Dr West Progressive vs Ta-Nehisi Coates Neoliberal or Not
Well, I was talking about the crisis of black elite leadership. When it comes to black leaders, if the model is to be successful but not publicly attack white supremacy \u2014 well, then that\u2019s really about success to fit in. Fitting in, in a neoliberal world, is to be well adjusted to injustice. I\u2019ll give you an example: Dear brother Ta-Nehisi Coates has just come out with a new book.Yes. \u201cWe Were Eight Years in Power.\u201d Who\u2019s the \u201cwe\u201d? When\u2019s the last time he\u2019s been through the ghetto, in the hoods, to the schools and indecent housing and mass unemployment? We were in power for eight years? My God. Maybe he and some of his friends might have been in power, but not poor working people.Dr Cornel West \n\n\u201cThe symbolic power of Barack Obama\u2019s presidency \u2013 that whiteness was no longer strong enough to prevent peons taking up residence in the castle \u2013 assaulted the most deeply rooted notions of white supremacy and instilled fear in its adherents and beneficiaries,And it was that fear that gave the symbols Donald Trump deployed \u2013 the symbols of racism \u2013 enough potency to make him president, and thus put him in position to injure the world.Throughout his eight years in office, Barack Obama endured a campaign of illegitimacy waged either by pluralities or majorities of the Republican party. Donald Trump rooted his candidacy in that campaign. It\u2019s fairly obvious."\xa0Ta-Nehisi Coates