Cornel West And Tavis Smiley: Acting Like Undercover Brothers

During Civil Rights Movement J. Edgar Hoover sent in a bunch of "undercover brothers" just like Tavis and West
to turn the movement on itself.

[Beneath The Spin]

Why Malcolm X Would Be Disgusted

While browsing the web this morning I came across an article written by Dr. Boyce Watkins blaring, “Cornel West Says that Sharpton, Dyson are “Up for Sale”: Let’s Talk about That One, Shall We?” My first reaction was, “Hmmmm, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson must have gotten a new job.”

The reason that’s the first thing that came to mind was because Cornel West is rapidly building a reputation for attacking anyone in the Black community who tends to overshadow him. This tendency, and the reckless and petty way in which he pursues it, has become so pronounced in West that it’s beginning to betray his primary agenda as a whole. He’s not interested in the Black community at all. All he’s interested in is keeping Cornel West in the spotlight.

Look at the facts. First he attacks Barack Obama. He was fine with Barack at first – as long as he could look upon him as subordinate. But once Obama began to get widespread public attention, West started to cool towards him. But when it became clear that Obama could actually become the President of the United States, and he had the audacity to refuse to dance to Tavis and West’s music, West went into wild-eyed opposition to everything he represented – only cooling off long enough to become certain that he wasn’t going to enjoy the notoriety of a prominent role in an Obama administration, and he wasn’t going to be able to strut around with the president on speed dial. Only then, did he see fit to publicly declare that the president was a puppet to plutocrats and afraid of “free Black men.” I don’t recall him ever being that disrespectful to George W. Bush.

Then, he came out against Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry. But just like with Obama, West was fine with Dr. Perry at first. He recruited her to come to Princeton and they were colleauges. Once it became clear, however, that Dr. Perry had a mind of her own and that she wasn’t prone to hero worship, he began to undermine her at Princeton, so she left.

But once West found out that she had been given a show on MSNBC, all hell broke loose. Instead of this good brother – who only lives to “serve his people” – being happy over the prospect that another intelligent Black voice had gained access to the mass media, he saw fit to publicly proclaim that this very impressive Black woman was “a liar and a fraud.”

So again, it seems that Cornel West is always prepared to preach a much better sermon on Black love and respect than he’s willing to live. His comments were extremely disrespectful toward both Black women, and the Black community as a whole. A true brother – a true man – wouldn’t even speak to a lady like that in private, much less, badmouth her like that publicly.

Whatever happened to the concept of cherishing our women?  No one should have to teach Cornel that. As a so-called Black intellectual, that’s exactly what he should be teaching our young people – that it’s impossible for them to have any self-respect, until they learn to respect the very womb of their culture. You’d think an intellectual would know that. West also betrayed his elitist sense of entitlement, and his disdain for the poor and working class when he complained about a mere baggage handler getting tickets to the Presidential Inauguration while he couldn’t.

And it doesn’t end there. West has also seen fit to go after Jay-Z.

Obviously Jay-Z was getting a little too much publicity over his part ownership of the Brooklyn Nets and the Barclay Center. So West took it upon himself to set the record straight. So in essence, he said, “Wait a minute, world! That pickaninny don’t own nothing. TheWhite man owns it! So you see, I’m still the man!” Okay West, but what does fronting off Jay-Z have to do with moving Black people forward?

So Cornel West is not only a demagogue, but he’s a demagogue of the very worst kind. Just before he sticks a knife in your back, he starts talking about “how much he loves his brother, however . . .”  That may be so, but with “good brothers” like Cornel West we’d all be better off orphans.

Now Cornel West is also badmouthing Rev. Al Sharpton and Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, saying they’re “up for sale.” What’s wrong with this guy? What evidence does he have of that? If he has evidence to substantiate what he’s saying, he should produce it. 

If he doesn’t, he should shut up.   How does it benefit the Black community by his running all over the country slandering every high-profile Black person who doesn’t see things his way. He seems to have something to say about everybody but his buddy, Tavis, who’s one of the most prolific corporate shills in the Black community. He also have close associations with several corporations, including Walmart, that are, or have been, member ALEC, an organization that’s left no stone unturned to deprive Black people of their right to vote – and we’ve got evidence of that.

So the fact is, many in the Black community have allowed themselves to be hornswoggled by both the media, and Cornel West. The bottom line is,West is nothing more than a self-absorbed, egomaniacal fraud who hasn’t had an original thought in 35 years, and it looks like the Black community is the last to recognize that.

Some of us have allowed ourselves to be bedazzled by two words – Harvard and Princeton. The establishment has effectively used those two words to convince many of us to accept, without examination, that Cornel West has more sense than we do. That’s what accounts for the rabid defense of him in some quarters. These people need to step out of their media-constructed bubble, open their eyes, ears, and minds, and stop letting others dictate who they listen to.

The White establishment has been propping West up with their very special kind of hype for all of his 35 years in the public eye. Yet, I have never met one person who can tell me one profound sentence he’s uttered in the three-and-a-half decades that he’s been on the public stage – and a stage is exactly what it’s been, because West is more of an entertainer than an intellectual.

Tavis and West are exactly like Herman Cain, but with one exception – at least Herman Cain is honest about supporting the GOP. But Tavis and West are using a technique used by the FBI during COINTELPRO, when J. Edgar Hoover was trying to bring down the civil rights movement in the sixties. During that time Hoover sent in a bunch of “undercover brothers” just like Tavis and West. They were so radically militant that they turned off the American people, and they were so divisive that they caused the movement to turn on itself. That’s exactly what Tavis and West are doing today.

These two turncoats are trying to place Obama in an untenable position. They’re using militant rhetoric to insist that President Obama play Blackjack at a poker table, knowing damn well that he can’t do that. If he tries, he’ll turn the American people against him – in which case, he becomes impotent and can’t get anything done for anyone. But if he doesn’t, Tavis and West are going to try to turn Black people against him, which would also serve to destroy his presidency.

That’s exactly the same thing the FBI did in the sixties. In the end, they had young Black people –who supported the harder line of Malcolm–  calling Martin Luther King, “Martin Luther Coon” – including myself,  I’m ashamed to admit. That’s exactly what Tavis and West are doing today. I saw the parallel immediately, and that’s why I’m dead on their asses. Maybe I can make up, just a little bit, for the stupidity of my youth.

Malcolm saw through the problem back in the sixties and tried to instruct his followers not to allow the establishment to divide us among ourselves. He’s said that it didn’t matter whether or not we saw eye-to-eye with Martin’s approach on every issue. Our goal was the same, therefore, we were allies. He then made it a point to join with Martin, but they took him out before he could complete the process.

So while Tavis and West are always talking about, “Brother Malcolm,” Malcolm would have long since seen through their game, and he would be absolutely disgusted with both of them.

For more by columnist Eric L. Wattree Http://wattree.blogspot.com   [email protected]

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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