Scholar, author, and renowed activist Cornel West’s recent book Black Prophetic Fire chronicles the leadership, impact, and legacies of prominent African Americans during the 19th and 20th centuries. Gracing its pages are the life and times of Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Malcolm X, Ella Baker, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Oftentimes, the popular images of these black leaders—their depictions in movies and in the media, what we learn about them in classrooms—is patently inaccurate. Their doctrines travel far beyond the often binary limitations placed upon them by plebian understandings.
For example, Cornel West condemns the way that Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcom X are commonly pitted at oppositional ends of a philosophical spectrum, when in actuality, their philosophies share more similarities than differences. Above all is their desire and respect of the humanity of all mankind.
He adds to the analysis of well-known figures, the legacies of lesser known activists Ida B. Wells and Ella Baker who he says have “become the victim of public amnesia.” Their stories and mantras are brought back to life, to reside in the memories of those who have long forgotten.
While criticizing and congratulating these leaders, West also points to a marked absence of leadership in African American communities today. The “black prophetic fire” that sparked the courageous and outspoken leadership of 19th and 20th century African Americans in the United States has unmistakably vanished.
But why has black leadership evaporated?
West observes that many could-be leaders of the African American community have been imprisoned. Others lack conviction and have been co-opted—their once subversive rhetoric has been emptied away of its blackness and replaced with verbiage that is nonthreatening to whites and rendered ineffective for black advancement. He places President Barack Obama in this latter category.
Few black people openly criticize President Barack Obama; surely those folks on MSNBC (Reverend Al Sharpton, Melissa Harris Perry, Joy Reid, and Karen Finney, to name a few) do not raise a word against the President–not even a “but.”
Late night news host Tavis Smiley and Cornel West are two exceptions to this general rule.
West is more right than wrong when he says President Obama has “no deep conviction.”
Make no mistake, the courage of the very black men and women in this book have courageously paved the way for a young, ambitious man from Hawaii to go to Harvard, become Senator, and ultimately become president. Their very efforts towards Civil Rights for African Americans have made it possible for young black people to dream in astronomical proportions and, better yet, actually have their visions realized.
Yet, sadly under Obama everyone—gays, lesbians, and white women—have received greater strides towards privilege than blacks have received towards gaining racial parity.
As we speak, gay marriage is being legalized across the United States with the federal government now allowing opposing legislation to go uncontested.
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act enables white women to receive equal pay to white men.
But where are blacks under President Obama’s “leadership?”
Still facing an income gap compared to whites in the same occupations.
Eighteen times worse off doing crack than a white person doing more potent cocaine.
Appearing in the news on a regular basis: unarmed and brutally murdered by white men.
West writes:
With the black middle class losing nearly 60 percent of its wealth, the black working class devastated with stagnating wages and increasing prices, and the black poor ravaged by massive unemployment, decrepit schools, indecent housing and hyperincarceration in the new Jim Crow, the age of Obama looks bleak through the lens of the black prophetic tradition…This prophetic viewpoint is not a personal attack on a black president; rather it is a wholesale indictment of the system led by a complicitous black president.
It’s a wonder whether President Obama will leave office only to later say all of the things he should have done.
But let’s not stack all the blame on the President’s shoulders. Perhaps he has enough worry regarding his own security, two people having jumped the White House fence and other Secret Service snafus having left him bare. He needs help, obviously.
But from where, from whom?
The disappearance of black leadership, whether by lack of conviction or mass incarceration, spell a grim present for the state of black men and women in a country in which they have fought for centuries for civil rights.
Yet, with renewed leadership, a sunny future awaits.
Look no further than your own reflection.
Who among you will end this era of complicity and, like a dragon breathing fire, light the world ablaze with resounding black prophecy?
This is well written, succinctly put and above all straight to issue. There’s none more I can say. Thanks for sharing this inspiration from Cornel West.
Nene, you must know that Cornel likes to be at the center of controversy. I think for him, this is just a game. There is nothing more popular right now in America, perhaps even the world, than blaming and criticizing Obama. Sure Obama hasn’t done everything. But he accomplished a lot which goes a long way to benefiting the poor and the marginalized. He is human. He cannot do every single thing – such as putting Zimmerman, the man who murdered Trayvon Martin, in jail. There are certain things he just can’t do. So while Cornel wants to concentrate on the limitations that Obama has faced I think it will be rather expedient to focus on the things he’s managed to change in all of America. Woundn’t you agree?
Yes, Obama is toothless, often leading on Women’s Rights and Gay Rights. When it comes to the disproportionate incarceration of Black men in America, he goes hiding.
I would have liked to see what Cornel West thought of Eric Holder. This man has done every dirty work of Obama’s. I guess I can commend Obama for that but man, Obama has really been disappointing. Nough said.
This is provocative. Cornel has been on this ride against Obama for some time now but I am beginning to think that he is right – the man can’t just show that he can support a black cause ever, and why? Because we live still in a racist society that can’t seem to find the racists? All white people keep saying, ‘I am not racist?” And you turn around and more black people go to prison 10 times more than whites for the same crime under the same laws. More black people serve jail time 18-100 times more than the same offense by a white person. White people get hired 200 times more than a black person with better qualification, and the list goes on. But no white people in America is racist because they elected Obama! And Obama because he was elected twice can’t seem to find where the racists are hiding. Alas, America is a land of hypocrites really.
Cornel West: Obama Is A ‘Drone President’
“I think he’s settled for the middle ground rather than the higher ground”
Famed public intellectual Cornel West, whose new book Black Prophetic Fire is a re-examination of key black political figures through a different lens, was initially a big supporter of Barack Obama and appeared with him during his first presidential campaign. But in 2012, West says he didn’t even vote. “I couldn’t vote for a war criminal,” he said, calling Obama’s administration a “drone presidency.”
In an interview with Time, which can be read here, the always outspoken West said the President lacks courage. “I think he lacks backbone,” he says. “I think he’s settled for the middle ground rather than the higher ground.”
One example of that, he explains, is the way Obama addresses young black men, which West characterizes as “paternalistic,” and very unlike the subservient way he deals with Wall Street.
“When you say your major program for black young boys is going to be one of charity and philanthropy but no public policy, no justice, then criticism must be put forward just to be true to the black prophetic tradition,” he said.
The Obama legacy, West says, is contrast to the black leaders in the book, such as Malcolm X, whom West says, “specialized in ‘de-ngerizing’ black people”–that is, he clarifies, encouraged them not to “be intimidated, afraid, and so scared of speaking [their] mind and allowing [their] soul to be manifest that [they] defer to the powers that be, especially the white supremacist powers.”
West, who’s no stranger to controversy, is currently a professor at Union Theological Seminary. He drew many young people to a rally in Ferguson, Missouri, on Oct. 13, to protest the killing of Michael Brown by a white police offficer there.
“It’s a beautiful thing to see the young people in Ferguson and all across the nation, organizing there.”
Yes, I agree with Cornell West, the way Obama addresses Black men is paternalistic – the man has never had a son! But he can’t even be critical of Wall Street. It is paternalistic.
If Obama had a place to hide for two years, he surely will, just so he doesn’t have to talk about another white police shooting of a young black man.
I agree with Cornel West but I disagree with his methods and timing. The bradder Obama deserves his fair share of arrogance but I feel Cornel just won the Republicans control of the Senate.
Horacio, the Democrats did nothing when they had control of the Senate, why weep over spilled milk? I think Cornel makes incredible points, I have to read his book.