Brother Cornel West seems to think so:
"'I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men,' West says. 'Its understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, hes always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation.
"'When he meets an independent black brother it is frightening. And thats true for a white brother. When you get a white brother who meets a free, independent black man they got to be mature to really embrace fully what the brother is saying to them.
"'Its a tension, given the history.
"'It can be overcome.
"'Obama, coming out of Kansas influence, white, loving grandparents, coming out of Hawaii and Indonesia, when he meets these independent black folk who have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, Jane Crow and so on, he is very apprehensive. He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination.
"'It is understandable.'
What's less understandable is why Brother West, after doing 65 campaign events for Obama, was not allowed to attend Obama's inauguration.
Brother West:
'What it said to me on a personal level,' he goes on, 'was that brother Barack Obama had no sense of gratitude, no sense of loyalty, no sense of even courtesy, [no] sense of decency, just to say thank you. Is this the kind of manipulative, Machiavellian orientation we ought to get used to? That was on a personal levell.'
The Obama Deception: Why Cornel West Went Ballistic | Common Dreams
Anybody think Brother Obama or Sister Valerie won't come calling in 2012?
"'I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men,' West says. 'Its understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, hes always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation.
"'When he meets an independent black brother it is frightening. And thats true for a white brother. When you get a white brother who meets a free, independent black man they got to be mature to really embrace fully what the brother is saying to them.
"'Its a tension, given the history.
"'It can be overcome.
"'Obama, coming out of Kansas influence, white, loving grandparents, coming out of Hawaii and Indonesia, when he meets these independent black folk who have a history of slavery, Jim Crow, Jane Crow and so on, he is very apprehensive. He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination.
"'It is understandable.'
What's less understandable is why Brother West, after doing 65 campaign events for Obama, was not allowed to attend Obama's inauguration.
Brother West:
'What it said to me on a personal level,' he goes on, 'was that brother Barack Obama had no sense of gratitude, no sense of loyalty, no sense of even courtesy, [no] sense of decency, just to say thank you. Is this the kind of manipulative, Machiavellian orientation we ought to get used to? That was on a personal levell.'
The Obama Deception: Why Cornel West Went Ballistic | Common Dreams
Anybody think Brother Obama or Sister Valerie won't come calling in 2012?
