Cornel West on the Age of Obama
by: Dave Belden on October 28th, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Beautiful commencement address here by Cornel West, at Spelman College in 2009. Just look at the faces of the young women and how inspired they are.
My thanks to Tikkun Daily blogger Be Scofield for this. His own website, God Bless The Whole World, “features hundreds of videos, audio files, articles and courses on social justice, nonviolence, spirituality, activism, counter oppression, environmentalism and self care.”
It’s Be’s birthday today and he serendipitously had a nice present. There’s no bigger name in the blogosphere than Glenn Greenwald. See item three on this post, where Greenwald enthuses about a video of Dr. King that he had not seen (and I certainly hadn’t either) that he thanks Be for. It has led to a flood of hits on Be’s site today. If you don’t know Greenwald’s work, check out his blog and Wikipedia on him:
In March 2009 he was selected, along with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, as the recipient of the first annual Izzy Award by the Park Center for Independent Media, an award named after famed independent journalist I.F. “Izzy” Stone and devoted to rewarding excellence in independent journalism. The selection panel cited Greenwald’s “pathbreaking journalistic courage and persistence in confronting conventional wisdom, official deception and controversial issues.”
And check out God Bless The Whole World.
I wonder whether or not West would have the same view of “The Age Of Obama” if the address was delivered in 2010.
He would say the same thing, today. Don’t underestimate what it means to people of color to have one of their own in office. You can not blame cloture on Obama. The Senate has been unwilling to go where he is leading. Over 80% of his appts languish because Republicans won’t approve them. Can you imagine what that means for the operation of government. The Press has decided that Obama is a failure, that the Democats will lose the House and Senate. Why buy into their manipulation. They are owned by the people who the problem. The Greedy folks who brought you the Stock market/economic crisis. The same folks who wanted NO change in corporate responsibility. Who actually are claiming that pure capitalism will cure the problem and that it’s time fund the stock market with the social security trust fund. No Obama is not the problem. It’s capitalist greed. That is the problem.
Bless you, Jim. Well said.
Oh Cornel, you got me to crying again. Part of the reason is what moved Dave; the smiling faces. If I believed in god, I would thank Her each day for having seen those smiles for many years on 12-years-olds in Baltimore and thereabouts.
And I think I know why our brother said the new leaders and inspirers would be disproportionately Sisters — and disproportionately rainbow-visaged, he hoped.