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 Posted: Wed Nov 19, 2008 7:16 pm Post subject: Cornel West on the Election of Barack Obama: “I Ho pe He Is |
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"..as a deep Democrat, I recognize I have some significant differences
with Brother Barack. He’s a liberal. It looked like he wants to govern
as a liberal-centrist, ..And one has to be honest and candid in terms
of one’s criticism, because in the end, it’s not about Barack Obama,
it’s about empowering working people and poor people.."
"Q:I also wanted to ask you about this wave of what seems to be
increased number of hate crimes since the election of Barack Obama all
over the country.
"CORNEL WEST: Yeah. I mean, I expect a white backlash, and there’s no
doubt about that. But the wonderful thing about this is that, one, we
know that, you know, this white backlash in no way speaks for the vast
majority of white brothers and sisters. This is very different than
forty or fifty years ago, where it was closer to the mainstream, or
more mainstream white brothers and sisters were silent in the face of
that kind of xenophobic violence. But there’s going to be a white
backlash. These are the last gasps of the era of conservatism; these
are the kind of death rattles of the age of Ronald Reagan..."
= =
Cornel West on the Election of Barack Obama: “I Hope He Is a
Progressive Lincoln, I Aspire to Be the Frederick Douglass to Put
Pressure on Him”
Princeton University professor of religion and African American
studies, Cornel West, speaks about the election of Barack Obama, his
selection of Eric Holder to be Attorney General, the possible
selection of Lawrence Summers to be Treasury Secretary and the role of
the progressive left to push Obama.
West is the author of the new book Hope on a Tightrope: Words and
Wisdom. [includes rush transcript–partial]
==
Guest:
Cornel West, Professor of Religion and African American Studies at
Princeton University. He is the author of the books, Race Matters and
Democracy Matters. His latest is just out. It’s called Hope on a
Tightrope: Words and Wisdom.
==
AMY GOODMAN: President-elect Barack Obama has reportedly tapped Eric
Holder to become his attorney general. If confirmed, Holder would
become the first African American to lead the Justice Department.
Holder served as deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration
and as US attorney for the District of Columbia.
Many pundits have described Obama’s victory as ushering in a new “post-
racial” era. Obama’s victory speech placed his victory in the context
of some of the dramatic changes in American society over the past
century from the perspective of a 106-year-old African American woman
from Atlanta.
PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: This election had many firsts and
many stories that will be told for generations. But one that’s on my
mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She is a
lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice
heard in this election, except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106
years old. She was born just a generation past slavery, a time when
there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky, when someone like
her couldn’t vote for two reasons: because she was a woman and because
of the color of her skin. And tonight, I think about all that she’s
seen throughout her century in America: the heartache and the hope,
the struggle and the progress, the times we were told that we can’t
and the people who pressed on with that American creed, “Yes, we can.”
At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes
dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for
the ballot. Yes, we can.
When there was despair in the Dust Bowl and depression across
the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new
jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes, we can.
When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the
world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness, and a
democracy was saved. Yes, we can.
She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in
Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a
people that “we shall overcome.” Yes, we can.
A man touched down on the moon. A wall came down in Berlin. A
world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year,
in this election, she touched her finger to a screen and cast her
vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times
and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes, we
can.
AMY GOODMAN: President-elect Barack Obama giving his victory speech in
Grant Park in Chicago earlier this month.
My next guest is a celebrated scholar and public intellectual whose
books include Race Matters and Democracy Matters, Princeton University
professor of religion and African American studies, Cornel West. His
latest book is Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom.
He writes: “Now here we are in 2008. America finds itself looking to
its blues people again to provide vision to a nation with the blues.
That is a source of hope. Yet hope is no guarantee. Real hope is
grounded in a particularly messy struggle and it can be betrayed by
naïve projections of a better future that ignore the necessity of
doing the real work. So what we are talking about is hope on a
tightrope.”
Professor Cornel West joins us from Princeton, New Jersey. Welcome to
Democracy Now!
CORNEL WEST: My dear Amy, how are you doing there?
AMY GOODMAN: It’s great to have you with us.
CORNEL WEST: I want to salute your courage and your vision. You are a
long-distance runner for justice, and I love it and love you, I tell
you.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, congratulations on your new book, Hope on a
Tightrope. When people talk about a post-racial America, what is your
response?
CORNEL WEST: I say there’s no such thing, no such thing, Amy. By “post-
racial,” they really mean “less racist.” You’re talking about white
brothers and sisters who are now willing to vote for a black man based
on qualification as opposed to pigmentation. That’s a beautiful thing.
But at the same time, it recognizes that there was a time in which
pigmentation would trump qualification.
Black people have been voting for white candidates, as in Gary,
Indiana. You had a white mayor, the Chocolate City. Black people voted
for the white candidate vis-à-vis the black candidate, because the
white candidate was better. That wasn’t post-racial; it was just black
people were less racist.
And so, we have to be honest about this. There’s no such thing as
“post-racial” in that regard. It’s a beautiful thing to be less
racist. Same is true for “color blind.” We can’t say it’s color blind,
on the one hand, and then be so happy when we cross the color line and
vote for Brother Barack Obama, that there is a color line, we cross
it, we’re trying to stay in contact with the humanity of each other.
We need to be embracing of each other’s humanity, not trying to
subtract our bodies and somehow be color blind and post-racial.
AMY GOODMAN: Professor Cornel West, you were a big supporter of Barack
Obama, but you also have been giving speeches about holding him to
account. What are the issues you are most concerned about right now?
CORNEL WEST: Well, I think, as a deep Democrat, I recognize I have
some significant differences with Brother Barack. He’s a liberal. It
looked like he wants to govern as a liberal-centrist, given the
choices of Emanuel—Rahm Emanuel and others. And one has to be honest
and candid in terms of one’s criticism, because in the end, it’s not
about Barack Obama, it’s about empowering working people and poor
people. It’s about trying to accent the dignity of those Sly Stone
called “everyday people.” And when he moves in that direction, it’s
good. When he doesn’t move in that direction, we need to criticize
him. Same is true in terms of foreign policy: Latin America, Africa
and the Middle East. We have to be honest about it.
For me, my criticism of Barack has to do with trying to acknowledge
the degree to which, one, thank God we’re at the end of the age of
Ronald Reagan, we’re at the end of the era of conservatism, we’re
coming to the end of the epoch of the Southern Strategy. For the first
time now, we’ve got some democratic possibilities. This has been a
political ice age, and the melting is just beginning. And Barack Obama
is a symbol, but we’ve got to move from symbol to substance. We’ve got
to move from what he represents in a broad sense—and it’s a beautiful
thing to have a black man in the White House, we know that, and black
slaves and laborers and other white immigrants built the White House.
And to have a black family there, significant; black face for the
American empire, fine. Can we revitalize democratic possibilities on
the ground with Barack in the White House? I think we can. We can put
some serious pressure on him, and we can actually continue the
democratic awakening among working people and poor people and push
Barack in a progressive direction.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about just this latest news that came out
last night—of course, not the official announcement, but Eric Holder,
the former deputy attorney general under President Clinton, being
tapped as the next attorney general, if confirmed?
CORNEL WEST: Well, two things. First, on a personal level, I know
Brother Eric Holder. I’ve spent good time with him in meetings and so
on. He’s a brilliant lawyer. He’s a very decent human being. I know he
was very upset about Clinton’s attitude toward crime. We know during
the Clinton administration we got the tightening of the mandatory
sentences that’s had devastating effects on poor communities,
especially disproportionately black and brown poor communities. And
Eric took a strong stand in that regard. I appreciate that, because
there’s a sense that we kind of whitewash the Clinton administration—
welfare bill, crime, deregulation and so forth. We’ve got to be honest
about some of the flaws during the age of Reagan and the Clinton
moments during the age of Reagan. And Eric did take a stand.
On the other hand, of course, I’m sure I have some disagreements with
him. But I am a little suspicious, in fact, highly suspicious, of the
degree to which my dear Brother Barack Obama seems to be recycling all
of these Clintonites. I’m looking for an age of everyday people, not a
Clintonite recycling in this new period. And so, I’m a little bit
suspicious of this, though I think Eric Holder is much better than
many of the other Clintonites that’s being recycled.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, let me ask you about this comment of Mario Murillo,
who’s a professor at Hofstra, talking about Eric Holder. You know, he
worked as a partner at the D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling.
CORNEL WEST: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: His clients included Chiquita.
CORNEL WEST: Yes, I heard that.
AMY GOODMAN: Last week, we reached Mario in Colombia, and he talked
about Holder’s representation of Chiquita.
MARIO MURILLO: There’s been talk about a close ally and friend
of Obama as a potential Attorney General for the United States, Eric
Holder, who is currently defending Chiquita Brands International in
its defense against dozens of plaintiffs here in Colombia, working
families who were targeted by paramilitaries who were funded to the
tune of $1.7 million over the last several years. It’s a major
scandal. And if this guy becomes the Attorney General under an Obama
administration, then it’s going to be really hard to find justice in
this case coming from the United States.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Mario Murillo in Colombia. Professor Cornel
West?
CORNEL WEST: Yeah, no, again, this is one of the reasons why we love
the work that you do, Sister Amy. This is the first that I’ve heard of
this. I would want to hear from my dear Brother Eric and see what he
has to say. Now, we know, of course, so many of these corporate firms,
they defend all kind of different elites in various parts of the
world, and we want to know the degree to which Eric Holder personally
and politically and ideologically supports the kind of things going
on, as opposed to the kind of role that one plays within a legal firm.
Oftentimes, these firms take stances that are not in agreement with
the individual lawyers themselves. You know that lawyers take a
variety of different cases. It could be criminals and a whole host of
others. Lawyers tend to go where they are told. But I would want to
hear what Brother Eric Holder has to say about this. This is very
interesting, actually.
AMY GOODMAN: I also wanted to ask you about this wave of what seems to
be increased number of hate crimes since the election of Barack Obama
all over the country.
CORNEL WEST: Yeah. I mean, I expect a white backlash, and there’s no
doubt about that. But the wonderful thing about this is that, one, we
know that, you know, this white backlash in no way speaks for the vast
majority of white brothers and sisters. This is very different than
forty or fifty years ago, where it was closer to the mainstream, or
more mainstream white brothers and sisters were silent in the face of
that kind of xenophobic violence. But there’s going to be a white
backlash.
These are the last gasps of the era of conservatism; these are the
kind of death rattles of the age of Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan began
his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi in 1980; Ku Klux Klan
endorsed him the same day. So he gave a permission to allow this kind
of xenophobic bigotry to be a kind of subcurrent within the culture,
just as he gave it a permission to be rich and be indifferent toward
the poor and so forth. Thank God we are coming to the end of that era.
So we’re going to get some death rattles and some last gasps.
We just hope that the white backlash in this regard does not spill
over into a situation in which the mainstream somehow becomes
complacent, because the wonderful thing about this is the vast
majority of white brothers and sisters are against the white
xenophobes. That’s a wonderful thing. That’s progress in America.
AMY GOODMAN: Some of the crimes, Associated Press and a list of them,
compiled over the last two weeks: crosses burned in the yards of Obama
supporters in Hardwick, New Jersey and in Pennsylvania; in the
Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note
with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying, “Now that you voted
for Obama, just watch out for your house”; a black teenager in New
York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four
white men who shouted “Obama”; in Standish, Maine, a sign inside the
Oak Hill General Store read, “Osama Obama Shotgun Pool”—customers
could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed; at North
Carolina State, four students admitted writing a sign on the campus
that called for shooting Obama in the head; and in Idaho, second- and
third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg were heard chanting
"assassinate Obama.” Do you think we’re just noticing this kind of
thing more?
CORNEL WEST: No, I think this kind of thing has been around. We know
all the different, you know, attacks, assaults and threats and so
forth against dear Brother Barack. This is, you know, the undercurrent
of the lower frequencies of the worst of America. We don’t want to
lose sight of the best of America. But we’ve got to—I think we have to
acknowledge any time you make a transition from one era to the next,
you’re going to get this kind of bigotry manifest. Thank God it’s not
as widespread, and thank God we have persons who are willing to bring
critique to bear and to oppose it on all racial and cultural and
political fronts.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to come back to you, Professor Cornel West.
We’re going to break for just a minute. His new book, just out this
week, Hope on a Tightrope: Words and Wisdom. This is Democracy Now!,
democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. Back in a minute.
[break]
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