The Race Man Speaketh

IT MUST BE NICE to be handed a megaphone through which one can lecture sanctimoniously from atop Mount Olympus, or, in this case, the New York Times. Behold brother Cornel West ― Princeton-philosophe and self-appointed keeper of the MLK flame ― as he holds forth from his Ivory Tower:

The age of Obama has fallen tragically short of fulfilling King’s prophetic legacy. Instead of articulating a radical democratic vision and fighting for homeowners, workers and poor people in the form of mortgage relief, jobs and investment in education, infrastructure and housing, the administration gave us bailouts for banks, record profits for Wall Street and giant budget cuts on the backs of the vulnerable.

King’s response to our crisis can be put in one word: revolution. A revolution in our priorities, a re-evaluation of our values, a reinvigoration of our public life and a fundamental transformation of our way of thinking and living that promotes a transfer of power from oligarchs and plutocrats to everyday people and ordinary citizens. In concrete terms, this means support for progressive politicians ... extensive community and media organizing; civil disobedience; and life and death confrontations with the powers that be. Like King, we need to put on our cemetery clothes and be coffin-ready for the next great democratic battle.

Right. As the Marines in Afghanistan might say, it's time to light this dude up.

Unlike Dr. West, Dr. King was a veritable fountain of wise words. A number of them came to mind as I read West's harangue. One included: "Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." With respect to Barack Obama, brother West is a blind man stumbling through his own self-righteousness. He cannot comprehend that Obama is president of all the United States, not just the downtrodden whom West takes great melodramatic pains to press to his bosom. Nor can West muster any semblance of faith in Obama's clearly honorable intentions. Not yet halfway through this first term, closing the book on Obama's legacy to blacks and America is preposterous. West's implied claim that Mr. Obama is a sellout is frankly reprehensible.

It is true that West's role is to "agitate, agitate, agitate" as Frederick Douglass urged. Constructive, vigorous criticism of Obama is both proper and healthy. But West goes several bridges too far. He speaks absurdly of revolution, of "life and death confrontations" and "cemetery clothes" and being "coffin-ready." These are the ramblings of a pompous, attention-seeking poseur in the grip of a 60s fever dream. For West, Obama is Othello, an egoist Moor whose exalted "Age" is already doomed to Shakespearean tragedy. This is pure rot, of course. The real tragedy is watching the sad unraveling of a brilliant but overrated "race man" whom history has by-passed. It's time someone said it plainly. Dr. King said, "Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness." Brother West should seriously ponder these words. The bells toll for thee.