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“font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px;”>Over the weekend, two regular readers of and contributors to
“mso-bidi-font-style: normal;”>The St. Louis American exchanged comments about last week’s editorial, which criticized Tavis Smiley and Cornell West for using their access to media to diminish and hamper the efforts of President Barack Obama. We will share this exchange with the rest of our readers, beginning with Walle A. Amusa’s response to Eric E. Vickers.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>Walle A. Amusa writes:
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>The editorial is right on point. And for
“mso-bidi-font-style: normal;”>The St. Louis American couldn’t be personal. In fact, I believe Tavis Smiley and Cornell West have gotten personal under the guise of being fearless advocates for African Americans.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>For Tavis Smiley, this is a continuation of a personal animus that was well-defined prior to the November 2008 election of President Barack Obama. He was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton who just couldn’t shift gears to support a brother, even though Mrs. Clinton has moved on.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>For Cornell West, I believe he has simply misjudged or misunderstood this moment in American history.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>The St. Louis American “font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>editorial is not about counter-posing Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Elijah Mohammed or missing how their advocacy may have unintentionally complemented each other’s goals.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>The editorial is about this moment in African-American history. It’s about working constructively to realize the dreams, hopes and aspirations that these leaders fought and died for. It’s about seizing the time to further secure the collective, constitutional and economic interests of America’s working families.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>I firmly believe President Obama is the most brilliant and progressive U.S. president since the founding of the nation. In the face of the most vicious opposition since the Civil War, President Obama has secured an incredible record of legislative achievements that is simply breathtaking.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>He managed to pull the nation away from the brink of economic collapse; gave a new life to our crumbling public educational systems; laid the foundations for accessible health care for an additional 30 million Americans; signed into law anti-predatory credit card laws; developed new regulations to curb Wall Street excesses; implemented the most massive economic stimulus package of any nation in the history of the world; nominated two women to the Supreme Court, including the first Hispanic-American; secured a new SALT Treaty to reduce nuclear weapons and promote the goals of a more peaceful world; and eliminated the second-class status of millions of Americans with the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>And the list goes on! It is simply an amazing and unparalleled record in less than two years. In case Tavis Smiley and Cornell West missed it, a strong black thread, the vital interests of African Americans, runs through each of President Obama’s accomplishments.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>These accomplishments were secured in the face of the most disciplined and unified opposition of the Republican Party and its gun-toting, violence-prone Tea Party confederates. Together, these forces have done everything possible to denigrate, devalue and delegitimize the first African-American president.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>In this context of a unified right-wing opposition, Tavis Smiley and Cornell West are playing a dangerous, blind-alley and militant-quackery game that should be decisively rejected.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>Their approach is devoid of a genuine understanding of the process of change in this constitutional democracy, where racism continues to distort reality for millions of people. Using their high-profile positions to attack President Obama, throw stones and sow seeds of cynicism and nihilism is simply irresponsible.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>In a very tough presidential electoral-map environment, Smiley and West’s behavior can only demobilize African Americans and strengthen the right wing’s efforts to defeat the first African-American president in 2012.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>Neither Smiley nor West can claim ignorance about what is at stake. The Republican Party and its Tea Party confederates have been brutally honest: They want to repeal most of President Obama’s legislative accomplishments and elect perhaps the most viscerally anti-black and anti-working class government since Herbert Hoover.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>Only the most dishonest will ignore or belittle President Obama’s incredible record of accomplishments on behalf of Americas working families. Let’s not be fooled by our high-profile cousins and rapolutionaries, sitting on the sidelines and throwing rocks under the guise of being fierce advocates for black folks.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>We should thank
“mso-bidi-font-style: normal;”>The St. Louis American timely editorial. It is a clarion call to the discerning: Now is the time to get off the couch, cut the crap, and organize progressive coalitions like never before. Now is the time to engage in the historic battle of our times, defend gains made, and turn back the well-coordinated assault on President Obama and his accomplishments on behalf of America’s working families.
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“font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial;” lang=”EN-US” xml:lang= “EN-US”>Eric E. Vickers
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I was very surprised to read The American’s editorial
attack on Tavis Smiley and Cornell West for their criticism of
President Obama, particularly the editorial being more a personal
than analytical attack.
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Analytically, why should African Americans, particularly those in
leadership and visible positions, not ask what the democratically
elected president of the country is doing to address the unique,
distressed circumstances of America’s 40 million blacks? That he
happens to be one of them is irrelevant to the analysis.
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Too often we mistakenly invoke Martin Luther King Jr. as the
central point in analyzing black progress – your editorial talks
about “the parallel between the importance of Dr. King and
President Obama” – when in fact the presence of Malcolm X and
others who were critical of King provided the other and essential
pillar of the Civil Rights Movement.
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King, in his 1963 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” specifically
mentions the Nation of Islam, and warns America in that letter that
if it didn’t deal and resolve racial issues with him and his
non-violent movement, then the country would have to deal with a
more impatient and more radical black leadership and community. In
today’s parlance, King “leveraged” the force and power of Malcolm
to advance the black cause.
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Thus, for African Americans to buy into the notion that the
transformation to the still sought and attainable promised land of
equality should rest on the pillar of one person – even a beloved
black president – who is above critique and accountability for
racial progress, is not only analytically deficient, but perhaps a
dangerous way of thinking for blacks to lapse into.
