{"id":1119,"date":"2011-04-08T17:15:29","date_gmt":"2011-04-08T17:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/?p=1119"},"modified":"2012-12-05T17:49:21","modified_gmt":"2012-12-05T17:49:21","slug":"exclusive-cornel-west-and-other-such-political-opportunists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/exclusive-cornel-west-and-other-such-political-opportunists\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Cornel West and other such political opportunists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published in Intrepid Report on\u00a0April 8, 2011<\/a>
\nBy\u00a0Larry Pinkney<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOf all our studies, history is best qualified to reward all research.\u201d\u2014Malcolm X [el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz]<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBeware of the naked man who offers you clothes.”
\n\u2014African Proverb<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The most insidiously dangerous of all systemic gatekeepers are those who\u00a0masquerade<\/em>\u00a0as progressives or so-called leftists but who in reality\u00a0act<\/em>\u00a0as the fifth column for the maintenance of U.S. Empire abroad and internal repression at home.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most egregious example of this can be found in those alleged \u2018progressive\u2019 members of the Black and White \u2018intelligentsia\u2019 who urged the struggling, everyday, Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people of this nation to support the 2008 then U.S. presidential\u00a0candidacy<\/em>\u00a0of the corporate-backed, war mongering, silver tongued Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

Thanks in no small measure to support from black\u00a0systemic gatekeepers<\/em>\u00a0such as Cornel West, Amiri Baraka (aka Leroi Jones), Al Sharpton, and Henry Louis Gates,\u00a0et al<\/em>;<\/em>\u00a0Barack Obama became and was installed as the 44th president of the United States\u2014the first nominally-black\u00a0head<\/em>\u00a0of the U.S. Empire. It is now the year 2011, and the poor and disenfrachised people of all colors in this nation are suffering increased economic austerity, massive joblessness and home foreclosures, the largest incarceration rate in the world, a de facto police state, an extension and expansion of the unconstitutional \u2018PATRIOT Act,\u2019 a continuation of the outrageous \u2018extraordinary rendition\u2019 program, the continuance of the U.S. gulag at Guantanamo, and last but by no means least, the bloody U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and now north Africa.<\/p>\n

The above-mentioned systemic gatekeeping opportunists\u00a0knew full well<\/em>\u00a0by the middle of the year 2008, that Barack Obama was the darling of the blood sucking U.S. corporate\/military elite. Nevertheless, they supported him and\u00a0urged others<\/em>\u00a0to do so.<\/em>\u00a0They shamelessly urged that Obama\u00a0be supported<\/em>\u00a0whether \u201ccritically\u201d or otherwise. Thus, these systemic gatekeepers did all in their power to\u00a0neutralize, ignore, marginalize, or stifle<\/em>\u00a0those, including\u00a0Black Agenda<\/em>\u00a0Report\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0Glen Ford and Bruce Dixon,\u00a0The Black Commentator\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0Larry Pinkney and Dr. Lenore Jean Daniels, and former U.S. Congresswoman and 2008 Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney and her running mate Rosa Clemente\u00a0etc<\/em>.,<\/em>\u00a0who\u00a0for at least four years now<\/em>,<\/em>\u00a0have been repeatedly disseminating the clarion call as to the enormous systemic dangers of supporting the corporate groomed and backed Barack Obama. On the other hand, the systemic political\u00a0opportunists<\/em>,<\/em>\u00a0and most particularly those of the Black and White\u00a0intelligentsia<\/em>\u00a0masquerading as \u2018progressives,\u2019 were\u00a0well aware<\/em>\u00a0of the fact they were urging everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation to go\u00a0against their own<\/em>\u00a0interests<\/em>\u00a0and court economic and political disaster in the person of Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

Early in the year 2008,\u00a0The Black Commentator<\/em>\u00a0published as its cover story a piece titled,\u00a0Barack Obama and the Euphoria of Madness<\/em><\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0which stated in relevant part that, \u201cMany Black Americans and our Brown and Red sisters and brothers, will, I fear, come to be deeply disappointed in Barack Obama, once he\u00a0demonstrates\u00a0<\/em>who he really is. There will be no peace or justice under an Obama presidency, should such come to pass. Even the majority of white Americans, with the exception of the\u00a0corporate<\/em>\u00a0liberals and conservatives, may yet come to realize that Obama\u2019s interests are\u00a0corporate<\/em>\u00a0interests; they are\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0the needs and interests of everyday people, who represent the overwhelming majority of this nation and the world . . . Now, more than ever, is the time to be critical thinkers, not blind followers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of these previously-described political opportunists are still<\/em>\u00a0supporting Obama, while others of them, most notably (Dr.) Cornel West, are now cynically hedging their bets by pretending that they have had an epiphany\u2014only recently becoming cognizant of who and what Obama really is.<\/p>\n

In a nauseating display of\u00a0opportunistic alacrity<\/em>,<\/em>\u00a0Cornel West, while being interviewed by Marina Portnaya of\u00a0Russia Today<\/em>\u00a0television (broadcast on April 4, 2011), had the unmitigated audacity to state that Barack Obama is \u201cbecoming<\/em>\u00a0a pawn of big finance and a puppet of big business,\u201d as if he somehow did not realize\u00a0three years ago<\/em>\u00a0that Barack Obama is a \u201cpuppet\u201d and a \u201cpawn,\u201d and he was even\u00a0then, back in 2008,<\/em>\u00a0an obvious Wall Street, corporate-backed \u201cpuppet\u201d and \u201cpawn!\u201d It was Cornell West himself who was among those \u2018intellectuals\u2019 who\u00a0urged<\/em>\u00a0everyday people to \u201ccritically support<\/em>\u201d Obama, which terminology is, in and of itself, a ridiculous contradiction in terms\u2014something like the phrases\u00a0\u2018military intelligence\u2019\u00a0<\/em>or\u00a0\u2018friendly fire<\/em>.<\/em>\u2019 One does\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0support, \u201ccritically\u201d or otherwise (no matter what his or her color)<\/em>,<\/em>\u00a0a person who is a\u00a0systemic creation<\/em>\u00a0and has node facto<\/em>\u00a0motivation other than personal ambition; and it defies all reason to assume that Dr. West, this pontificating, academically well adorned intellectual, was somehow intrinsically unaware of this.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Cornel West, in this\u00a0Russia Today<\/em>\u00a0interview,\u00a0without so much as\u00a0<\/em>flinching<\/em>,<\/em>\u00a0stated that people in this nation in these years under Obama have been \u201csleep walking.\u201d Yet, Dr. West,\u00a0opportunistically neglected<\/em>\u00a0to point out that he himself is among those who are\u00a0responsible<\/em>\u00a0for what he described as the present \u201csleep walking\u201d state of mind of the \u2018American\u2019 people. He needs to clearly and consistently\u00a0acknowledge his<\/em>\u00a0own role in helping to facilitate and bring about this mental\/political stupor [i.e. \u201csleep walking\u201d], and its concomitant dangers and horrors.<\/p>\n

Finally, Dr. West, when asked to explain his heretofore political support for Obama (which was in addition to that of an inordinate and enormous amount of\u00a0known corporate<\/em>\u00a0financial support) gave the utterly pathetic response that many \u201cordinary people gave him [Obama] money too\u201d as if that justified\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0actions. Dr. West\u2019s response failed<\/em> to mention that the support for Obama from \u201cordinary people\u201d was, in part, due to his (and others of a similar ilk\u2019s) support for the man that he\u00a0now<\/em> conveniently characterizes as having become \u201ca pawn of big finance and a puppet of big business.\u201d What cynical opportunism and manipulation!<\/p>\n

Perhaps, the so-called \u201cradical democratic awakening in the American Empire\u201d to which Cornel West made reference in the\u00a0Russia Today<\/em>\u00a0interview, will include\u00a0an \u201cawakening\u201d to<\/em>\u00a0how persons such as himself sold out the needs, hopes, and dreams of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people nationally and globally. The severe damage that alleged \u201cleaders,\u201d including Cornel West, have done to everyday people of all colors is not negligible and is extremely reprehensible. There is absolutely no excuse for it. Will Dr. West put his finger in the air again to sense which way the political winds are blowing? Is yet another political flip-flop in the making on the part of Dr. West?<\/p>\n

Politically conscious people await Cornel West\u2019s acknowledgement and public self-criticism for his dastardly role in facilitating the \u201csleep walking\u201d and the pimping of the pain of the everyday \u2018American\u2019 people. If there is even any possibility for redemption of, or trust for him,\u00a0he must do this<\/em>.\u00a0He cannot pretend that he has stood\u00a0with<\/em>\u00a0the people all along. He has not.<\/p>\n

Now that Barack Obama has announced that he will run for re-election with his billion dollar campaign war chest, thereby blatantly checkmating any in the Democrat Party who might have envisioned challenging him, it is,\u00a0more so than<\/em> ever before<\/em>,\u00a0incumbent upon everyday people to seek, and creatively build, serious alternatives to the death grip of the corporate Democrat\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0Republican Parties. We must begin at the\u00a0local level<\/em>\u00a0while\u00a0simultaneously<\/em>\u00a0building a\u00a0national everyday people\u2019s network<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As we everyday people struggle to bring about much-needed\u00a0systemic<\/em> change, we must always be aware not only of government actions to neutralize this legitimate struggle, but also of those who masquerade as \u2018progressives\u2019 and\/or leftists but who are really political\u00a0snakes and bandits<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve much work to do. Onward then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!<\/p>\n

Larry Pinkney<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil\/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil\/Lehrer News Hour, and more recently on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones Show. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, San Francisco BayView newspaper, Black Commentator, Intrepid Report, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), 107 Cowgate (Ireland and Scotland), and Mayihlome News (Azania\/South Africa). He is in the archives of Dr. Huey P. Newton (Stanford University, CA), cofounder of the Black Panther Party. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book,\u00a0Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker<\/a>, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to read excerpts from the book.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published in Intrepid Report on\u00a0April 8, 2011<\/a>
By\u00a0Larry Pinkney<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOf all our studies, history is best qualified to reward all research.\u201d\u2014Malcolm X [el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz]<\/p>\n

\u201cBeware of the naked man who offers you clothes.”
\u2014African Proverb<\/p>\n

The most insidiously dangerous of all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1119"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1132,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1119\/revisions\/1132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blackactivistwg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}