Added by bowatkin on July 23, 2012.
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Tags: cornel west, poverty, Tavis Smiley
With Poverty Being the Worst in Decades, Maybe We Owe Tavis and Cornel an Apology
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, KultureKritic.com
It has recently been reported that if poverty goes up by just .1% this year, it will be the worst poverty that America has experienced since 1965. Peter Edelman, director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy, attributes the poverty increase to a host of factors, including globalization, outsourcing, immigration, and an attack on unionization.
Workers’ wages are not increasing at the rate they once did, jobs are being sent to other countries, and those who don’t want comprehensive immigration reform are more than happy to watch wages drop as illegal workers are exploited by large corporations. The breakdown of unions and even the use of prison labor are changing our economy for the worse and endangering the livelihoods of millions of Americans.
Two men who’ve been consistently blowing the horn on poverty are Tavis Smiley and Cornel West. What’s saddest is that many Americans have been so interested in maintaining their love affair with the Obama Administration that they won’t even listen to policy advocates who have legitimate points of view. Whenever Smiley and West try to bring up poverty, they are shut down, like the cousin who wants to tell grandma that her delicious soul food is going to give her diabetes. People don’t care to actually try to figure out if Cornel and Tavis have a point. Instead, they consider poverty to be a highly inconvenient truth that throws cold water on the Intoxicating Negro Fairytale that is the Obama presidency.
Do either Cornel West or Tavis Smiley have a personal issue with President Obama? I don’t know and I don’t care. Neither should you. The point is not whether their issue with Obama is personal. The point is that poverty is a critically important issue that affects millions of President Obama’s most loyal constituents. In keeping with the expected interaction between a political leader and the people he claims to represent, it is unfathomable that we can get angry because someone wants President Obama to address poverty. We sing and dance when Obama addresses gay marriage, immunity for illegal immigrants and the concerns of liberal white women, yet the matters that impact our community are considered to be too much trouble for such a busy and important person. This point of view is sad, sick and just a little bit creepy.
The whole ridiculous issue of whether West and Smiley were attacking Obama personally is annoying, largely because we are willing to let people starve while we figure out the answer to our petty question. After we finish saying “Awe, them negroes just be hatin on the president,” nobody says a word about whether or not the White House is taking poverty seriously. That’s like a kid telling his mother, “My teacher’s just hating on me, and that’s why she is accusing me of not doing my homework.” If the mother doesn’t verify what the teacher is saying, then she’s a bigger fool than her son.
I know Cornel West after speaking with him on the phone a few times and meeting him in person. I’ve never met Tavis Smiley, nor have I met Barack Obama. I am not in a position to speak on whether or not any of these men have personal issues with one another, nor would I care to be. In fact, I wasn’t even invited to the inauguration (I wouldn’t have gone anyway, voting for Obama was enough). But I do have a personal relationship with the starving families of America who are living in the streets because our people have forgotten to protect their interests. I also care deeply for the families that have been destroyed because the father has been serving a 50 year drug sentence that could be commuted by a presidential pardon, or the black kids dying in the streets of Chicago every single day of the week. That’s where it certainly becomes personal for me.
Poverty is important, poverty must be addressed and the issue must be kept on the table. Any words you hear from (wealthy) black public figures like Steve Harvey, who might allude to the personal nature of the West/Smiley critique, are the result of inside conversations meant to distract you from focusing on the real issues at hand and holding anyone in the Obama Administration accountable for what happens to the African American community. The black elite are wired to protect one another, and this often comes at the expense of regular people. So, after you get done figuring out if Cornel is angry over not getting his inauguration tickets, refocus on the matter at hand and start demanding that all Washington politicians do something about poverty. It’s time to stop making excuses, for hope and change only start with people who demand it.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of YourBlackWorld.com. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
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Today is
Individualism Is Your "Link" In The Chain of Life That Affects
All
It is these types of articles that prove that so many of us have lost touch with our mirrors.
Tavis Smiley and Cornel West are merely individuals, whom are connected to every human being whom are their own individual link in the chain of life.
Everyone has a perspective, and the perspective that matters to us all is "our own".
It is each individual's responsibility to be the individual that represents his/her individualism. You are responsible for you, and realize that, when you have learned everything that you need to have learned to become a strong individual, then you have added value to the chain of life that we all are connected too.
Your Mirror is Your Responsibility, and no one else's.
When you build a strong foundation for your individualism, your foundation has enough knowledge to read, write, add, and calculate, and with these tools that represent your individual foundation, you "earn" your way in this one and only life.
When the individual is successful in becoming a strong "individual", then the individual brings value to the entire chain of life, which connects us all.
For if one link is weak, the entire chain is no stronger than that one individual link, and if you are the one that does not have strong individualism, then you are the weak link for us all.
Strong Individualism Means?
When my mirror is strong, I am strong and my link is strong, and when my link is strong, I add value to each and every human being on earth, and not just my race.
Yet, there are some who's individualism is so strong that they are able to help others who have not accomplished strong individualism, and by helping those who struggle to become strong individuals, we ensure that the entire chain of humanity is strong.
However, for those who refuse to recognize that they are responsible for their own individualism, they become burdens to the entire chain, and in some instances, there are those who refuse to recognize that help and support is conditional, predicated on the individual's willingness to accept the support, but, take the support that is required and nothing more.
A Strong Chain equals a strong society
Would Tavis & Cornel's stance matter to you if you are a strong individual?
Would Tavis & Cornel even have a need to express their perspective if we all were strong individuals, capable of independent thoughts based on our own convictions?
If you are a strong individual, would you need any President to act on your individual concerns?
If your a strong individual, and you stand with a society of strong individuals, then all will equal a strong society that is capable of addressing it's needs.
No Society is strong when no individual within that society is independently strong, thus, the society is weak because the individuals in that society is weak.
Working from the inside out
Thus, the black community starts within the physical structure of the individuals home, and by becoming a strong independent individual, and independent family, we add value to our community, our strong community add value to our city, our strong city add value to our state and our strong state add value to this entire nation.
Yet, none of this will matter if we are looking into a mirror that isn't strong enough to take responsibility for our own iniquities, mal behavior, bad decisions, and our unwillingness to take charge of our individualism.
President Obama's provides the example
President Obama have ascended to the Presidency of the United States of America by doing all the right things in life, with respect to developing his independent individualism, to the extent that his focus on his mirror to this day, provides an example for every American to follow.
It takes strong individualism to map out a path in life, stick to that life's plan with discipline, be willing to put ones self in the places that leads to the successful end of that path, be understanding that patients require one to experience one second no faster than the length of time that a second takes, and have the desire to weather the storm of judgment while on the path that one has chosen.
President Obama has done all these things and his presence in the white house benefits each and every black person in these United States of America, and I believe that if we individuals become more independent strong individuals, we may put ourselves in position to help President Obama to help us.
You are responsible for your mirror, and if you ever become a strong independent individual, what Tavis and Cornel says will matter very little to you, what any republican ever says will matter very little to you, what any democrat ever say will matter very little to you.... because you already understand.
In My Opinion
ASMFMB
7/24/2012
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