By Genoa Barrow | Senior Staff Writer
Dr. Cornel West has been an Ivy League professor, author and talk show host. He’s been outspoken about his views on several presidents, including the nation’s first Black leader, Barack Obama and his divisive Republican successor, Donald Trump. We picked the Sacramento native’s brain recently about a few current issues impacting the Black community locally and nationally.
(Also Read: Dr. Cornel West Moves On)
Q: What are your thoughts on President Joe Biden so far? Has having a Black woman as vice president done anything to soothe these times we find ourselves in?
A: I voted for both of them because Trump is such a neo-fascist gangster and we had to get him out of there. But when I hear Biden and sistah Harris say that America is not a racist country, I just tell them they’ve got to get off the crack pipe. That might be nice political language, but it’s not the truth. You’ve got to speak the truth… I do think that Biden and Harris are doing some decent things in terms of trying to push through some of these infrastructure bills, no doubt about that. I support them on some things, the same way I supported Obama on the health care. That was the best we could do, that was better than what we had. I wanted single payer, but we couldn’t do it.
Q: There’s a Black Republican, Larry Elder, who is a conservative talk show host, running in the recall election here in California, looking to oust Gov. Gavin Newsom. What do you think his chances are?
A: I think he’s lucky to have a show, let alone the idea of him running for governor. It’s ridiculous. I’ve had dialogues with him years ago, and he was just as right-wing, cold-hearted, and mean-spirited then as he is now.
Q: Elder says he’s speaking truth and folks that are open to the truth, support him.
A: Brother Elder, Clarence Thomas, all these Black, right-wing folks, you can’t talk about ‘the truth’ unless you allow the suffering of ‘the least of these’ to be heard … So when you look at the history of Clarence Thomas, the history of elder, they side systematically with the wealthy, the powerful and the slickest … These folks have no history of being concerned about the suffering of the least of these, of poor people.
Q: Ward Connerly recently resurfaced, successfully helping to squelch efforts to reverse California’s harmful anti-affirmative action legislation, Prop. 209.
A: That’s another one, wrong as he can be. Look at all the damage he’s done to our people, to policy for our Black youth, young people. God have mercy.