To be fair I think Cornell West is an idiot on many political issues, however I'm going to assume he's on point concerning last night. It was a disgrace and made me sick. I'm not going to talk about it anymore.
A couple hours before the fiasco Brian Beutler posted an article about how powerful it would be for Obama to go to Ferguson....talk about bad timing. You can kiss that fantasy goodbye after that waffling bullshit.
say he goes.
What does he say? How would they deal with the increased security, who is going to provide it? St Louis police? Could they're be more mishaps? What if what he says doesn't please who he is talking to? What if the right over reacts and pulls back on some signs they are wanting to tackle police over reach and sentencing disparities and mandatory minimums?
What does it accomplish? Obama isn't a civil rights leaders and he's not going to lead on this. He never has after the beer summit became a joke because white america doesn't want to talk about these issues. They have to be forced into them with community action that forces attention. LBJ and Eisenhower didn't take the lead in civil rights. They were forced into it by community action. Who cares how 'powerful' it would be? How would it help and change anything? That's what the focus IMO should be on.
Obama has talked about these things, he's talked about his fear for his daughter and hypothetical son, he's talked about how things he's done could have gotten him killed, he's talked about being profiled.
There's this idea that Obama is some kind of MLK Jr type figure that can heal the nation and fix issues with a great speech. Its wishful thinking and ignorant of what Obama always has been which is never a civil rights leader, he stopped being a community organizer when he won office, his role changed. Real civil rights leaders are still dragged through the mud and made a mockery off (look at Jackson and Sharpton and their image in white america, especially in conservative media). You want Obama to follow in that? I'm sure you can say he can do stuff different and sharpton and jackson have done some stuff that justifies some of the reaction but to think Obama will be free from that vitriol?
I wish obama could do that and give a speech which can explain the situation to the millions ignorant of it. But he can't and its green latern thinking to think he can.
Civil rights movement has never come from politician lead movements. Emancipation came from years and year and years of agitation from anti-slavery activists which included violence and severe suppression before any sort of 'free-soil party'was formed, civil rights took years and years before the courts would even begin to change things, let alone politicians. The police and justice by and large in the American public discourse have been held to be role models, it is only in smaller communities where these issues have been tackled. Its just started to leak over.
I can't tell someone who's been harrassed by the police, looked at fearfully, etc to 'be patient' or 'understand'. Its not my place and I'm not the victim of the violence and inhuman actions go a head and be angry, protest, complain, fight for change, but these changes have happened and what many are asking for by going to the president ignores how every other change has come about which is through people organizing and forcing change not politicians changing hearts and minds
