Cornel West Calls President Obama’s Policies “Racist,” Endorses Leftist 3rd-Party Challenge

There’s an interesting article on the Firedoglake (FDL) web site about Dr. Cornel West and his recent comments that President Obama’s policies are racist. Dr. West is a professor of African American studies and Religion at Princeton University.

In a recent interview, Dr. West told Democracy Now!‘s Juan Gonzalez that, like President Bush before him, President Obama’s policies discriminate against African-Americans. West said the President’s neglect of the poor and of poverty programs has enormous racist effect, in that they disproportionately hurt Blacks, who are more likely to be more impoverished than Whites.

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.”

Prof. West said the system the President endorses “is tilted against poor people, against working people, disproportionately Black and Brown and Red … There’s simply no mention of poor people’s plight. Look for example of juvenile justice … the Juvenile Justice-Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 needs to be re-authorized. It’s been two years now, no re-authorization from either the Obama Administration or the public bureaucracy. Even our dear brother Eric Holder doesn’t seem to want to move on it.

Click here to read the entire article. You can visit the official Cornel West web site at www.cornelwest.com.

What do you think about Dr. West’s comments?