By: Taren Vaughan
Cornel West criticizes President Obama over his recent speech about Trayvon Martin and compares him to George Zimmerman? President Barack Obama has shown on many occasions throughout his presidency that he is a very compassionate individual, especially when it comes to incidents he feels a direct connection to. The Trayvon Martin case caused many celebrities to become very vocal as they are urging their fans and supporters to join the fight for justice. And President Obama made it clear how the murder of the Florida teen impacted him as he said if he had a son he would look like Trayvon. President Obama spoke about Trayvon again in his recent speech about the trial verdict and said he could have Trayvon Martin 35 years ago. As the vast majority of the African-American community applauded President Obama for his moving speech, there are those who are being very critical of it. And one of those individuals happens to be Dr. Cornel West, who has a reputation for criticizing President Obama. Cornel West did an interview with Democracy Now! and ridiculed President Obama over his recent speech and referred to him as a “Global George Zimmerman.”
Cornel West says:
“Well the first thing we have to acknowledge, President Obama has very little moral authority at this point because we know anybody who tries to rationalize the killing of innocent people is a criminal. George Zimmerman is a criminal. But, President Obama is a global George Zimmerman because he tries to rationalize the killing of innocent children, 221 so far, in the name of self-defense… Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen. So when he comes to talk about the killing of an innocent person, you say, well wait a minute, what kind of moral authority are you bringing?”
While Dr. Cornel West did say he thinks President Obama’s comment “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago” was “beautiful,” he still questions the actions the president’s words could possibly inspire:
“The question is will that identification hide and conceal the fact there’s a criminal justice system in place that has nearly destroyed two generations of very precious, poor black and brown brothers, he hasn’t said a mumbling word until now. Five years in office and can’t say a word about a new Jim Crow.
“And at the same time I think we have to recognize that he has been able to hide and conceal that criminalizing of the black poor as what I call the re-n*ggerizing of the black professional class. You got these black leaders on the Obama plantation, won’t say a criminal word about the master in the big house. Will only try to tame the field folk so that they’re not critical of the master in the big house. That’s why I think even brother [Al] Sharpton is going to be in trouble. Why? Because he has unleashed the rage…The rage is gonna hit up against the stone wall…Will they come through at the federal level for Trayvon Martin? We hope so. Don’t hold your breath…”
Check out the interview below and tell us what you think about Dr. Cornel West’s criticism of President Obama:
Oh STFU. The real reason him and Tavis Smiley are so anti Obama is because he didn’t kiss their a-s like they thought he would!
Ain’t that the damn truth. Smh.
Cosign!!! And he is acting just like a field N*gga…and i sure hate that word! Always talking against your brother at the wrong time. I used to respect him but not recently!!! He need to really sit down somewhere…go write in his Journal or something.
Agree
Again? Sigh…please make it stop.
Right???? This constant criticism of all things black is just making me really tired!
It’s amazing how he didn’t say those things when all the other Dem presidents were in office…hmm…
And this is why black people can’t get it together. This is how we do each other. Smh.
I know the republicans are happy Cornel is doing their job for them.
So my real question is…we still care about what Cornel West says about Obama? I thought we just established he has a hidden agenda and doesn’t deserve the attention.
Some people really just don’t like our president and will find fault with anything he says or does. “sigh”
Even MLK had black critics. I’ve lost a lot of respect for this man.
Why wasn’t Cornel as outraged about what was going on in these other countries before Obama got in office?
So right on that…and why we always have to worry about other countries when we need to clean up our on front door? Charity starts at home…we need to heal this land before we can help anyone else! Stop sending the money over seas and make programs that actually work here! Then we can have the money to actually educate students and not just build more prisons.
Charity starts at home. I completely agree. The issue is that ‘Home’ is a capitalistic society that cares more about profits than about people. Prisons are privatized and publicly traded so it’s imperative for those prisons to make a profit. In order to make a profit they need consumers. Unfortunately those consumers are prisoners. In order to increase profits you need more prisoners. Guess who the prisoner of choice is… Yup. Exactly.
So sad. When we should just be happy Obama had the courage to speak up for Trayvon, some of us are just sitting back criticizing it.
I completely agree
F-ck Cornel West and Tavis Smiley. They are both just jealous they weren’t the black men to become president and inspire all of the little black boys. Hating bastards.
LOL well damn! I like you…
And if anyone ever needed to see what jealousy looks like LOL…
Yeah, I can’t do this today. *walks out post*
Agreed. It’s just too much and is not the time.
Wow. Black people have been crying for years to finally have someone that looked like us in the White House. And when that finally happens, we tear him apart. Man, we got some issues as a people.
This makes me sick. I am over Cornel West. Did he just not get the love he wanted from Obama? Everything seems so personal. Tavis Smiley too.
He’s right though. *ducks and runs out post* lol
True… he’s absolutely correct. However just because you ‘can’ do something doesn’t mean that you ‘should’ do something.
I don’t like or listen or care about anything that Cornel West says because he has a white wife and is not living the life he speech about. He would not have said anything if it was any other president. Cornel West says what blacks need to do but he is living a life that contradict everything he preach about.
I never liked him.
SMH… I was a huge West fan because he’s generally got excellent points. In fact he’s got excellent points on this video. That’s not the issue however, the issue is that he is speaking said thoughts in the wrong forum. Simply put he needs to STFU!