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slammed the phone it has been uh... too long a yes i guess that's on the singer
on sundays and suzanne cedar shows that in the day
uh...
professor at a glad he is a uh... religion an african american studies
prove professor from princeton university welcome to the program sir
is pleasure as beloved belong and now it's certainly has and frankly have a
meeting to have you on the program
and uh... of
this there
this stuart this is this interview uh... prabhu
reminded me frankly and uh... so i'm glad the
we have an opportunity to talk about it
and what's i want to we don't have too much time so i don't want to and want to
the grow over the entirety of this i've read some of the uh... the comments
uh...
by
professor west
and you know to a large extent
i think
personally and i and i don't speak my audience but i think there's certainly a
they certainly a a sense
that president obama
has been a political disappointment for progressives
uh... specifically in
and then the financial round and
i want to just uh... i want to go over a couple of things dadar because
this is a really fascinating
very fastening topic to me because one of the things about obama
that has
completely
befuddled me from the beginning and while i thought that you know
uh... and uh... professor west make some
makes reference to
he had faith in some sense that president obama was aggressively of
populist and
of progressive
despite the fact that he had a rather a centrist
senate brief senate career mentions lieberman which of course wednesday
was certainly a and
certainly a head stuck in my cry at the time to
but he goes on to say that
present obama feels at most comfortable with upper class middle white jewish men
who consider themselves very smart very sad a very effective in getting what
they want
he's referring to a guys like larry summers and i presume guitar guys like
robin route robert ruled
and people like geithner
and
it's a it's a critique of that
i have her
from
both a political perspective
and when you get into the sort of the psychology behind it
from an economic perspective
uh... in that obama came from
modest humble beginnings man unlike bill clinton
and sees these guys
these masters of the universe
as really deserving their positions and buying into the meritocracy
professor west takes it
pr
from his perspective
within the context of
president obama being a in child of a uh... mixed race couple and anchorage
give your sense of of of what
of of disturb your sense of what uh...
professor west had said
well you know for the quickly and audiences seems to me that we have to
divide pc impact at least part
well what if the kind of personal vindiction with very different in which
professor west gives voice to
it's called principal feeling of being houston manipulated
in the sense that he's he'd he stumped for president obama
filed himself out there
working on his behalf unlike some of the response was out and it can can in in
the world whether it's the nation piece by professors perry or
i was on twitter err on the internet
by professor west
his relationship with president obama did not fall apart after the state of
the black union with rift between obama pata smiling
in fact in ohio's at on the night of the of the elections where he when he won
office
president palin professor west was stumping for middle height
and speaking for him in ohio organizing format or higher so part of what you see
in the first part of his kind of personal
packing pain account of his own sense of betrayal personal betrayal that gets
kind of
more if you get
represented by this black pick to be bad racial reasoning
and porto and i have talked about this a face safe if there's some
the account of uh... of uh... obama being culturally white it's truth value
whether stuart not did knives follows from that in terms of the policy
what you see is professor west relieved in pain
uh... i had hoped to being used to manipulate demonstration part of the
peace right let me just thing about that that my sense is that we're talking
about uh... people who are very uh... public people who obviously have healthy
egos
and that is almost the most monday in part of the entire peace committee
absolutely but you don't and in that this happens all the time and uh... we
sometimes we hear about it and sometimes we don't everybody
if the did one thing that is amazingly since i started doing this laid there
nine years ago is
hearing just how personal things are work in on this level and you know dot
goes at sixty five times uses his a his public persona
you know i i don't fault him for feeling that in and and i don't know that it
really has much of the bearing on his political critique frankly reading
tocqueville sacred second part the second part of something to do with the
fact
that may be progressive whatever we mean by network
write great will get on a new the professor the listeners perry's language
here green screened about
and what i mean by that is that you know you can put a green screen on an actor
or an actress and they could be at eighty-three
though some ways we green string we made obama seemed like a good thing if you
work at it we made obama seemed like he was the kind of in a progressive
i figure who with challenged wall street
who would speak on behalf of the poor in the disenfranchised right
and all along president president obama or than canada bumble was presenting a
rabid centrist
accom
rather centrist platform into what you see in the west
if deep disappointment rooted in
what i'd take to be a very serious critique that we need to that we needed
kind of restaurant and wrestle with and that is
that the current politics coming out of out by the white house and out of the
congress
right our politics are not addressing the most vulnerable
uh... black poor people not addressing not addressing poor people generally
that weekly policies that a continue as the war machine b
that benefit
those on wall street record record profits
and appeared capitulation compromise
in the name of from
odd
notion breaking through
the did function of washington d_c_ but
this notion seems to be at least on my view brother sam
seems to take the plate on the backs of of working working poor people
and so which is
see if his writing indignation
under professor west expression in a second part of the peace
failures
of president obama's politics pencil you can't talk to party to talk about the
harp you can't talk about passage of health care you to talk about that
little
that's a little of the that belly legislation to talk about the owner
don't tell
but every time people kind of run run the gamut of what he's gone to cast a
vote ask yourself the question trip but what about poor people
what about the most vulnerable
what about the fact that this twenty eight percent unemployment
for the most part
in black communities across this country why can't we talk about this and what
you get if it's really odd response that
ought to do so as to engage in some kind of an black identity politics to
expected at the black president to speak to black people
and he fell while this
seems to be shutting down critical conversations
about how to address to social misery a black communities because
to talk to address it specifically somehow means you're engaging in
identity politics
when talking to try to do with address misery you know it's interesting to me
because his political critique
is no
yeah i i don't see much daylight between
that critique of obama's policies than something robert rice might write
frankly panel and uh... in so
you know the
the idea that uh... uh... you-know-what president obama's treasury department at
rolls out hamp
which is at the home of
uh... hip look you made a decision at one point where they were to get a
bailout the banks or they were going to go directly to the root of the problem
bail out the homeowners which would have had it positive impact on the banks but
wouldn't have been fed them directly and i don't think there's
any progress about their book and did not
the idea that he surrounded himself with ruba nights
neoliberal of economists who
have his concerns
the plight of
love the banks
and the financial industries primarily and
what absolutely absolutely bratislava interest just talk about this email in
comparison to the republican party
right you can have pity party
right people who are
sad about big government folks who are organized many of ralph their own
nativist claims their own concerns about losing ground and reorganizing to bring
pressure to bear
on on the on the party establishment they organize it they've run people
against candidates in their doing it within the context of the republican
party
but when it comes to progressive voices within the democratic party
we're always pull to pull the line
that we can in some ways bring critique to bear that we can't bring pressure to
bear
what could be entry is doing on what the white house is going on what the
leadership of the democratic leadership in the congress art what they're doing
it seems to me the progressive voices with white black brown or yellow we need
to be speaking and yelling as loudly as we can on behalf of the most vulnerable
in relation not only to the economic policy that is left banks to beat beat
beat banks
that to get too big to fail they're still in place
that really feed the pockets of of wall street oligarchy of cornell with day
and leave mob
how shall we take a while low
in misery
those folk who can't seem to find their job take and can't seem to find
employment
those folk who are losing their homes
those middle class folk who succeeded at the future of their children right after
this bright if their own president
right and so we need to be speaking loudly and bringing pressure to bear
and only going to be spoke to its itself what do you know he's got to be right if
you think you'll meet the fast because this is the opposite the outcome i think
that the company particles
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx im driving a bringing pressure to do
you know bring a broader right again but literally the last line of his last
piece on his blog was uh... which leads to mail more basic question are we ready
and willing to move to mount primary challenges to india income income the
democrats who cave he's talking to take lied about the uh...
this so-called death negotiations we all know the republicans are going to raise
the debt and limit ceiling but yet we're seeing that the republican regrets uh...
into that
and president obama negotiating involved in this cookie theater and so
you know i think that part of the to me
again is it is not controversial the interesting thing to band i want to get
into this in this is a sort of more esoteric conversation because
uh... i had a uh... a conversation with a
by established political tired
well we were talking about this idea that obama has surrounded himself with
these ruba nights type of people and he was looking at it from very much from
this economic standpoint he said look
i grew up with these people i'm know these people they day year they cheated
tennis and they were all a c students
i'm not a i mean i don't believe that they necessarily belong where they are
and aware of the benefits that they had to get there
and this guy was saying that he feels it now we're getting into sort of uh...
psychoanalysis on some of the mathilde legitimate question that that people
have maybe it's
more of a historical one but he says i think because of obama came from modest
beginnings that when he
that he
you in getting in in rising through the systems becoming uh... you know you
don't get
elected uh... the first uh...
a black cat head of the harvard law review without understanding the
dynamics of her going on
without having a certain respect for the institution and perhaps a certain
blindness or a willingness to ignore
certain elements of that institution because it's
hard to succeed in an institution while you're critiquing it simultaneously
and dinner good
that this is the part that sort of interest me just from a sort of almost
an academic perspective is
uh... is is this analysis
and i think
but ac
item are tracked if i understand
the the packages
that you're going downstairs and i i i i try to avoid it in in the sense that i
can't get into line
president obama i don't understand i can't say for with any degree of
certainty what his intentions are what motivates him to do x_ y_ and z_
as a pragmatist i can only look at the fruits of his policies right
we can only chart
right we can begin to get some indication of of of his of his
philosophy of governance by looking at what he's doing
uh... and what we do know if that poor people
but a class people and we know that these terms and and how they're ventured
into five in the public conversation
that they're fluid
but the people who are seeking singled out by these words people who are poor
people who are struggling in the middle class
that the current policies coming out of the city
coming out of the beltway
are not helping them
people can say well he faced the country from economic from from the economic
bout break right report of some economic brick okay we can grant that
we can say that health care reform right opened up opened up with a fundamental
historic transformation of the health care system you can say he brought
he had made a gesture in this regard we can say ending don't ask don't tell me
something right we can talk about what he's trying to do with regards to
student loans but we're talking about jobs
we're talking about what the public option that for poor people and how we
compromised on that
when we talk about financial regulatory reform
and how he's backed down and allowed too big to fail to continue
all of this robbing main street main street that is divided by a tracks this
divided by a poor neighborhoods and
and rich neighborhoods when we talk about the most vulnerable in america
and we look at the politics not only come from the congress but the policies
that are coming from the white house
is
at the basis of making them substantive and significant
and perhaps a harsh judgment
of of obama's philosophy of government and i think progressive voice his
brother say and this is where i eh... thoroughly agree
with rubberized
progressive voice his we cannot our under the assumption
that we have no other choice
there's not a case u
the other aspect of that uh... equation that your l lining is that
there was any uni
and i believe uh... extremely rare we may never see one is at least in my
lifetime in your lifetime again
where
is a
paid mandate
i believe
or a
much much greater change there was a u_n_
opportunity coming off of eight years of republican rule where we had seen the
the
massive amounts of of
of corruption of our of our entire system
nerve increase corporate control
i at a time where
there was a crossroads in a moment i believe that moment pat soundly
where there could have been some fonda
mental changed remained forgive me for using that word but i think that um...
you know the
the idea of of change people i i greedy it was a green screen we project a lot
of things onto that but it must have meant something
and they
the minute you know what
the we people
that was that word that was so much on displayed during the two thousand eight
election
at the record turnout of african-americans
as the the energy around the election itself
all kind of signaled that perhaps this we were talking a quarter
as a nation that that the possibility of fundamental training should know the
words kinda breaking the back
of the reagan revolution that has to find
not only the rug republican party but the fire has defied the democratic
party's response
uh... to to to the future of the nation
we thought that that the back-to-back warp was perhaps
broken dot
that that all we had broken through
uh... but what we see is images and choice of ways
budget simply read lips brother sam of of of the status quo
but we do
huh
chillicothe things just
as they are every word of a defective overtraining
uh... which is different characters in place
by so d_l_c_ triangulation this pill taking place
people uh... breaking open to the center and the other center is actually right
by and again i keep getting on this because this is what was so important
and i i i regret that folks are talking about
that the more true the the personal part up of quartiles man
peace with chris hedges
but what's what's really important that we don't have to hear the voyages of
folk
uh... really crying out on behalf
of of of poor people on behalf of of of those who are most vulnerable at this
moment
instead what we have a lot of people closing ranks around obama and attacking
and engaging in a kind of mob mentality to to too i think
disinvest
someone like one l west who's been a stalwart figure on the left
who's been an extraordinarily important voice
for progressive force
for progressive politics in this country for well over thirty years
think it's illegitimate
or members of the black community
uh...
to have an expectation
that president obama away
v
uh... more sensitive
the
plight of african americans in this country
then 'em
then and then a white president
i mean is
do you think that's an illegitimate expectation
narcotrafficants illegitimate expectation i mean stanley fischer
awhile back wrote a couple of pieces of identity politics in new york times
and what's interesting about uh... it's basically the kind of basic level of
identity politics that makes perfect sensitive and that is that there's a
presumption on the part
of certain people that people who have their group experience who looked like
them who are are ethnically or racially coded in the search for the play
with we can assume that they would at least be sensitive to the issues that
that to cut that community beyond that
why shouldn't expect that what follows from that are going to fame values the
same policy for saying politics because you're black doesn't mean you hold a
faint positions but there's a sense in which one can presume
that no matter where you come from from that group if there's another person who
identifies with that group that there's a presumption of brothers should be some
sensitivity five dollars me as a society and idon't think there was anybody
hesitated saying that john mccain had a
better understanding of military issues because he was from the military
and let or children or to a little bit like could clip due sometime dot could
be product of the ways in relation to the students write absolutely his wife a
report card
dishes whitewater to the point that we're geraldine ferraro right into the
white people historic opposition played right
uh... but what's interesting this is part of the neoliberal competitive race
in the united states at this point right
and that is that we can't
talk about race in the public domain without
hearing
uh... i mechanic counterclaim brother sam that we're engaging in reverse
racism
and so there's on the one hand
what's going on
if their business tycoon produced decided move for taking place it on the
one hand
there's a kind of casual local we had our first black president
uh... we don't need to be completed its and all of this race is quickly coming
at him we need to surrounded and protected we know he can't do much
that particular view witches brew hitting crowded in a certain kind of
problematic i didn t politics
silences criticism then there's the other side when people say well what are
we did
about black suffering in the country
how are we did speak specifically to what's going on in oregon cities what's
happening to black farmers what's happening to black kids in the juvenile
system what's happening today
black women and men
in the president does to a complex with happening to their children what they
are incarcerated
what's going on but we begin to talk about those specific sorts of issues
people didn't fix will you can't
here are the president in that way because he's the president of all
americans than right for being
to what happened
epochal form of interest group politics when hispanic organizations say the
president obama you need to do something about immigration and with the moon
within the week we have a speech on immigration
when people l_d_p_ three communities approach about i think we need to
address that
or don't ask don't tell and he addresses it butchered interest group politics
when union say we needed
speak in this way of that away with regards
ought to workers any responsible but one african-american communities
held the president in light of their candid
he's the president of all americans will know what we're saying that in relation
to hispanic organizations no one would think that our relation l gbps groups
know what we're saying that in relation to working or or as unions so what you
get is this really interesting containment
of racial racial politics republics in the united states
hercules communities port black people in particular brother sam
poor black communities that are extraordinarily probable in this moment
all subject also
sort of silence has been and and and and and an illiterate and lack of attention
ever except i want to think citizens it hurt anyone is in the in the run-up to
the two thousand eight election
my part of the time that they're america mark merritt had a great show that said
the use uh... that's finally black americans will have the opportunity to
be screwed by one of their own
and uh... uh... but at the same time i will also say that uh...
while high think you're right in terms of the responsiveness from those
different groups
i think that as a as a group and perhaps the dynamic you're talking about has
made it
more difficult to sort of
on garner this type of energy
but those groups greater the algae bt community
the the hispanic community
these are all
all groups that have been very very active and have put a lot of pressure on
and i mean the algae b two b eighty community you know you had people
chaining themselves to led to the white house uh...
treehouse ketamine
and it's interesting
and i think it you know we may not know of really the the the verdict of the
black community in till we see what happens in in twenty twelve there when
we look at things like turn out door there clearly does not seem to be from
my perspective
ani type of concerted effort uh...
within the leadership of the black community
really pressure o bar ma about these issues that you're talking about
in the way that i see no other communities do that and maybe they are
in some ways of
prevented from doing this because of that dynamic your friends ordered this
this is really important because development of other side of the point
with that recently we can talk about yet
the predicate christopher dickey vision of black people the other side of the
cord
let's not cricket team
because then we become complete with a swift races critiques of him but there's
a way in which
but also i think it's really important we need to stop being so obama upset
right and that is part of what we need to do is to understand what it means to
organize
what it means to be engaging grassroots organization within our communities both
local state and nationally
what does it mean to hold not only president obama accountable but so call
civil rights establishment our political leaders to hold the car congressional
black caucus i mean what are they doing
specifically so part of what think we're experiencing sam
uh... if they may be a raft american politics
we're experiencing the lowest point
a low point write a crisis in african-american the african political
class
and i think we're experiencing a crisis in the african electoral class
professional affairs period i've ever because she wrote the piece in the
nation
when she writes this piece into response on the actual chill
she basically said this
eighty five percent of african american support
why don't we trust them
and it interesting that this is not the kind of complaint that we call response
progresses would give when they red what went wrong with cancer
right right
you know this is not the response that we give
but wheatley we offer what we see that dull large number of americans voted for
george w_ bush a larger
now what we do is we organize we tried to put out the information
that will enable everyday ordinary folks to kind of
how powers functioning and operating we don't conduct ran
but we want to convince them otherwise anything to say the same thing to her
tenants i mean i mean single drop of people could say the same thing to me
as a progressive something like eighty eighty five percent of progressive still
support lose self-identified liberals still support you know are still very
supportive of all bomb asserts
and i i think that the
i think they're critique is is misses the point but
we uh... we have got to go here at the well i'd like to continue this uh... in
the near future
that's fascinating stuff and i i think it's
it's a conversation that we don't hear enough and i a m command professor west
for for raising it because uh...
the the cruel
old twist here is that the uh...
the plight of the african-american community in some respects has
has a hard time expressing itself uh... in this in this year than it might
otherwise
exactly
and we've always been the canary in the mind as one it like when they are
certain so
uh... desperation that that feels that the country's experiencing you could
imagine but that's about desperation of taking place
implacable enemy rapidconn
professor anybody from princeton thanks so much for joining us for pataki
against