What is Cornel West's Issue with Ta-Nehisi Coates?
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
- Cornel West speaks to The Root on why he critiqued Ta-Nehisi Coates so strongly in a recent interview with The New York Times.
Subscribe to The Root: goo.gl/QMOjBE
Visit us at: www.theroot.com/
Like us at: / theroot
Follow us at: / theroot
View us: / the.root
Watch more from Fusion friends:
Fusion: fus.in/subscribe
F-Comedy: goo.gl/Q27Mf7
Fusion TV: goo.gl/1IbZ1B
Gizmodo: goo.gl/YTRLAE
Kotaku: goo.gl/OcnXv7
Deadspin: goo.gl/An7N8g
Jezebel: goo.gl/XNsnCJ
Lifehacker: goo.gl/3rNmzw
Io9: goo.gl/ismnzP
Jalopnik: goo.gl/u7sDEk
Sploid: goo.gl/4yq2UY
Watch the full interview here: ruclips.net/video/oBwCCSt3KtY/видео.html
Right on Dr. West💯✊🏿
100% agree. There's a reason why one is embraced by establishment circles, and the other didn't get tenured.
And the other got assasinated
Assassinated by who though ?
Get tenured first. Set up a youtube discussion channel or lecture chsnnel. Get tv interviews. Write essays in general term.
Love West. "There's a difference between someone blowing a saxophone and sounding good and John Coltrane." Only West can come up with a great line like that.
Truth for the opportunity to interview Ephesians 3:18 you can get a better idea of operations to spend time together as last time
Cornel West is so eloquent, even when he is wrong, which happens often, although he always makes a fair point.
He is a charming man, one of a kind.
West misread Coates. When I read We Were Eight Years in Power, I interpreted 'good negro government' not to mean that Obama was some radical reformer who fixed the problems in America, but rather he functioned as an excellent steward who kept the American machine running smoothly. The argument Coates was trying to make was that Obama was skilled in the art of statecraft, just as skilled as any of his white predecessors, and the fact that a black person was able to do the job just as well as a white person deeply disturbed the racial ideology of the United States. Coates argument is that much of the misgivings conservatives expressed against Obama was a pure fantasy generated to support faith in white supremacy.
By comparing Obama to Malcolm X, Coates wasn't trying to say they had similar politics or even supporting the politics of either. Rather, he was showing that Obama functioned similarly to Malcolm X as a symbol for the black community: both affected this clean-cut, intelligent, incorruptible picture of black manhood that all the world could respect and black boys could aspire to. Their diametrically opposed politics are irrelevant.
I don't think any of this was very hard to pick up, and I highly doubt that West could have read the book and made such drastic misinterpretations. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and guess that he just skimmed the book and that's why he produced the misreadings. I don't want to believe that West purposefully misread Coates just so he could start this feud and ride Coates' coattails...
FBI crime statistics - Table 43.
Very poor analysis, basic history will tell us that Obama wasn't even good at statecraft. His entire legacy was undone in less than 2 years by the dumbest man alive, i.e the man so succeeded him.
Very poor analysis, basic history will tell us that Obama wasn't even good at statecraft. His entire legacy was undone in less than 2 years by the dumbest man alive, i.e the man so succeeded him.
"I just don't like talking about white supremacy independent of empire and patriarchy and especially of class." That's the sound of Dr West keeping us all on track.
The class war is real, not mythologized.
West is a gem.
Right on Dr. West!
Listen to coates now. He has grown so much now. I think he cared about cornels words
I love how he throws him under the bus while calling him brother.
I love brother Cornell.
Eagle123456x to say Dr West “threw him under the bus” is probably not the correct expression. Dr. West just intellectually shredded the book.
Real Talk Brother West. i thought he was attacking Coates, he's just asking him to be responsible in his commentary because Coates is a strong voice of this generation. Plus, West ain't allowing any false narratives on Obama.
It’s not false narratives... just different lol west idealized black and white views on how we should look upon Obama serve no one except whites looking to obfuscate guilt cause they think hillary and trump are the same... west clearly didn’t read Coates book
True, in fact it's a disservice to Obama to inflate his importance or regard him as a quasi-messianic figure.
Also, from my perspective, why would one want to appropriate Malcolm X as a progenitor? Malcom X was a racist while he served the Black Muslim cult, and when he embraced orthodox islam he was no closer to the Truth of Christ, which Obama has embraced.
Sure, it's commendable that Malcolm rejected racialism toward the end, but moral self-improvement does not equal salvation.
I think part of the reason for West's disillusionment with Obama's legacy has to do with their different political roles . West is an idealist who does not need to compromise because access to power will be denied him. There is a place in political life for such intellectuals.
But Obama came to power and had to rule on behalf of the while people. He could not afford to ignore or oppose the interests of certain constituencies to benefit others more deserving of attention. He could not pursue a policy of class warfare from a Left perspective and get away with it-----not in the USA, indeed scarcely anywhere.
As for his 'race', obama is half European and half African, but so far as American society is concerned, he is all 'black'. The one-drop rule remains. How the racists crawled out of the woodwork like termites, supposing that he had 'risen above his station'.
i thought he handled this with admirable civility and 'cool'.
Thank you for your honesty Dr. Cornel West. Coates is wrong as two left shoes on this. 😀
The brother on the right has spent all of his time on Twitter bashing Bernie Sanders but when confronted with an opportunity to really interrogate Bernie-supporter Cornel West looks SCARED lol.
Eddy T. Truuuuuee
Eddy T. Bernie will continue to lose too because all his supporters do is isolate blacks and tell them their issues arent important.
Mykell Broughton So... who should win? Who would be a good choice?
Mykell Broughton Asking for a friend who is lukewarm to Bernie but didn't really see a better choice...
Mykell Broughton hey. Who should win? It appears you don't have a better choice
I get mr. West position. to compare anyone to Malcolm X is ridiculous.
Snowflakes are like people; no two identical.
To say another human should forward my entire & complete agenda is also ridiculous
This brother owes millions in child support and he got nerve to talk about another tap dancer? Only because he has government status is the basic reason he hasn't been thrown in jail or has his paycheck garnished or his license suspended. I know! When one tap dancer steps on another tap dancer's toes there's always conflict. (Conflict on who truly has privilege with Massa')
This is cherry picking 101 right here. West took one essay and ran with it. And the essay is over 5 years old. This book had nothing to do with Obama and what he did for black people. The book was about the racism that came about because of Obama being the president. And to add, the book was more about Ta-Nehisi Coates himself during Obama's, 8 years as president.
Mr. West, like usual, is trying to get attention. But most black radical Christians are a bit silly-worshiping a invisible man in outer space given to them by Europeans then demanding racism and white supremacy stops.
Jay He was critiquing an essay, not the whole book. In fact, did you miss when West called the book “brilliant”? He was critiquing Coates’ take on Obama.
It’s not a misrepresentation. The only misrepresentation, from what I have seen, has been done by your hand.
sankofa
What's up with 12/50+?
A genuine critique would avoid misrepresentation of facts. Ta Nehisi Coates is a strong critic of many Obama policies and is quite upfront about Obama’s failings and shortcomings as he views them in his work. Either Mr West has not read his work or he’s deliberately misrepresenting facts by pointing to a single page with the intent to mislead. Now what would be his motive for that? When he says “I fell too” it’s very telling. I don’t think Cornel West feels like he lived up to his promise (or what he thought that was). And, perhaps, he thinks Coates is on the cusp of doing just that. How does that make him feel?
I’ve read both and West just isn’t in the same league imo. That may be the real issue.
so obama does stand as the malcolm x of our time?
West is a radical. Coates is a pseudo-radical. Case closed.
So you're saying west is jealous of coates. Boring old narrative. West invited him to have a conversation, where is coates?
I whole heartedly agree with the intellectual perspectives of Dr. West on this while understand the emotional perspective of Mr. Coates. Black people NEED to feel that "royalty status" and incorporate it as a sense of accomplishment-NOT arrival but entryway onto the road of progress vs the road of struggle...
reparation should be paid by the ancestors of slave owners that republican Abe Lincoln fought against the democrats..who fought a war to keep ownership of fellow human beings....and they should also pay the relatives of everyone who died in the fight to free the slaves in our country....Democrats also started KKK so they should also pay for their racism.
Cornel West is incredible. He's my ideal of a president. Under the best of circumstances that is as likely as a Ralph Nader presidency proved to be.
.....First of all- he is distracting from his bruh (tavis) situation- to coats & trying to align him w/bs. Why not Michael Eric Dyson or some other Black male intellect in his generation??
Is there any way for the Root to facilitate that conversation, I would pay to watch those men philosophize.
West is taking Coates work completely out of context.
How so ?
Do you have a few examples
Obama played it SAFE.
West needs to do West and let Coates do Coates. They're both needed and they can get to the same end point on two different tracks. I would have thought that the cartoonish West would know that by know.
I love Dr. West. He is the truth and a good man.
Coates is a low level thinker. And this recent Red Skull bullshit exposes how petty he is.
This was my issue with Coates using the F-slur and B-word in many, many talks he did in the late 2010s. He never apologized for them, just brushed them under the rug. As a trans person, he can't be an ally to lgbtq people, to Black LGBTQ people, if he feels he owns those words, and owns the ability to just brush his use of those words professionally under the rug.
Dr.West you need to support him instead of criticizing him because you didn't say nothing .
cornell west is arguably contemporary america's greatest public intellectual.
Maybe the black one.
Agreed indeed!
No reparations no vote
It's time for africa to pay White Europeans reparations for 800 years of enslavement by the african moors and barbary pirates.
I adore the Professor but I dislike the purity tests that are applied by too many academics that makes us uplift him and dismiss Coates. This is Coates opinion and belief. It is no less valid than Cornell West's. It's just less radical.
Says the brother who dropped his drawers for Bernie Sanders “No Diddy”!
Integration today, integration tomorrow, integration FOREVER!!!
Or go to your Local Detention Center..
Separatism is the Best and Only Solution....
It's ALWAYS and I do mean ALWAYS a black man tearing down another black man when he's trying to move forward.
FACTS!!! That’s why I don’t respect Cornel West.
So with this logic
If a white or brown or yellow man has a difference of opinion
With someone of his own race
Is he guilty of the same thing you’re accusing Cornell of ?
Or is that different ?
I am just finishing up Between the World and Me and as I was finishing it, I remembered how I had felt sad that Dr. West spoke out on Coates. After reading Between the World and Me, I began to understand. While I still disagree with his criticisms of Obama, Dr. West’s criticisms of Coates are spot on.
so you agreed with Obama's drone strikes and imperialism?
@@malgoodman6073 Obama was not an imperialist, and yes, I choose drones over sending soldiers into wars that they have no business being in. Obama inherited these conflicts. Was there a 9/11 on his watch? Did he try to send the troops home and close Gitmo and raise minumum wage and create jobs through FTAs? Did he fight tooth and nail for universal healthcare? Did Congress and the Senate try to block him in his every move? And the funny thing is, I’m not a fan of Obama. I’m more neutral on him but let’s be honest about him for once.
@@astheskylarksings he may have inherited some of the conflicts but he initiated another 7 senseless wars, including Syria, Libya, Yemen, Central African Republic, Somalia and he effectively did nothing to withdraw from the pre-existing imperial wars. Granted he couldn't just use his executive powers but like all the Democrats and Republicans in both houses he was merely another servant of AIPAC and the globalist MIC. You've got to give him and his minders some credit - the anti war left went silent when he won his Nobel Peace Prize weeks after he was inaugurated, and they buried their heads in the sand for 8 years. He was guilty of overseeing the illegal mass surveillance of US citizens by the NSA. Obamacare was written by a select group of medical insurance lobbyists and only served to concentrate wealth in fewer hands.
@@malgoodman6073 No… No to everything you said. he certainly did not start those wars, but that type of propaganda you were sold is exactly why the country is where it’s at today. You act like he created extremism when he risked everything by extending a hand to the muslim world as a show of solidarity. Shame on you. Universal healthcare was meant to address the issue of the rich being the only insured in the nation because of the exorbitant price of healthcare. But at some point you must have known that. Then you drank the propaganda. Like I said, I’m neutral on Obama. I don’t like how he believed in and trusted the system so much. Then when the system showed itself, he did nothing more than roast the purveyors of evil and complain. He is naive. He’s a dreamer. I know how sad he was about what was unveiled but he didn’t let the country see that. Would they call him weak? Probably. They called him everything else so why not? You even blamed wars on him. But anyways, I’ve heard this stuff from those brainwashed by the propaganda plenty enough over the years. The sad thing is, the source of all that propaganda goes back to race. Not white enough, not black enough and yet still human with plenty of human flaws, thus he is left wide open to be attacked on all sides.
@@astheskylarksings I never once mentioned race. Are you obsessed with skin color like all the other identitarians? Who started those wars then? If you mean he was just a puppet serving AIPAC and the Military Industrial Complex, then yes I agree. I concede that Hillary arguably had a bigger role in starting those wars, particularly the one in Libya but to say that Obama had nothing to do with expanding US imperialism is to deny the glaringly obvious. I noticed you didn't have anything to say about the NSA spying on its citizens
Cornel West is absolutely right to dissociate Obama from Malcolm X. But how glad I am, as a neighbor to America, to have seen Obama prevail, rather than Malcolm X.
Obama made mistakes, to be sure. But Brother West, as a confessing Christian who understands the doctrine of original sin, or as we in the Reformed tradition all it, total depravity, must acknowledge a simple fact.
Obama has said that he believes his sins are forgiv en by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Malcolm X believed no such thing, but stood AGAINST the Gospel of redemption.
'For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.'
(1st Timothy 2:5
As is well known, Malcolm X began his career as an organizer and agitator as a member of the racist Black Muslim cult---------a religion of American origin with only superficial resemblances to islam.. No doubt he followed it with the utmost sincerity, yet sincerity is no guarantee of Truth.
Toward the end of his rather short life he converted to orthodox islam, of which sect I do not know. Along with his conversion came a rejection of racialism. But since orthodox islam itslelf is a potpourri of historical revisionism, mythology, and vain theological speculation, hardly a suitable environment for useful reflection, I would sooner attribute Malcolm's rejection of racialism to plain common sense.
I will not speak presently of Obama's rather complicated relationship with islam. Suffice it to say that many false claims were made by racist, xenophobic opponents tying him to that religion. I think he made his allegiance quite clear when he attended celebrations of the 500th anniversary of Luther's publication of the 95 Theses (1517) in Germany, along with his friend, Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the other outstanding politicians of the 21st century.
West, just accept that Coates surpassed you by miles in regards to his talent as a writer and debater of ideas and you are aware of that and are trying desperately to be relevant. Your style is old and tired and you have noticed yourself that you are not relevant and wont be relevant for this millennial and upcoming generations... but Coates will.
David Marquez we are speaking about truth not fame and popularity. West is more well known by miles. The guy coates thinks a black head slave is something to celebrate...
I don't mention popularity, im talking about talent. And Coates surpasses West as a writer and as a debater. West *WAS* well known for other generation, Coates is connecting more and more to this new generation more than Wets has.
Bullshit
Hell nah Coates ain't got shit on Cornel West. They're not on the same intellectual level.
@@D_isco_D_ancer Say no to drugs!
WHAT UT IS, IS CORNEL WEST DONE MET HIS MATCH !!! TA NEHISI COATES DONE STEPPED ON SOME TOES !!!! TOO BAD MOVE OVER !!! LET THE YOUNG PEOPLE 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️ !!!
I’m a centrist leaning slightly to the right, but this man was spittin straight facts here!
Side note, don't make up your kid's name. And especially don't put a hyphen in it.