by Dr. Boyce Watkins, YourBlackWorld.com.
As Professor Cornel West has gone around the nation critiquing the policies of President Obama, he has met with a firestorm like no other: Melissa Harris-Perry at Tulane University has gone after Professor West as if he were the man who who stole her first born child. Others around the nation have joined in,including Tom Joyner, who wrote off every Obama critic as a “hater” who needs to simply remain silent.
One of the interesting things about all the criticism being thrust at Professor West is that much of it presumes that Cornel is attacking President Obama for personal reasons. There are rumors that he is angry that he was never invited to the inauguration, or that he felt dismissed because the administration won’t return his phone calls. There is no end to the reasons that people are coming up with to explain why Professor West has done what he’s always done, which is to advocate for black, brown, poor and working class people.
These criticisms of West are peculiar and ironic for a couple of reasons. First, it dismisses the responsibility of those who are critical of the professor to come up with clear evidence to prove that West is wrong. After all, it’s hard to check the Whitehouse.gov website to find much evidence that the Obama Administration has done very much to end racial inequality or fight mass incarceration. Sure, there are other presidential priorities, but if the black vote matters for reelection, then black voters should not have to be enthusiastic about perpetuating the very systems that lead to their own suffering. Additionally, the administration’s decision to allow for large gaps of time between meetings with the Congressional Black Caucus also undermines their ability to prove that West is wrong.
Secondly, the criticism is interesting because one might be able to easily argue that the accuser is as guilty as the accused for allowing personal biases to taint his/her perceptions of West and his remarks. While Professor Harris-Perry can readily cite the close interactions between Professor West and President Obama, she doesn’t mention that she herself worked down the hall from Professor West at Princeton University. When a person goes out of their way to strategically, systemically and obsessively target a colleague that they worked with every day for a number of years, one has to wonder what sour intentions lie behind the motivations of the attacker.
I would love to have been a fly on the wall to determine how Professor West might have intervened in the career path of Dr. Harris-Perry or earned the ire that she displays when she works night and day to invalidate him in every way that she can. According to Diverse Issues in Higher Education, several faculty from the African American Studies department did not support her bid for promotion to full professor (I am not sure if West was one of them, but I’d imagine that his support might have gotten her over the bar). In many ways, one has to wonder if Harris-Perry’s attacks on West are just as personal as she believe’s West’s attacks to be on President Obama. She didn’t begin speaking out against Professor West until she had a new job at Tulane University, and I suspect she might have remained silent had West given her what she wanted. Harris-Perry’s relationship with West was much deeper, meaningful and complex than the relationship between Professor West and President Obama, and we all know that familiarity can certainly breed contempt.
What must be realized is that much of what happens in American politics is personal. I wouldn’t argue that Harris-Perry’s points are invalid solely because she might have a personal vendetta against West. But she cannot pretend that West is the only scholar who is allowing personal relationships to taint her political perceptions. Disagreeing with West is one thing, but by attempting to invalidate him as an irrelevant scholar, Melissa is showing that she wants to see this man destroyed. I understand Harris-Perry’s frustrations well, for I was denied tenure by the business school at Syracuse University, which hasn’t granted tenure to any black man, in any department, in over 100 years of operating history.
Perhaps the African American community can consider the evidence as it stands and make their own decision about whether or not the Obama Administration has enhanced their lives. If one can easily and logically argue that black folks are better off since 2008, then there is nothing to criticize. But if people of color are worse off than before, with no signs of improving, then there is little reason for working class black people to be excited about any president of any color.
Ultimately, the proof must be in the pudding, and the pundits shouldn’t be allowed to tell us how it tastes. Anyone who works to distract observers from the facts and consistently deviates from the issues is most likely working to deceive others into believing something that simply is not true. Also, as much as some would accuse Cornel West of attacking President Obama for personal reasons, we must remember that the critics themselves are not immune from the sweet temptation of revenge.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
