The Ghost of Cornel West (Michael Eric Dyson article/long read)

[zerozero]

Brother West was co-written with David Ritz, a writer best known for album liner notes and ghostwriting entertainers’ biographies—a sure sign of West’s dramatic plummet from his perch as a world-class intellectual. It’s one thing for Ray Charles to turn to Ritz; another thing entirely for a top-shelf scholar to concede that he can’t write for himself, or is too busy to do so. It is akin to Du Bois hiring Truman Capote to fashion his autobiography. The journalist David Masciotra called The Rich and the Rest of Us (2012), which was also co-authored, this time by Tavis Smiley, “a cover version of a hit performed better by other singers—Barbara Ehrenreich, Joseph Stiglitz, and William Julius Wilson, to name a few.” West’s latest, Black Prophetic Fire, published last year, is another talk book, this one edited by Christa Buschendorf, a German scholar who interviewed West. Last October, Masciotra reviewed Fire for The Daily Beast, and called it “a strange and disappointing culmination of [West’s] metamorphosis from philosopher to celebrity,” one that is in keeping with “his pattern of not solely authoring any books in the past ten years.” If you’re counting: That’s two talk books and two co-authored ones across a decade—not quite up to the high scholarly standard West set for himself long ago.

"No solo books in ten years, Dr. West? I can divide..."

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

I can't believe this guy wrote a book called Brother West.

 

[No1]

West just released a new book in October.
And he has been critical of Bill Clinton. In his interviews where he launched criticisms at Obama they were usually couched in his criticism of Bill Clinton, calling Obama a "brown-face Bill Clinton" and saying Obama was "just as centrist and manipulative and opportunistic as Bill Clinton". And labeling Hillary Clinton as a war criminal and saying she is just as bad as Henry Kissinger strikes me as being critical of the top level Democrats.

That really was not the point of the question. I was pointing out that there are not any novel ideas that he's presenting. The newst things in his most recent writing are his musings about himself and other shyt that no one cares about. As far as anything else I could say on this, @mastermind and @tru_m.a.c. basically covered anything else I would have said in regards to the rest of your post.

As far as Dyson goes, you have no business being upset at his public critique of West if you were okay with West's ad hominem attacks over the years. This is a case of people who are with a lot of West's criticisms acting all "but but but but this is an embarrrassing hit piece" when someone directly comes back at his character solely because you believe in a lot of his stances. I have seen many of you in here co-sign the way he critiques people with such vitriol over the years just because you agreed with him while only people like me and @Mephistopheles separated the message from the butthurt individual.

 

[Dusty Bake Activate]

That really was not the point of the question. I was pointing out that there are not any novel ideas that he's presenting. The newst things in his most recent writing are his musings about himself and other shyt that no one cares about. As far as anything else I could say on this, @mastermind and @tru_m.a.c. basically covered anything else I would have said in regards to the rest of your post.

As far as Dyson goes, you have no business being upset at his public critique of West if you were okay with West's ad hominem attacks over the years. This is a case of people who are with a lot of West's criticisms acting all "but but but but this is an embarrrassing hit piece" when someone directly comes back at his character solely because you believe in a lot of his stances. I have seen many of you in here co-sign the way he critiques people with such vitriol over the years just because you agreed with him while only people like me and @Mephistopheles separated the message from the butthurt individual.

The only problem I have with M.E.D. leveling this criticism is that he's a lot like West in his ego and attention-seeking behavior.

That Boyce Watkins guy who seems to be the new semen flavor of the month in TLR is too, even more blatantly. He's recording webcam speeches and interviewing Dame Dash about his baby mama drama.

 

[☑︎#VoteDemocrat]

I believe Dyson's point was that Doc West has a right to do anything he wants; but not without putting in the work nor without he running risks of doing what real progressivists and prophets do. 'Cause, to answer the bolded: the point there wasn't about whether people prefer peripheral prophets vs central prophets. It's obvious the disenfranchised will always prefer the peripheral prophets. But...IF you're willing to be the central prophet (as it appears the Doc wants to be when he gets upset by not being privy to the WH anymore) then you can't just talk to the power holders like you're peripheral otherwise .

In a way I kinda have to agree...when a man is out there running his mouth without putting much at risk his words lose weight. And in that regard Dr. West doen't look that unfamiliar.

Dyson only has a point IMO if you consider West's lack of productivity as an academic.

Cause as a critic of culture or society, as much as he's been critical of Obama or certain policies (no matter how unrealistic said criticism may be at sometimes) he's been consistent and somewhat accurate.

 

[Claudex]

Dyson only has a point IMO if you consider West's lack of productivity as an academic.

Cause as a critic of culture or society, as much as he's been critical of Obama or certain policies (no matter how unrealistic said criticism may be at sometimes) he's been consistent and somewhat accurate.

In my own opinion Dyson has a point ESPECIALLY if you consider West's lack of productivity as an academic. Because we know that Dr. West's productivity is high within an academic setting...but can we really say Dr. West is also productive at being a critic of culture or society? Consistent and somewhat accurate he most certainly is, no doubt! He's got one of the sharpest minds in the country. But does his criticism (of culture and society) produce anything worthy of note? That's the real question.

There's a particular paragraph that stood out to me:

King moved from central to peripheral prophet in his last few years with an emphasis on economic justice and antiwar activism—views he grew into as he wrestled with his conscience, his staff, and the folk to whom he was accountable. But West’s insistence that only peripheral prophets are genuine and powerful is undercut by the legislation King helped to pass as a central prophet: the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. King was arguably more beneficial to the folk he loved when he swayed power with his influence and vision. When West begrudges Sharpton his closeness to Obama, he ignores the fact that King had similar access.

Which explains reasonably well why MLK had to choose his words carefully when addressing LBJ on TV even when he felt like the Presidential giant was fukking with him. MLK actually had a game plan for the people. What is Dr. West's plan? Yeah he's arguably right for saying "what must be said" but for what purpose is he doing it?

Dr. West has an amazing mind...but vision/influence devoid of action is just cotton candy. It tastes great but won't fill anyone up.

 

[Kritic]

In my own opinion Dyson has a point ESPECIALLY if you consider West's lack of productivity as an academic. Because we know that Dr. West's productivity is high within an academic setting...but can we really say Dr. West is also productive at being a critic of culture or society? Consistent and somewhat accurate he most certainly is, no doubt! He's got one of the sharpest minds in the country. But does his criticism (of culture and society) produce anything worthy of note? That's the real question.

There's a particular paragraph that stood out to me:



Which explains reasonably well why MLK had to choose his words carefully when addressing LBJ on TV even when he felt like the Presidential giant was fukking with him. MLK actually had a game plan for the people. What is Dr. West's plan? Yeah he's arguably right for saying "what must be said" but for what purpose is he doing it?

Dr. West has an amazing mind...but vision/influence devoid of action is just cotton candy. It tastes great but won't fill anyone up.

when i think about it i cant really say mlk had any real power or influence. i can't give him sole credit for the civil rights era. dr. west is alone in this fight. all these other punks have switched sides...

dr. west is/was only a critic but he's been turned into something else by these punks so fuq em...

 

[newworldafro]

But does Mike Eric have a poetic clique ....

Is Tavis still doing the State of Black America meetings.....I enjoyed listening, even though I felt they could have put on different people.

 

[Claudex]

when i think about it i cant really say mlk had any real power or influence. i can't give him sole credit for the civil rights era. dr. west is alone in this fight. all these other punks have switched sides...

dr. west is/was only a critic but he's been turned into something else by these punks so fuq em...

Dr. West is definitely alone in his fight, but why? What does he seek by fighting the battle the way he is AND alone to boost? Ain't no point in staying in the side that only speaks that real. At some point you gotta do at least some real shyt too! He ain't gotta change the game, but his talk has got to deliver some dividends.

The Doc can talk the talk beautifully, I'll give credit where it's due for sure. But where's the walk tho'?

But hey, maybe I'm missing a part of the picture. Maybe Dr. West is putting a big plan into motion, so instead of calling him names I'ma just wait until someone in this thread can show me the path the Doc is taking. If it's beyond what I'm now seeing then I'll STFU for real.

 

[Red Shield]

when i think about it i cant really say mlk had any real power or influence. i can't give him sole credit for the civil rights era. dr. west is alone in this fight. all these other punks have switched sides...

dr. west is/was only a critic but he's been turned into something else by these punks so fuq em...

The civil rights movement worked/failed for a bunch of reasons. But King did have some power/influence, just not enough to keep him from being assassinated. Once King got too big tho and started speaking out against nam/for economic justice. It was only a matter of time before he got rolled.

 

[Kritic]

Dr. West is definitely alone in his fight, but why? What does he seek by fighting the battle the way he is AND alone to boost? Ain't no point in staying in the side that only speaks that real. At some point you gotta do at least some real shyt too! He ain't gotta change the game, but his talk has got to deliver some dividends.

The Doc can talk the talk beautifully, I'll give credit where it's due for sure. But where's the walk tho'?

But hey, maybe I'm missing a part of the picture. Maybe Dr. West is putting a big plan into motion, so instead of calling him names I'ma just wait until someone in this thread can show me the path the Doc is taking. If it's beyond what I'm now seeing then I'll STFU for real.

the negro today is an interesting creature. he's mostly poor and loves the limelight. show him some money it's like dangling a cheese burger infront of a fat person. most of them can't help it and lose their minds. and the establishment today knows that.
what's important for people tavis smiley is his show so distract him up and shake him up a little bit he won't join dr west. all these negros have been put in check. and they are all in tough positions.
when folks like arsenio hall try to stand up for whats right they get put in place...


it's kinda like seeing a fellow coworker being mistreated at work. most ppl will just act like it's none of their business. hell they know someone else who needs that job..

when you're a conquered people you can't really organize well to fight your situation. you can. but not if your conqueror is full time watching all your movements.

back then it was probably easier for black ppl to organize. in some ways not really. today it's even much tougher despite all this shyt we have access to. i don't know how they pull these lies and get away with it.

dr west needs to take the gloves off and form a real alliance with farrakhan and jeremiah wright . most importantly he also needs to form an alliance with some radical white folks. cause these negros are just useless.

 

[Claudex]

dr west needs to take the gloves off and form a real alliance with farrakhan and jeremiah wright . most importantly he also needs to form an alliance with some radical white folks. cause these negros are just useless.

I ain't got the authority to tell the Doc what he should or shouldn't do. But as you've seen I'm not afraid of agreeing with Dyson on how the Doc hasn't quite done as much as he believes he has. He has put out books and made speeches which were most likely not free, so shout out to his pockets. But if he wants to bring change then he's gotta play in the same mud (and get dirty) as Obama because at least that nikka did bring some type of change. Not the type we would've liked, but it's time to acknowledge that Obama's presidency wasn't a complete and utter "L" as many wanna say it was.

Dr. West wants to win without taking the L's that he's quick to give everyone he criticizes, but for cats that are aware that's far from impressive.
Even Pac had to get dirty (and go to prison for his actions) and he was the most uncompromising African-American I know of, which explains his early death. Does Dr. West have that same drive? If so to me he hasn't shown it yet.

 

[Kritic]

I ain't got the authority to tell the Doc what he should or shouldn't do. But as you've seen I'm not afraid of agreeing with Dyson on how the Doc hasn't quite done as much as he believes he has. He has put out books and made speeches which were most likely not free, so shout out to his pockets. But if he wants to bring change then he's gotta play in the same mud (and get dirty) as Obama because at least that nikka did bring some type of change. Not the type we would've liked, but it's time to acknowledge that Obama's presidency wasn't a complete and utter "L" as many wanna say it was.

Dr. West wants to win without taking the L's that he's quick to give everyone he criticizes, but for cats that are aware that's far from impressive.
Even Pac had to get dirty (and go to prison for his actions) and he was the most uncompromising African-American I know of, which explains his early death. Does Dr. West have that same drive? If so to me he hasn't shown it yet.

dr west needs to assemble an army. army of scholars. he needs to appeal to all sorts of people. young, hiphop, white etc...
he cannot get anything accomplished being alone. he's lost the battle if you ask me when you got someone like eric dyson putting him out there. when all these people should be on his side.

even mj needed a good team to be the goat. dr west can't be alone. he doesn't even need to respond to this dude. he just needs to sit back and change up his whole game plan and build himself a young team...


i like the way dr boyce watkins building himself up..

 

[Claudex]

dr west needs to assemble an army. army of scholars. he needs to appeal to all sorts of people. young, hiphop, white etc...
he cannot get anything accomplished being alone. he's lost the battle if you ask me when you got someone like eric dyson putting him out there. when all these people should be on his side.

even mj needed a good team to be the goat. dr west can't be alone. he doesn't even need to respond to this dude. he just needs to sit back and change up his whole game plan and build himself a young team...


i like the way dr boyce watkins building himself up..

That's exactly it. He's too isolated to give his words and vision any weight and the sharks are circling (don't even ask me how). All these scholars have to be on his side trying to achieve something for the community from which they came. The top of the black erudite class in the country doesn't have the privilege of simply delving the whole of themselves into academica/research. Dr. West knows that, but if he's decided to truly make that sacrifice then he's gotta pull in the people in his prestigious field, he'll be more useful that way.

I fully one hunnid agree that he shouldn't even respond to Dyson, he needs to put a plan into action, that's really all he's gotta do. Execute his vision whatever it is, because all that have listened to him know that in his heart of hearts he's got love for our people. But the emotion ain't enough so he's gotta act quick.

This essay both concerns me and excites me. But I choose to focus on the latter reaction because I truly believe that change can come out of it.

 

[My neck and my back]

two of my fav black intellectuals fonkin