THE OBAMA LEGACY TO HIS PEOPLE, AND THE COONISM HE HAD TO ENDURE

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

THE OBAMA LEGACY TO HIS PEOPLE,

AND THE COONISM HE HAD TO ENDURE.

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AS WE CELEBRATE THE PROUD LEGACY THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA HAS BESTOWED UPON THE BLACK COMMUNITY, LET US ALSO REMEMBER PEOPLE LIKE TAVIS SMILEY, CORNEL WEST AND OTHERS, WHO TRIED TO DRAG THAT LEGACY THROUGH THE MUD.
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From literally day one, when Barack Obama chose to announce his run for the presidency in front of the Historic Lincoln State House instead of on Tavis Smiley’s "State of the Black Union" show, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West did everything in their power to undermine him. The reason for that is crystal clear, and very, very petty.  They were riding high back then and they thought of themselves as the unelected leaders of the Black community. Was Tavis Smiley the president of Black America?  No he wasn't, but based on the name of his annual show, "State of the Black Union"  he obviously thought he was. On the other hand, very few people really knew Barack Obama. Yes, he was a senator, and as Cornel west pointed out in the video, he was brilliant, charismatic, and rapidly gaining in popularity among the people, but he was relatively new on the scene. That's why in the video below both Tavis, and West, are talking like Obama had some kind of obligation to come on Tavis' show to get their “official blessing” to run for president.  But they had a much bigger problem with this young upstart - he was a direct threat to their Grand Poobah stature in the Black community.  That's why Cornel West launched into his soliloquy on why Obama couldn't be trusted on the very first day that Obama announced his candidacy, and thereafter, Tavis and West started campaigning against him for the hearts and minds of the Black community as though they were running for office themselves. 

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In hindsight their arrogance is nothing short of astounding. Just listen to them in the video.  It’s, literally, arrogance run amok. Cornel hotly complained that, "He [Barack Obama] had a whole YEAR to get ready for this show! So this ain't about us." Who the hell is "us"? They talked like they controlled the Black community, and I truly believe that they thought they did, because  later, when Obama started overshadowing them, they REALLY went off the deep end.  That's when I started researching and writing about them. It’s also when I found out just how petty and self-serving some Black people can be.  Of course, that goes for people in general, but Black people have the most to lose from such stupidity.

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CORNEL WEST ON THE MORNING OBAMA THREW HIS HATE IN THE RING TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN FRONT OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S STATE HOUSE INSTEAD OF ON TAVIS SMILES' SHOW.

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CORNEL WEST AFTER OBAMA ACTUALLY WON

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Black People Don’t Resent Criticism of Obama, But We do Resent Slander, Which is What People Like Tavis Smiley And Cornel West Engage In - To The Direct Benefit of the GOP, The Biggest Enemy Of the Poor and Minority Community In The World.

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BEWARE OF BLACK FRAUDS

Cornel West is the ultimate opportunist. As demonstrated above, he's not only self-serving, arrogant and willing to say whatever he thinks will get him the most attention, but he spews more racist rhetoric than any Republican in America. The reason for that is he’s essentially an entertainer who specializes in shock and race-baiting as his one and only routine.

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Clear evidence of his show business proclivities is that he's over the top in everything that defines him - he's over the top in his personal image, in his overly gesticulative presentation, and his rhetoric is invariably outrageously inflammatory. Everything about him is a contrivance that’s specifically designed to bring attention to himself.

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While he professes to be an intellectual, he actual issues are meaningless to West. They're nothing more than a platform to launch his performances.  The fact is, Cornel West is the Liberace of faux intellectualism, and in this case, he gave his need to be in the spotlight priority over what was in the best interest of the Black community, and the prospects of the first Black man to have a legitimate chance of becoming President of the United States.
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Nearly every public pronouncement that spews from the mouth of Cornel West is literally dripping with racial innuendo. That's because it gets him attention. One of his latest racist slanders is that MSNBC is the ‘Rent a Negro’ network. West has also said the following at one time or another:
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1). President Obama is "a war criminal."
2). President Obama is "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs . . ."
3). President Obama is "a black puppet of corporate plutocrats."
4). President Obama is "a Rockefeller Republican in Blackface."
5). President Obama "has a certain rootlessness, a deracination."
6). President Obama Is "Afraid Of Free Black Men."
7). President Obama is "a global George Zimmerman."
8). Dr. Harris-Perry is "a fake and a fraud"
9). Dr. Michael Eric Dyson "is a sellout."
10). Al Sharpton "is a sellout."
11). MSNBC is the "Rent a Negro Network."

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And if that’s not enough, he was also  quoted as calling the first Black President of the United States “a shell of a man.” Yet, when comedian Steve Harvey called he and Tavis Smiley Uncle Toms, West said, "When you are trying to talk about issues that affect the people, name calling gets in the way. Name-calling is nothing but another weapon of mass distraction." So it seems that name-calling is only objectionable when it’s directed at him. Such unmitigated hypocrisy is mind boggling - but for once, he’s right. Not one of the above assertions is a disciplined, constructive, or scholarly assessment of the facts. On the contrary, they're the reckless and intellectually undisciplined rants of a bitter, self-serving, and severely discredited academic fraud.
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For Cornel West, there’s something ‘racially defective’ about every Black person who has the audacity to preempt Cornel West from the limelight. He also has a propensity for trying to denigrate the character of people whose been in the trenches for years, while West, himself, has done absolutely nothing beyond running his mouth. In order to gain clear evidence of that fact one simply has to ask oneself, what efforts have West made to try to improve the plight of the Black community?
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1). Is he in the community teaching 3rd grade to help ensure a better education for our children, or teaching at an Historically Black College or University to help "enlighten" young Black students?
No. He’s never taught at a school that more than 1% of Black students can even afford to have lunch in throughout his entire career. He’d rather gain props for teaching the children of the economic elites, who he CLAIMS, is the enemy, whenever he MANAGES to do a "Drive-by" in the hood.
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2). Is he in the community teaching our young men to cherish, honor, and respect our Black women - the very womb of our culture?  No. He’s out trying to sell books filled with inane and misleading information, doing $30,000 an hour speeches, and trying to become a hip hop star.
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3). Is he advising his good friend and business partner, Tavis Smiley, to be consistent with his sermons about being "accountable" to the community, and returning the money that he made on the Wells Fargo "Ghetto Scam" loans that he helped to herd over 30,000 poor minorities into? Or is he out getting arrested in support of the Black Friday Demonstrations against Wal-Mart, the most prolific abuser of poor workers in the world?  Nope, not a peep.
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The same is true of West's former puppeteer, Tavis Smiley. He could go all over the country in a bus criticizing President Obama on his Walmart sponsored "Poverty Tour," and find the time to go "Dance With The Stars," yet, he couldn't spare even one second of his time to walk down the street from his office to support the demonstrations by Walmart employees.  But of course, Walmart sponsors Tavis' television show, which speaks directly to Cornel's question in the video, "Where's your money coming from?"  But Cornel didn't seem to have a problem with that.  So nope, we didn't hear a word from "The Accountables" on this issue.  All we heard from Smiley and West regarding Walmart's abuse of poor workers were crickets.
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So what West, Smiley, and their ilk actually see coming from the community regarding their criticism of President Obama is Black outrage over their indulging in the crabs-in-a-barrel tradition that was inbred in us as slaves. Black people recognize that many of President Obama’s Black critics, including Cornel West, aren’t really interested in policy, they’re just using public policy as a pretext for attacking the President himself, and they’re so steeped in their Willie Lynch mentality that they either don’t realize, or don’t care that they’re doing a grave disservice not only to the African-American community, but to Black people all over the world.
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NOBEL PRIZE WINNER AND FORMER
OBAMA CRITIC

Because the fact is, many of Obama’s White conservative critics aren’t really interested in policy either. Like Obama’s Black critics, they have an ulterior motive as well, but their motive has nothing to do with crabs-in-a-barrel. Their primary motive is defending their claim of White superiority - and President Obama, in his soft-spoken and laid-back way, is dragging that claim through the mud. That’s why racists and conservatives hate him so.
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Conservatives recognize, as we all should - and especially Black people - that President Obama was not just another president. President Obama was the most high-profile symbol of Black competence in the world. In addition, what he has accomplished is the perfect equivalent of a conquered slave rising to become the emperor of Rome - and, one of its greatest emperors. So Barack Obama is going to be remembered by posterity as one of the greatest men in ALL of human history, and his story will be inspiring Black children a thousand years from now.
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Racists and conservatives recognize that fact, so naturally, they’re desperate to tear down Barack Obama’s image, and build up the image of criminals like Ronald Wilson Reagan, and there is no excuse for Black idiots like Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and Boyce Watkins not to recognize that fact. That’s what makes them so despicable. Instead of trying to help racists tear down this Black icon, they should be offering RESPECTFUL suggestions in an attempt to ENSURE that Barack Obama is remembered as one of the greatest Presidents that this nation has ever had, even if they have to drag him up Mt. Rushmore kicking and screaming. But instead, they’re allowing themselves to be pointed to by racists who are claiming, "See, even Black people know he doesn’t live up to the standard of White presidents."
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Thus, people like Smiley and West are giving their own egos, self-service, and their Willie Lynch-inspired need to tear-down a Black historic icon priority over Black history, and the role that history is going to play in helping to raise the self-concept of the Black culture. In short, they’re sabotaging the self-esteem of Black children who are yet unborn. The mere thought of that kind of ignorant selfishness is absolutely disgusting - and especially when clothed in faux scholarship.
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So Cornel West and the others like him are not Black leaders, they’re clueless Black cultural afflictions, and if I wanted to take even more time I could methodically take apart every argument that they've put forward against President Obama (maybe I'll do it in a book).
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About Drones

When Tavis Smiley and Cornel West began to lose the confidence of the Black community, they tried to broaden their constituency by refocusing their criticism of President Obama from poverty to the war in Afghanistan. Time.com reported West as saying in 2012 that he didn’t vote. "I couldn’t vote for a war criminal," he said, calling Obama’s administration a "drone presidency."
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While I don't like killing machines either, I've had to take into account the fact that Obama was charged with the responsibility of seeing to it that Al Qaeda, ISIS, or any other terrorist group was prevented from getting their hands on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal - and let us not forget that they located Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan living, casually, and comfortably, within the shadow of that arsenal. So while West would have us believe that Obama was in Afghanistan just killing people for the hell of it, or for the oil companies, that’s a myth. He was trying to make sure that YOUR family wasn't blown up by angry religious fanatics who think that God will bless them if they blow up "The Great Satin" - the United States.
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So while war, and killing, is an ugly business, it is very much a reality in the world we live in. So as I see it, if we have to lob missiles into an area filled with innocent people - since hiding behind human shields seems to be the terrorists' preferred mode of defense - the drone is a far better alternative than firing missiles blindly into a populated area of women and children.
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Consider this. If you were an Afghan and lived next door to a terrorist, would you want to have someone blindly firing missiles in your direction, possibly taking out your home and family, or maybe even the entire town just to get one man, or would you rather they sent in drones with television cameras where they can specifically target the person they’re after? One drone pilot said that they even wait for the target’s family to leave the house before they fire a missile to take out the target.  Drones also prevent us from having to put American troops in harm's way.  So the fact is, if you have to go to war, drones actually SAVE lives.
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POVERTY IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY

These  same so-called intellectuals also complained that President Obama didn't do enough about poverty in the Black community.  But as alleged "educated" men, they should all realize that Obama was merely President Obama, not King Obama. The United States Constitution is very specific in giving SOLE power over spending to the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans (that’s why they could refuse to pay the light bill and shutdown the government). So President Obama couldn't do a damn thing for Black people without getting the Republicans to go along with him. That’s why he had to slip Black people everything on the down-low, because if the GOP knew it was for us, they'd dig-in, and if Obama went to war with them over the issue they would have prevented him from doing anything for ANYBODY, and as President of ALL the people, he couldn't allow that to happen, so he had to wrap Black interests in with the interests of ALL the people.
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In addition, as a thinking man (unlike many of his critics), Obama realized that he had to also consider the precedents he set. If he had grandstanded like many of his critics suggested, and say, "This is what I'm going to do for Black people," today Donald Trump could say, "This is what I'm going to do for White people" - and he'd justify it by calling it "The Obama Doctrine." Thus, Barack Obama was simply being President of the United States, not Santa Claus, and Black people shouldn't have been led to expect any more, or any less
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So Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, and all the others who share their backward-thinking proclivities, need to use some of their alleged brain power to think, instead of burning it up trying to maintain their image and attempting to hide their true motivations for attacking this President. I didn’t hear them saying a damn thing when Bush was in office, so they can try to clothe their true motivations in a tux, but it still has the funky smell of Willie Lynch all over it.

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 CONGRATULATIONS, MR. PRESIDENT,
FOR A JOB WELL DONE, AND WITH VERY
LITTLE HELP.
THANK YOU, BROTHER.

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Tavis Smiley and Cornel West Ducked The Walmart Demonstrations . . . AGAIN!!!
But Of Course, Even Though Walmart is Right Down The Street From His Office, It's Also Tavis' Sponsor.
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Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

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What President Obama Represents - One Of The Greatest Presidents America Has Ever Had

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

What President Obama Represents - One Of The Greatest Presidents America Has Ever Had

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FORMER OBAMA CRITIC AND 
NOBEL PRIZE WINNING ECONOMIST

I get so tired of hearing Black Obama critics claiming that the Black community only supports President Obama because he's Black that if I hear it one more time, the person who says it better do it online, because if he says it in my face, I'm gonna throw up all over 'em. So, although I've said many of the things I'm about to say as a part of previous articles, I think they're worth repeating in an article of their own. I'm utilizing a lesson I learned from Fox News - repetition is the key to getting through to the people. So I figured, if they can get lies across through repetition, certainly I should be able to get across the truth.
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With that said, of course Black people support President Obama because he's Black. Do you really expect us to apologize for that?  We'd have to be idiots not to.  But that's only one reason we support him; the other is, he just happens to be one of the greatest presidents this country has EVER had, and he's carrying our banner high. He's dragging the racist myth that Black people are inferior through the mud, and he's taking that mud and pushing their ignorant little racist faces in it - and without once losing his congenial demeanor. So yes, Black people support President Obama, and if you're Black, and you don't, you're a fool.
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Another myth is that Black resent any criticism of Obama. That's a gross corruption of the truth. Black people don't resent criticism of President Obama -  he should be held to the very same standard as any other president - but we do resent slander, and that is EXACTLY what many of his Black critics engage in - and to the great benefit and delight of the GOP, the world's most dedicated enemy of the poor and minority community.
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Thus, what people like Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, Boyce Watkins, and others of their ilk actually see coming from the Black community is Black outrage over their indulging in the crabs-in-a-barrel mentality that was inbred into them as slaves.  insightful and forward-thinking Black people also resent their mindset, which is identical to the mindset of White racists.  It's a mindset that says, "President Obama was uppity to even think he could become  President of the United States in the first place, and after stumbling into office through some sort of circumvention of natural selection and the will of God, he's indulging in the height of arrogance to even assume he's actually qualified to do 'a White man's' job.  So by definition, he's not one of us.  He's sold out.  He's a Black man who doesn't know his place, so he can't be trusted."  It's a classic example of a Willie Lynch-inspired  mentality.
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So most Black people recognize that many of these people are not really interested in policy; they’re just using public policy as a pretext for attacking the President himself, and they’re so steeped in their Willie Lynch mentality that they either don’t realize, or don’t care, that they’re doing a grave disservice not only to the African-American community, but to Black people all over the world.
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Because Black people also recognize that many of Obama’s White conservative critics aren’t really interested in public policy either.  Much Like Obama’s Black critics, they have an ulterior motive as well, but their motive has nothing to do with Willie Lynch. Their primary motive is defending their claim of White superiority, and again, President Obama, in his soft-spoken and laid-back way, is dragging that myth through the mud. That’s why racists and conservatives hate him so.
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Conservatives recognize, as we all should - and especially these so-called Black "intellectuals" - that President Obama is not just another president.  President Obama is the most high-profile symbol of Black competence in the world. In addition, what he has accomplished is the perfect equivalent of a conquered slave rising to become the emperor of Rome - and, one of Rome's greatest emperors.  So Barack Obama is going to be remembered by posterity as one of the greatest men in ALL of human history, and his story will be inspiring Black children a thousand years from now.
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Racists and conservatives recognize that fact, so naturally, they’re desperate to tear down Barack Obama’s image and build up the image of criminals like Ronald Wilson Reagan, and there is no excuse for Black idiots like Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and Boyce Watkins not to recognize that fact. That’s what makes them so detestable. Instead of trying to help racists tear down this Black icon, they should be offering RESPECTFUL suggestions in an attempt to ensure that Barack Obama is remembered as one of the greatest Presidents that this nation has ever had, even if they have to drag him up Mt. Rushmore kicking and screaming.  But instead, they’re allowing themselves to be used by racists who are claiming, "See, even Black people know he doesn’t live up to the standard of White presidents."
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Thus, people like Smiley and West are giving their own egos, self-service, and their Willie Lynch-inspired need to tear-down a Black historic icon priority over Black history, and the role that history is going to play in helping to raise the self-concept of the Black culture.  In short, they’re trying to sabotage the self-esteem of Black children who are yet unborn. The mere thought of that kind of ignorant selfishness is absolutely disgusting - and especially when clothed in faux scholarship.
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So Cornel West and the others like him are not Black leaders, they’re clueless Black cultural afflictions, and if I wanted to take even more time (maybe I'll do it in a book), I could methodically take apart every argument that they've put forward against President Obama. But the short version is, there are some things we have to do for ourselves - and with good reason.
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As alleged "educated" men, they should all realize that Obama is merely President Obama, not King Obama.  The United States Constitution is very specific in giving SOLE power over spending to the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans (that’s why they could refuse to pay the light bill and shutdown the government). So President Obama can’t do a damn thing for Black people without getting the Republicans to go along with him. That’s why he has to slip the Black community everything on the down-low, because if the GOP knows an initiative is designed to help struggling minorities they’re going to dig-in, and if Obama goes to war against them over the issue, they're not going to allow him to do anything for ANYBODY, and as President of ALL the people, he can't allow that to happen, so he has to wrap Black interests in the interest of ALL the people.
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In addition, as a thinking man (unlike many of them), Obama realizes that he has to take precedent into account.  If he grandstands like many of these brain-children suggest, and say, "This is what I'm going to do for Black people," what are they going to do when the next White president says, "This is what I'm going to do for White people?" - and he'll justify it by calling it "The Obama Doctrine."
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So Cornel West, Tavis Smiley - and also you others who share their backward-thinking proclivities - you need to use some of that alleged brain power to think instead of burning it up trying to maintain your image, or attempting to hide your true motivations for attacking this President. I didn’t hear you saying a damn thing when Bush was in office. So you're not fooling anyone.  You're just making damn fools of yourselves.  While you can try to clothe your true motivations in the tux of faux scholarship,  it's a tux that reeks of the funky smell of Willie Lynch all over it.

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LET THERE BE NO DOUBT ABOUT IT, 

WILLIE LYNCH IS LIVE AND WELL 

IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY

*
What Has Obama Done For The Poor And Middle Class?
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-has-obama-done-for-poor-and-middle.html
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Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

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.

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Dr. Cornel West And The Art Of Intellectual Rice Cake (Revision)

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

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Dr. Cornel West And The Art Of Intellectual Rice Cake
(Revision)

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I thought I was done discussing the illustrious Dr. Cornel West, but he just won’t seem to go away. But that’s ok, because he’s serving a useful purpose. The Cornel West saga has served to open the eyes of many in the Black community to the petty, self-serving agenda of many of the so-called Black intellectuals, and none too soon. The time is way past due for the Black community to wake up to the fact that the only intellect that they can truly depend on is their own.
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But once again Dr. Boyce Watkins and many other Black scholars are running to the defense of Cornel West, trying their best to defend the indefensible. The question is why? Is it really a matter of principle or are they actually trying to defend their stature in the Black community? Are their efforts actually an attempt to cover up the fact that many within their ranks are absolute idiots? If the latter is the case, they might as well give up because, thanks to Cornel West, the cat is out of the bag, and I'm loving it.
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Yes, Boyce Watkins has written yet another article in defense of Cornel West for Your Black World - “Dr. Boyce: Tom Joyner’s Tasteless Assault on Tavis Smiley and Cornel West.” As the title suggests, Watkins still doesn’t seem to understand that there is no difference between an ad hominem attack on the character of President Obama, and the same kind of attack on Cornel West. He seems to take the position that an attack on the character of the president is a “critique,” while an attack on the character of Cornel West is grossly unconscionable.  Go figure it.
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As a columnist I’ve become accustomed to seeing that kind of convoluted thinking, so I simply use it as grist for my mill, but what concerns me are those who rely on the efficient thought of the scholars who engage in it. After all, if you look up to those who constantly engage in inefficient thinking, you’re going to become a flawed thinker yourself, and that’s a big problem, not only in the Black community, but in America as a whole.
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Here’s an example. One responder to Dr. Watkins’ article said the following:
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“Dr. Cornel West is easily twice as intelligent as Tom Joiner (sic). In fact Dr. West is a genius and Mr. Joiner realizes this.”
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What evidence does the writer have to substantiate that statement? Absolutely none. Like many of us, the writer is confusing literacy with intellect.  Intelligence is the capacity to assess and creatively manipulate information that literates merely regurgitate.  Thus, all the writer could possibly know with respect to the relative intelligence of West and Joyner is West's propensity to regurgitate.  He knows absolutely nothing regarding Joyner's ability to assess and process that information. So the writer's thinking is flawed, just like the people he apparently relies upon for his information.
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The writer's simply another victim of Cornel West’s corporate sponsors. As I’ve mentioned before, Cornel West is a Harvard-anointed preacher - period. So the writer is only assuming that Cornel West is more intelligent than Tom Joyner because West has been given the accoutrements of alleged knowledge, wisdom, and intellect that the puppeteers confer upon the people they handpick for us to listen to.
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Even as Cornel West runs around ranting about the corporate “oligarchs and plutocrats” he’s wallowing in the benefits and privilege that those very same people have bestowed upon him. Clear evidence of that is West’s outrage at not being given preferential treatment for inaugural tickets over the guy who “carried my bags.” In spite of all of West's many claims of being a man of the people, he clearly betrayed an arrogant sense of entitlement and superiority over the working class.
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His defenders try to fluff that off as an inappropriate slip of the tongue, but it’s much more than that. What they’re characterizing as a slip of the tongue actually represents a rare, if not unprecedented, opportunity to see the innermost thoughts of a demagogue. West's remarks clearly revealed that he thinks he’s above the average working-class American - Black or White.
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The reason that West feels so entitled is because he plays his role so well. The corporate manipulators need people like West. All of his rantings give the people a sense that help is just over the horizon. That “keeps hope alive,” and thus, the people from rebelling in the street. So people like Tavis, West, and a lot of others who we think we can depend upon play an indispensable role in our subjugation.
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In order for the manipulators to control our minds and behavior they create symbols that tell us who’s been certified for us to listen to. Then, in order for us to clearly identify who’s been anointed, they give them robes, uniforms, badges, and titles that either look or sound impressive. If it weren’t for those symbols we wouldn’t know the "anointed ones" from any other fool running off at the mouth. My son is a federal agent, and I'm sure that when he walks up to people and pulls out his credentials it scares them to death. But to me he's still that little boy who used to come cuddle up next to me at night because he was afraid of the dark.  Think about it. How much reverence would you bestow upon a judge who was sitting behind the bench in a jogging suite?
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So I suggest that people really start listening to Cornel West. I’ve been doing it every since he betrayed his ignorance by allowing Tavis Smiley to stick his hand in his back and sit him on his knee. A truly intelligent man wouldn’t allow that to happen, because he’d understand the value of integrity and independent thought - and he especially wouldn’t allow someone like Tavis Smiley to control him, because from what I see, Tavis is far from an intellectual giant.
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I specialize in the use of words myself, so I have a pretty good understanding of their power, meaning, and the way they can be manipulated to mislead. So when I started listening to Cornel West intently, it immediately became clear to me that he specializes in stringing a lot of impressive sounding phrases together that don’t mean a thing. It takes West twenty minutes to say what any reasonably intelligent person can say in one short sentence.
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The reason for that is, West’s primary intent is not to inform but to mislead less than critical thinkers into thinking that he’s saying something significant. He uses a lot of convoluted phrases and multisyllabic terms that never resolve into a cogent thought. He uses that technique so people who are unsophisticated in the use of words are so impressed by the sound of the words that they don’t realize that he’s using them to camouflage the fact that he’s not saying nothing. He specializes in quoting dead White men, and never thinks for himself - and the fact that he's so reverent of dead White men speaks volumes about who he really thinks is significant in life.
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So Cornel West can't be taken seriously. He uses whatever subject matter he's SUPPOSE to be discussing as a pretext to promote Cornel West. He's a name dropper and regurgitator. His primary motive is never to actually make a point, but to try to impress the listener with how well read he is. The subject can be about tooth decay and he'll find a way to mention everybody from John Coltrane to Aristotle in making his pointless point. His dialogue goes something like this - at least, this is the way he sounds to me:
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"Whenever the subject of tooth decay comes up, the soaring eloquence of the illustrious John Coltrane always comes to mind. Trane's horn tended to be the very antithesis of poor dental health. If you want to prevent tooth decay, you've got to have the very same level of respect for your teeth as John Coltrane had for his tenor saxophone when he, and McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on Bass, and Elvin Jones on drums played 'A Love Supreme' in 1965 for Impulse Records. In addition, Chaka Khan and Whitney Houston, BOTH said, 'I'm Every Woman,' and Socrates said, 'The only true knowledge is to know that you know nothing.' And while Ray Charles had Georgia on his mind, B.B. King followed up by saying, 'The thrill is gone' - and they ALL had teeth."
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And speaking of John Coltrane, when I listen to Cornel West, he reminds me of when I was a young musician. We all loved Trane because his mind was so quick. He strung so many musical ideas together, and so fast, that his music was extremely busy. That’s why so many of us used to try to emulate him. I got to be very good at it, so the guys on the block who loved jazz, but had little or no formal musical training, thought I was a young genius. But what they didn’t understand was there was a huge, and very significant, difference between John Coltrane and myself - Trane was actually saying something, while I was just making a lot of noise.
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That’s Cornel West - the wooly hair, the shaggy beard, the over-the-top, super-cool demeanor - it’s all affectation. He wants us to think that he’s so deeply avant-garde in his thinking that he’s hard to understand - that he’s the Ornette Colman of academia. But the fact is, he’s just a brother who makes a lot of noise and takes a very long time to say very little.
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Listening to West is like eating rice cake – you can feel it in your mouth so you know you’re chewing something, but it has absolutely no taste or substance. You might as well eat the box that it came in.  And the fact that so many other so-called intellectuals can’t seem to see that renders them equally suspect.
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So I strongly suggest that before people go running headlong into this corporate-sponsored mind control that they stop and ask themselves one very simple question: Can I think of any memorable concept or phrase of any significance that originated with Cornel West in his more than thirty-five or so years of public exposure?
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Take your time and give it some thought.

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Pseudo-intellectual: One who imparts common knowledge like he's telling you something new.
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ONCE AGAIN NADER AND WEST TEAM TO ELECT A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT
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Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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.

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Tavis Smiley and Cornel West Ducked The Walmart Demonstrations . . . AGAIN!!!

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Tavis Smiley and Cornel West Ducked The Walmart Demonstrations . . . AGAIN!!!?
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 *

Don’t You Worry, Baby. You’ll Eat TONIGHT, Because Help Is On The Way!!!
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As we speak I bet WalMart is shakin’ in their boots, because Tavis (Poverty Tour) Smiley, and Cornel ("I come to go to jail!") West is on their way to read WalMart the RIOT ACT this year!!!
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What? They didn’t show!!!? AGAIN!!!? For the THIRD year in a row, and they didn’t even send a postcard of support!!!?
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WELL, I GUESS THAT JUST ABOUT SAYS IT ALL ABOUT THOSE TWO.

It’s like my mother used to say - "Pay no attention to what people SAY, just watch what they DO."
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THOSE TWO BEING SPONSORED BY WALMART IS LIKE MARTIN LUTHER KING BEING SPONSORED BY THE KLAN.

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POVERTY PIMPS AND BLACK SUFFERING

The reason that I ride Tavis Smiley and Cornel West so relentlessly is because they are the quintessential poverty pimps. As shown above, they're not interested in the plight of the poor at all; they simply USE the poor to feather their own nests. The fact is, the more misery that the poor are forced to endure, the more notoriety and money they make selling books, holding seminars, and doing $30,000 an hour speaking engagements. So people like Smiley and West are not an asset to the poor and minority community, they're an affliction upon it.
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Many Black people have bought into a philosophy that was introduced into our thinking by poverty pimps in the sixties. They’ve convinced many Black people that we are impotent and can't do anything for ourselves. I know many people who suffer from that malady. Poverty Pimps introduced that into our thinking so we would feel that we needed to hire them to the very lucrative job of Black Ambassador to the ‘White Man’ (the White establishment). That's been big business every since Martin and Malcolm died.
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What we need to recognize as Black people is that we don’t need one voice speaking for millions, we need millions speaking with one voice; and we don’t need one brain thinking for millions, we need millions of brains thinking in concert. Black people also need to RE-LEARN that the only thing we need from the White man is for him to stay the hell out of our way.
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Yes, we want our piece of America's pie, but whinin' ain't the way to get it. The only way that we're EVER going to obtain justice, dignity, and all of the other things that we are due in this world, is to become strong enough to demand it, and competent enough to hold on to it. The Black community will NEVER be fully viable, until we embrace that clear and simple reality.
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So we need to stop talking about what we CAN'T do, and start thinking about what we CAN do - and we can do any damn thing we decide upon.

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A MESSAGE TO TAVIS SMILEY, CORNEL WEST AND THE VARIOUS OTHER ‘WILLIE LYNCHERS’

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Black People Don’t Resent Criticism of Obama, But We do Resent Slander - Which is What These People Engage In, To The Direct Benefit of the GOP, The Biggest Enemy In The World To the Poor and Minority Community

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Cornel West spews more racist rhetoric than any Republican in America. The reason for that is he’s essentially an entertainer who specializes in shock and race-baiting as his one and only routine. Clear evidence of that is he's over the top in everything that defines him - he's over the top in his personal image, in his overly gesticulative presentation, and his rhetoric is invariably inflammatory. Everything about him is a contrivance that’s specifically designed to bring attention to himself. The actual issues are meaningless to him. They're nothing more than a platform to launch his performance. In short, Cornel West is the Liberace of faux intellectualism.

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Have you ever noticed that nearly every public pronouncement that spews from the mouth of Cornel West is literally dripping with racial innuendo? One of his latest racist slanders is that MSNBC is the ‘Rent a Negro’ network. West has said at various times the following:

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1). President Obama is "a war criminal."

2). President Obama is "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs . . ."

3). President Obama is "a black puppet of corporate plutocrats."

4). President Obama is "a Rockefeller Republican in Blackface."

5). President Obama "has a certain rootlessness, a deracination."

6). President Obama Is "Afraid Of Free Black Men."

7). President Obama is "a global George Zimmerman."

8). Dr. Harris-Perry is "a fake and a fraud"

9). Dr. Michael Eric Dyson "is a sellout."

10). Al Sharpton "is a sellout."

11). MSNBC is the "Rent a Negro Network."
12). And if that’s not enough, now he’s quoted as calling the first Black President of the United States “a shell of a man.”

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Yet, when comedian Steve Harvey called him an Uncle Tom, he said, "When you are trying to talk about issues that affect the people, name calling gets in the way. Name-calling is nothing but another weapon of mass distraction."

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So name-calling is only objectionable when it’s directed at him. Such unmitigated hypocrisy is mind boggling - but for once, he’s right. Not one of the above assertions is a disciplined, constructive, or scholarly assessment of the facts. On the contrary, they're the reckless and intellectually undisciplined rants of a bitter, self-serving, and severely discredited academic fraud.

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For Cornel West, there’s something ‘racially defective’ about every Black person who has the audacity to preempt Cornel West from the limelight. West has a propensity for trying to denigrate the character of people whose been in the trenches for years, while West, himself, has done absolutely nothing beyond running his mouth. In order to gain clear evidence of that fact one simply has to ask oneself, what efforts have West made to try to improve the plight of the Black community?
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1). Is he in the community teaching 3^rd grade to help ensure a better education for our children, or teaching at an Historically Black College or University to help "enlighten" young Black students?

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No. He’s never taught at a school that more than 1% of Black students can even afford to have lunch in throughout his entire career. He’d rather gain props for teaching the children of the economic elites, who he CLAIMS, is the enemy, whenever he MANAGES to do a

"Drive-by" in the hood.

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2). Is he in the community teaching our young men to cherish, honor, and respect our Black women - the very womb of our culture?

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No. He’s out trying to sell books filled with inane and misleading information, doing $30,000 an hour speeches, and trying to become a hip hop star.

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3). Is he advising his good friend and business partner, Tavis Smiley, to be consistent with his sermons by being "accountable" to the community, and returning the money that he made on the Wells Fargo "Ghetto Scam" loans that he helped to herd over 30,000 poor minorities into?  Or is he out getting arrested in support of the Black Friday Demonstrations against Wal-Mart, the most prolific abuser of poor workers in the world?
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Nope, not a peep.

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The same is true of West's former puppeteer, Tavis Smiley. He can go all over the country in a bus criticizing President Obama in his Wal-Mart sponsored "Poverty Tour," and find the time to go "Dance With The Stars," but couldn't spare even a second of his time to walk down the street from his office to support the demonstration by Wal-Mart employees?

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Nope, all we've heard from Smiley regarding Wal-Mart abuse of  poor workers is crickets

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So what West, Smiley, and their ilk actually see coming from the community regarding their criticism of President Obama is Black outrage over their indulging in the crabs-in-a-barrel tradition that was inbred in us as slaves. Black people recognize that many of President Obama’s Black critics, including Cornel West, aren’t really interested in policy; they’re just using public policy as a pretext for attacking the President himself, and they’re so steeped in their Willie Lynch mentality that they either don’t realize, or don’t care that they’re doing a grave disservice not only to the African-American community, but to Black people all over the world.

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Because the fact is, many of Obama’s White conservative critics aren’t really interested in policy either. Like Obama’s Black critics, they have an ulterior motive as well, but their motive has nothing to do with crabs-in-a-barrel. Their primary motive is defending their claim of White superiority, and President Obama, in his soft-spoken, laid-back way, is dragging that claim through the mud. That’s why racists and conservatives hate him so.

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Conservatives recognize, as we all should - and especially Black people - that President Obama is not just another president. President Obama is the most high-profile symbol of Black competence in the world. In addition, what he has accomplished is the perfect equivalent of a conquered slave rising to become the emperor of Rome - and, one of its greatest emperors. So Barack Obama is going to be remembered by posterity as one of the greatest men in ALL of human history, and his story will be inspiring Black children a thousand years from now.

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Racists and conservatives recognize that fact, so naturally, they’re desperate to tear down Barack Obama’s image, and build up the image of criminals like Ronald Wilson Reagan, and there is no excuse for Black idiots like Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and Boyce Watkins not to recognize that fact. That’s what makes them so detestable. Instead of trying to help racists tear down this Black icon, they should be offering RESPECTFUL suggestions in an attempt to ensure that Barack Obama is remembered as one of the greatest Presidents that this nation has ever had, even if they have to drag him up Mt. Rushmore kicking and screaming. But instead, they’re allowing themselves to be pointed to by racists who are claiming, "See, even Black people know he doesn’t live up to the standard of White presidents."

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Thus, people like Smiley and West are giving their own egos, self-service, and their Willie Lynch-inspired need to tear-down a Black historic icon priority over Black history, and the role that history is going to play in helping to raise the self-concept of the Black culture. In short, they’re trying to sabotage the self-esteem of Black children who are yet unborn. The mere thought of that kind of ignorant selfishness is absolutely disgusting - and especially when clothed in faux scholarship.

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So Cornel West and the others like him are not Black leaders, they’re clueless Black cultural afflictions, and if I wanted to take even more time (maybe I'll do it in a book), I could methodically take apart every argument that they've put forward against President Obama. But the short version is, there are some things we have to do for ourselves - and with good reason.

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As alleged "educated" men, they should all realize that Obama is merely President Obama, not King Obama.  The United States Constitution is very specific in giving SOLE power over spending to the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans (that’s why they could refuse to pay the light bill and shutdown the government). So President Obama can’t do a damn thing for us without getting the Republicans to go along with him. That’s why he has to slip us everything on the down-low, because if the GOP know it’s for us, they’re going to dig-in, and if Obama goes to war against them over the issue, they're not going to allow him to do anything for ANYBODY. And as President of ALL the people, he can't allow that to happen, so he has to wrap Black interests in the interest of ALL the people.
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FORMER OBAMA CRITIC AND
NOBEL PRIZE WINNING ECONOMIST

In addition, as a thinking man (unlike many of you), Obama realizes that he has to think about precedents. If he grandstands like many of you suggest and say, "This is what I'm going to do for Black people," what are you going to do when the next White president says, "This is what I'm going to do for White people?"  And he'll justify it by calling it "The Obama Doctrine." 

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So Cornel West, Tavis Smiley - and also you others who share their backward-thinking proclivities - you need to use some of that alleged brain power to think, instead of burning it up trying to maintain your image, or attempting to hide your true motivations for attacking this President. I didn’t hear you saying a damn thing when Bush was in office. So you can try to clothe your true motivations in a tux, but it still has the funky smell of Willie Lynch all over it.

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

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.

　

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The Black Community Controls $1.1 Trillion in Buying Power, Yet . . .

Beneath The Spin*Eric L. Wattree

The Black Community Controls $1.1 Trillion in Buying Power, Yet . . .

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The African American community controls more spending power than the Gross National Product of Germany, the third richest industrial nation in the world, so why are we whining to the White man to provide for our needs?
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Dr. James P. Neelankavil, a professor of marketing and international business at Hofstra University, says in his book, International Business Research, that "Since the output of a country is an indicator of its economic activity, the GNP [Gross National Product] is often used as key factor in evaluating a country’s economic strength. The five largest countries in the world based on their GNP are the United States, $7 trillion; Japan, $2.5 trillion; Germany, $1.1 Trillion; France, $873 billion; and China, $393 billion."
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So based on Professor Neelankavil’s data, the African American community’s buying power of $1.1 trillion is equal to the economy of Germany, the third largest industrial economy in the world. We control $127 billion more than France, and $607 billion more than the gross national product of China. So why was it that in the 2014 midterm election people like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West were running around suggesting that due to high unemployment in the Black community, Black people would be justified in sitting at home, not voting, and letting the Republican Party win governorships around the country, and take over the House and Senate? There’s something wrong there. Either they, and their ilk, are grossly uninformed - in which case, they need to keep their mouths shut and educate themselves - or they’re in active collusion with the GOP - the Black community’s worst enemy, and the domestic enemy of the United States as a whole.
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It’s not President Obama’s fault that we have high unemployment in the Black community. We in the Black community need to educate ourselves to a few fundamental facts. Barack Obama is merely President Obama, not King Obama. The U.S. Constitution gives the U.S. House of Representatives SOLE power over spending, and the house is controlled by the Republican Party. Thus, President Obama has to get permission from them to even pay the light bill, but the GOP has a vested interest in keeping the American people hungry, angry, and divided, so they’re blocking everything he tries to do. We saw the reason for that in the midterm election, because with people like Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, Boyce Watkins, and the entire Republican Party, they can convince the American people that it’s Obama’s fault, and win elections.
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NOBEL PRIZE WINNING ECONOMIST

The very same thing is true of the nation’s high unemployment. The economy is doing better than ever, and corporations are making more money than they’ve ever made in history, so the American people should be more prosperous than ever, and riding high. But the corporate/GOP coalition have a vested interest in not allowing that to happen, so they’re sending what should be American jobs, overseas. Again, the reason for that is political for the GOP - they want the American people angry with President Obama so they can win elections. And for the GOP’s corporate partners, it’s a business strategy - they’re trying to soften the American middle class up to the point they will accept a lower standard of living. They want to lower the American middle-class standard of living to where it’s more in line with the global economy, where in some countries workers make less a week than many middle class Americans spend on lunch per day. So the bottom line is, even though Barack Obama is President, in a free society, there is nothing that he can do to force corporations to hire more American workers. So I find it quite strange that someone who is SUPPOSE to be as brilliant as Cornel West is laying all of our problems at Obama’s feet, and not saying a mumbling word about the corporate/GOP alliance.
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Again, the Black community controls as much spending power as the GNP of Germany, the third largest economic power in the world, so we’re a nation within a nation, and there’s no reason why we have to sit around and wait for the White man to pass us crumbs. The reason we’re in this situation is because of our conditioning. As I’ve said many times before, we are products of the very same racist environment as White people, so some of us harbor some of the very same underlying bigoted attitudes toward other Black people as any barefoot, sheet-wearing, Hillbilly, as people like Clarence Thomas, Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and a whole hoard of Black conservatives clearly demonstrate - oh, did I forget Boyce Watkins (It’s important that I keep mentioning these people, because with the exception of Clarence Thomas, the others are trying to influence Black people covertly).
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As a direct result of many of our underlying attitudes toward our own people, Black consumers will drive right past Black businesses to give our hard-earned money to Walmart, a corporation that’s closely associated with ALEC (and Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, I might add), and an organization that leaves no stone unturned to obstruct Black people’s right to vote, support politicians who are dedicated to impeding any legislation or program designed to enhance the interest of the minority community, and undermine poor and middle-class American worker’s as a whole. For this reason, Black businesses are absent or barely surviving in the community, and can’t afford to hire Black workers, so we’re creating our own Hell. 
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The following statistic says it all:
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"Currently, a dollar circulates in Asian communities for a month, in Jewish communities approximately 20 days and white communities 17 days. How long does a dollar circulate in the black community? 6 hours!!! African American buying power is at 1.1 Trillion; and yet only 2 cents of every dollar an African American spends in this country goes to black owned businesses"(http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2014/02/african-americans-1-1-trillion-dollars-buying-power-putting-good-use/).
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But in spite of the $1.1 trillion passing through the Black community, there are many who still insist on coming up with the excuse that the problem is with the banks - they won’t finance Black businesses. That’s a lame excuse, and we really need to stop trying to make excuses for our condition, because by coming up with all of these excuses, we’re simply giving ourselves a convenient excuse for failure. With all of the money that passes through the Black community, if we came together we could establish our OWN banks.

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Black Community Opens Its Own Market, and Creates Its Own Jobs

The Black community of Greensboro, North Carolina has seen the light. The African Globe reports the following:
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"Winn Dixie and other large grocery chains had divided up market territory, resulting in the closing of some stores despite their profitability. The loss of this Winn Dixie turned Northeast Greensboro into a food desert . . . For more than 15 years, there were many efforts to lure a new grocery store into the space. However, while the store would be profitable, it wouldn’t be profitable enough to satisfy the demands of the shareholder-based economy of a large corporation. Fed up with essentially begging for access to affordable, quality food,  residents of this predominantly African-American and low-income neighborhood decided to open their own grocery store.
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"After learning about cooperative businesses, they decided to open a community-owned grocery store. The store would meet local residents’ needs for access to quality food and dignified, well-paid jobs. And now it’s going to happen. When the Renaissance Community Cooperative opens in 2015, it will be a conventional grocery store (like a Food Lion or Kroger) where wages start at $10 per hour."

The Black Community Must Rid Itself Of Poverty Pimps

If the Black community ever wants to be a viable entity, however, we’re not only going to have to follow Greensboro’s example, but in order to do that, we need an organized community, and a big obstacle to that is the self-serving poverty pimps among us who benefit from our suffering. We’ve got to eliminate these people. These are the ones who are primarily responsible for the plight that we currently find ourselves. When Martin and Malcolm were alive, the only thing they wanted from the White man was for him to leave us alone and allow us to live our lives in peace. My grandfather had a little verse that reflected their attitude. He used to say, "The only thing I want from this whole damn nation, is a pretty little wife, and a good foundation." I didn’t realize it at the time, but in that one little verse he was teaching me the meaning of life - and he had that - a prosperous and meaningful life, and more.
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But after the death of Martin and Malcolm, the poverty pimps swooped in to try to take their place, but both their philosophy, and their agenda, were much different. They convinced the Black community that we couldn’t make it on our own. They convinced us that we were incapable of such a monumental feat. They told us that we needed the White man’s help to move forward, so it was incumbent upon us to hire them as our official emissaries to the White man. That was in the late sixties and early seventies. But since that time, the "emissaries" have all profited greatly, while we’ve been sitting on our hands suffering, whining, and begging for the past forty years - and we're still waiting for the White man’s response. Sure we want our piece of America's pie, but the only way to get that is by organizing and making ourselves a strong enough political force to DEMAND it, not pay poverty pimps $30,000 an hour speaking fees to talk about how unjustly we're being treated. First, we already know that; and secondly, the only one it's benefitting is the poverty pimp. We're actually PAYING him to help spread the word, and profile us, as an hopelessly inept culture.
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So it’s time to bring the poverty pimp hustle to an end. We don’t need one voice speaking for millions; we need millions speaking with one voice. We also need to re-embrace our self-esteem, and begin to recognize who we are, what we represent, and the dignity of what we’ve managed to overcome. We're not puppies who need to be defended. We are a strong and vibrant people. One of our number has risen from the very bottom to become President of the United States. That's one of the most amazing accomplishments in the history of mankind. It's the equivalent of a captured slave rising to become the emperor of Rome, and it also speaks volumes about the American people's respect for excellence. But the poverty pimps have a vested interest in playing that down. They have a vested interest in playing you down.

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The Community Must Control The Way We Are Being Portrayed

In addition, the Black community is doing itself a huge disservice by just sitting back and allowing ourselves to be portrayed in a distorted and negative fashion. It sends the wrong message to our children, and the world. When our children sit around for hours on end watching the antics of Lil’ Wayne and others flaunting the very worst of who we are, it sends the message to our young people that they have a moral obligation to be stupid in order to demonstrate their Black pride. They’re, literally, being instructed in what it means to be Black by sources other than ourselves. They’re being taught that being Black means wearing pants saggin’ off their asses, engaging in reckless and irresponsible behavior, scarring their bodies with ugly tattoos that can prevent them from obtaining employment, and giving priority to chasing "bling," momentary pleasure, and superficial trinkets over pursuing education, knowledge, and investing in themselves as individuals.
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If we’re tolerating these things in our homes, we have no right to complain when the rest of society refuse to hire us, and profile us a superficial and irresponsible idiots. But the fact is, we’re not only tolerating it, we’re making people filthy rich by supporting an industry that thrive on producing videos that are nothing short of ten minute commercials being circulated around the world saying that the very womb of our culture are sluts and whoes who are only good for abuse, and that Black men want everything out of life but a job - and will do anything to get it.
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That’s not who we are as a people, but that’s the way that 90% of the community is being portrayed by a mere 10% of the most dysfunctional element in the Black community.  That’s who our young people are looking up to, and that’s the way the rest of the world sees us. So if we allow this to continue, whose fault is it when the rest of the world believes their lying eyes? No wonder unemployment is so high among Black people. I wouldn’t hire anyone like that either - would you?
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So the Black community needs to come down on the media like a sledgehammer, and stop them from slandering our community. We also have to start letting our children know, in no uncertain terms, that stupidity’s not cute. And we can't start to disseminate that message too soon, or too early in a child’s life, and since kids tend to gravitate toward those things that they’re rewarded for as "cool," it’s not enough to simply address this issue as individual parents - we might as well be spittin’ in the wind. We have to address this issue as a COMMUNITY.
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We’ve got to let BET know that if they want the community’s continued support, they’re going to have to change their call letters to stand for Black Excellence Television, and their programming is going to have to reflect that. We have to make it clear to BET, MTV, and the rest of the media that if they want the support of the Black community that they’re going to have to air programming that’s consistent with our agenda as a community - programming that reflects manhood as having the character to face and defeat adversity, and reflects strength as being tender enough to sooth the wounded feelings of a baby girl.
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And we should also encourage the promoters of these awards shows, like the Soul Train Awards, to be more responsive to the needs of our community. We don't need yet another parade of swaggering millionaires staggering up on stage, snatching microphones, and acting a fool. We need to start placing more emphasis on honoring young scholars, educators, and the people in the community who are helping to move Black people forward. That isn't to say that celebrities and entertainment shouldn't be involved in the shows (I'm a musician myself), but they should be the "help," not the honorees. After all, if all our young people ever see the community honoring are singers, movies stars, and athletes, why should they aspire to be anything else?
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And finally, we've got to demand more responsibility from our churches. We've got to make it clear to some of these preachers that if they expect to take collection money out of our community on Sunday, they’re going to have to do more than just flap their lips; they need to be prepared to put some kind of service back into the community during the week. Our churches should be serving as low-cost childcare facilities for working mothers during the week. They could then employ unemployed mothers, and at the same time hold classes in child rearing. They should also put some of their tithes into starting businesses to provide jobs within the community, instead of squandering it on big cars and expensive homes (generally outside the community) for the preacher. So the community needs to send a very direct and precise message to some of these preachers -"Don't just preach me a sermon, live me one."
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http://wattree.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-sensible-response-to-white-supremacy.html

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WHY I LOVE BEING BLACK - REVISITED

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2014/11/why-i-love-being-black-revisited.html

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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
.
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

Sphere: Related Content