Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and Boyce Watkins: The Treacherous Trio
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The insidious intellectual assault on the Black community posed by Tavis Smiley and Dr. Cornel West seems to have gained the able assistance of Dr. Boyce Watkins of Syracuse University. So ‘The Dangerous Duo’ have now morphed into ‘The Treacherous Trio.’ While I’m always reluctant to base an article on an ad hominous (corruption of ‘ad hominem’) argument, when dealing with the kind of historically treacherous, petulant, hypocritical, and self-righteous delusions of grandeur that these three individuals represent, it’s impossible to avoid - at least, if one is truly intent on aggressively beating back the gross manipulation of the Black community.
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It was no accident that with the announcement that Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry had been given her own show on MSNBC that Cornel West and Boyce Watkins immediately chimed in with an intense campaign of invective and criticism of Dr. Perry. Their behavior was so predictably transparent that it was like deja vu all over again. It’s a classic case of crabs in a barrel. Both their petulant behavior and motivation is inspired by the exact same petty emotions that’s caused them to brutally attack Barack Obama - bitter envy and the fear of being eclipsed in the Black community.
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There is clear evidence of that. Specifically, while Cornel West is renowned for alleging that all he cares about is what’s in the best interest of ‘his people,’ immediately after the announcement of Dr. Perry’s new show on MSNBC he’s been quoted as saying that she’s "a liar and a fraud." How does such an attack on a brilliant young Black woman’s elevation into the public eye benefit ‘his people?’ Doesn't the Black community benefit tremendously from having America exposed to another intelligent Black voice, whether that voice agrees with Cornel West or not? If West truly believed in the utter nonsense that he espouses the answer to that qusetion would go without saying. So why is West trying to undermine her public image? Thus, while West contends that he's supportive of the Black community, his behavior reflects otherwise.
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So whether it’s due to intense envy, sour grapes, or the early onset of senility, West has been repeatedly betraying his carefully crafted persona of the selfless Black intellectual of late. I first began to recognize it on the very day that, then, Sen. Barack Obama threw his hat in the ring to run for President of the United States. West immediately began to criticize Obama's election team, questioned where he was getting his money to run for office, and then he challenged Obama with the question of "How much do you love your people?" That took place before the nation and a grinning Tavis Smiley during Tavis’ ‘State of the Black Union’ broadcast. It appeared to be in direct response to Sen. Obama’s failure to postpone his announcement and appear on the broadcast to kiss Tavis’ ring.
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But West seems to have no shame when it comes to either his own self-interest, or, monitoring which way the wind is blowing, so in spite of the public spectacle that he engaged in on behalf of Tavis Smiley, once it became clear that Obama actually had a chance to win the election, West didn’t hesitate to go on the road to campaign for him.
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But after Obama won the presidency and West failed to receive the goodies that he obviously expected, yet again,West betrayed his image as the selfless Black intellectual - but this time his petulance revealed itself in all of its arrogant, petty, and condescending glory.
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This time West not only criticized the first Black President of the United States as "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats," he then went on to say, "I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men." So not only was West grossly disrespectful of President Obama as president, but then, in the very finest tradition of a common sheet-wearing racist, he publically slandered the president as a Black man as well.
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So if Cornel West’s reckless verbal assault on the President of the United States was not enough to completely discredit him as a public intellectual - or an intellectual of any sort, for that matter - the mere fact that he shot off his mouth without being able to substantiate one syllable of his allegations certainly should have. In addition, his public disrespect for the first Black President of the United States was not only disrespectful of the institution and the president himself, but it was also a disrespectful assault on the Black community as a whole. It seemed to indicate that since Obama was Black, that he didn't warrant the respect of previous white presidents.
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Thereafter, many of West’s colleagues and supporters attempted to justify his behavior by trying to conjure up some higher purpose that his blatantly irresponsible rant was serving. But their hope of restoring some dignity to his image was dashed when it was revealed that the entire episode - a public tirade that will certainly go down in the annals of historic stupidity - came about for no other reason than the fact that Cornel West felt slighted because he failed to receive tickets to the inauguration, and the future President of the United States failed to return his personal phone calls..
Then, if that wasn't petty enough, what was really telling was his attitude toward one of the gentlemen who did manage to get tickets to the inauguration. West was quoted as saying . . . "I couldn’t get a ticket with my mother and my brother. I said this is very strange. We drive into the hotel and the guy who picks up my bags from the hotel has a ticket to the inauguration."
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Now, consider the mindset of this man. What makes West think that he’s more deserving of a ticket than the brother who picks up his bags? I don’t know how West supporters feel about it, but that sounds absolutely nothing like a brother who believes so passionately in human equality that he reportedly gets ten thousand dollars a speech to espouse his point of view. Actually, it sounds more like an irate brat who suffers from an intense sense of superior entitlement.
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So am I surprised by West’s unscholarly attack on Dr. Perry’s good fortune? Not at all. I’ve come to expect it from him. In an Ebony article, A Black Woman’s "Life of the Mind" is Her Own: Melissa Harris Perry, Dr. Kimberly Ellis indicates that in spite of the fact that Dr. Perry was recruited to Princeton by West, when she came up for a full-professorship she was denied, and West was involved in the process. So it would seem that while West has a mantra of publically espousing how much he loves his people, when he’s cloistered from public view within the walls of academia his true character begins to surface, a character that seems to be gradually oozing from beneath the ivy covered walls and into the public domain.
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And if you watch closely, you’ll notice that West’s character and poor judgement is becoming ever more pronounced in his defenders and the people who become publically associated with him. I’ve watched that process taking place in Dr. Boyce Watkins of Syracuse University. In his article, "A Very Bad Reason to Vote for the Democrats," Watkins says, "If you want my vote, you must address my issues…if you’re too busy to address my issues, then I’m too busy to vote for you. PERIOD.".
While that sounds quite reasonable - at least, at first blush - the logical question to ask in response to Watkins' proclamation is, then who does he suggest that we vote for, the GOP lunatics that even the Republican voters don’t want? Or maybe he’s suggesting that we just sit on our hands and let the lunatics vote themselves into office. Either way, that would be absolutely devastating to the Black community.
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Thus, with so-called intellectuals like these, the black community doesn’t need any enemies. So, while I was already a fan of Dr. Perry, even if I'd never heard of her before, once any one of The Treacherous Trio began to criticized her, that alone would have served as a ringing endorsement.
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DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT NATIONWIDE IS ON YOUR SIDE?
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Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.