Barrack Obama & the African American Cognoscenti

By Heru-Ammen

Cornel West, Tavis Smiley and Dr. Boyce Watkins all have three things in common. They are African American, they believe they have some relevancy in and influence on the Greater African American Community and all of them are overt and consistent critics of President Barrack Obama.

Their main complaint is that President Obama doesn’t do anything and/or enough for African Americans. They and their apologists also believe that anyone supporting President Obama does so because he is an (and the first) African American President and his supporters are just Land-o-Goshen tickled pink, black, brown, beige, red and tan to have an African American in the White House and aren’t sophisticated enough to see and agree with the complaints West and company offers to the greater African American community with their diatribes against President Obama.

The arrogance of their position would be laughable if the stakes weren’t so high. President Obama ended the war in Iraq. The Afghanistan conflict is (hopefully) winding down for America and its NATO allies. Thanks to the Obama stimulus the economy is in a slow but steady recovery from the Bush economic debacle and the Republicans and their racially motivated minions and pundits have declared war on and are conducting a war against the President and the American People with their “Just Say Nobama” positions.

What the President has done is proven the fact that an African American can in fact achieve greatness at the highest level in this country. He has also proven that an African American does not need to incorporate a victim-mode mindset in which one must beg, cry, march, meet or complain about our condition. One need only to incorporate some of or the entire blueprint Mr. Obama has followed to achieve success. This presents a problem for West and Company simply because it is contra-posed to their worldview of black folks as helpless and dependent victims of a dying, anemic and pathetically weak white power structure. It also impedes their ability to promote their worldview and earn an income from doing so.

Quite frankly, we are the only culture in this country that attaches itself to a mindset evoked for the sole purpose of profiting from our real misery and complaint by our own so-called leaders and some of our brothers and sisters within the black pundit community. While other cultures of color in this country are rising and transforming their communities, economies and infrastructures; despite the obstacles placed before them by powerless racists and a declining white oligarchy, we continue to fight a war that was essentially won and literally paid for in blood of our esteemed brother and sisters during the Civil Rights struggles of the 50’s and 60’s. That being the case, it’s time we put down our marching boots, step from behind the daises, turn of the microphones and move forward into the twenty-first century as a people of achievement and excellence!

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