Cornel West
"Gonzalez had asked Prof. West to comment on Kanye West’s assertion that
“George Bush doesn’t care about Black people;” but the professor diverted
into criticism of the current Administration. He said he thinks neither Bush
nor Obama acts out of “racist motivation and intention,” but that both
Administrations inflict(ed) “racist effect and consequence” on people of color,
and that their policies have “generated levels of misery among Black people,
Brown people, Red people, but especially among the working class poor.”
Cornel West echoed Kanye West in rebuking Obama: “…
He doesn’t care about the Black poor: The evidence is overwhelming! …
His policies [a]re racist in effect and consequence and especially classist
in terms of generating misery among poor people, disproportionately
Black and Brown. … The Obama Administration seems to have very little concern
about poor people and their social misery: Look at the policies vis-a-vis Wall Street
– downplaying Main Street; look at the policies of Black Farmers – a settlement
already in place but they don’t want to execute it because they don’t want to be
associated with Black folk too explicitly; look at the policies of dilapidated housing;
we can go right across the board – look at the policies of the new Jim Crow –
the Prison-Industrial Complex.”"
