An Open Letter to Cornel West
Brother" West,
Your explanation for your comment that President Obama is a "Rockefeller Republican in blackface" is as lame and disingenuous a cop out as I've ever heard. You claimed that your critics are trivializing your comment by not getting to the core of your assertion, which was President Obama is a "Rockefeller Republican." Then YOU tried to trivialize the significance of the addendum, "in blackface," as though it was meaningless, by saying, "I have a black face, you have a black face, my mother has a black face," etc.
Well, if you know that the phrase "in black face" is going to distract from the core issue, why don't you stick to the core issue and stopping adding such racially offensive language? Could it be for the publicity? I think it is, and your cavalier attitude in this matter speaks volumes. Obviously, you're passionate craving for publicity and promoting the Smiley/West Corporation takes precedence over whether or not you offend the Black community. It seems that your infamous "love for your people" stops at your pocketbook.
You’re not a complete idiot, so you know full well that the addendum to your comment was drenched in racial innuendo, and you've become a serial offender in that regard. You know very well that the phrase, "in blackface," conjures up images of White minstrels portraying Black people by painting their faces jet black, with huge oversized white lips, then running across the stage shouting, "mammy!" So the subtext of your comment was clear - you think President Obama is a White clown beneath a painted blackface. That’s a grossly racist and disrespectful statement to be directed at anyone, and particularly the President of the United States. Who do you think you are!!?
Then just as bad, and just as disrespectful - this time, however, directed at the entire Black community - you have the unmitigated gall to now come on this show, and in your most self-righteous and condescending tone, try to tell Black people who took issue with your comment that they’re just being silly for objecting to your blatantly racist statement. In other words, we’re too stupid to know a racist comment when we hear one.
Cornel, you’re indulging in the exact same kind of racist act of conflation as any vicious, petty, and unrepentant bigot. You know the kind - the ones who go on Fox News and talk about "Welfare Queens," when everybody in the world know they’re actually talking about black women in general; or say, "We’ve got to do something about crime," when they actually mean, it’s time to start brutalize and killing more Black men. Then when they’re confronted with it, just like you, they say, "Ooooh, where did you find that race card? That wasn’t what I meant at all!"
So "brother," you ain’t foolin’ nobody. The depth of your self-serving racist behavior would make Jesse Helms blush . . . MORE
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/12/beneath-spin-eric-l_8.html