse, ak47 boi?; 5/28/11, 7:05 PM
Saint Croix said...: Race is insane. It's a mass delusion. People who talk about race can't even answer simple questions like, "how many races are there?"

How many sexes are there? Two. Sex is definitive. Sex is a biological imperative.

Race is bullshit.

There is culture. There is skin color. There is DNA.

There is no race. Except the human race.

Read the Dr. Seuss book, The Sneetches. Most profound book about race (and race hucksters) ever written.; 5/28/11, 11:01 PM
Eric said...: Maybe because Cornel West is a one-trick pony and race hustling is his one trick?

This. West is upset for the same reason Jackson wanted to "cut [Obama's] nuts out." He's got a good scam going, and Obama is threatening to mess it up. I mean, if a black man can be elected president, who needs Cornel West to interpret everyone's (well, white peoples') actions in light of their unrealized racism? It's not like he's got any actual scholarly output.

If Obama is a "puppet of corporate plutocrats" that could mean white people were manipulated into voting for him by the, um, plutocracy. Then they could still be basically racist and would need West to point it out with new mass-market books and rap albums.; 5/29/11, 12:07 AM