So Michael Eric Dyson and Cornel West are at it again...

[jono]

“Oh, ‘Dyson’s a rhetorical genius,’ West said, ‘but has tilts of self-interest and aggrandizement,’” Dyson recalled. “This is my recommender. This is my reference writer. [West said] Dyson is a genius and he goes on, rhetorical, but sometimes you want him to, say, ‘Put a period on it.’”

When Dyson confronted West, he said the professor told him no one was above criticism. But the hurt was real. They were friends. Dyson said he didn’t do that to West when people asked about the much-maligned spoken word albums he produced.

“When you dropped your albums, I didn’t go the following, ‘This is one of the most lunatic inclinations of a man past his prime to recover a sense of relevance by making fifth-rate spoken word in the effort to look hip,’” Dyson said. “Instead I said, ‘This is the work of an illumined and enlightened elder trying to forge connections with a younger generation.’ I could have said all that and criticized you for the comic venture those albums were, but I didn't do that.”

Incidents like this stuck out to Dyson and made him question things, but it wasn’t until West’s attacks on Dyson over Obama became commonplace that he wondered what West actually thought of him and their friendship?

“Is this jealousy? Is this extended resentment? Feeling that your day has passed, that your moment is gone? That your life no longer shines as bright and you don’t see yourself as an elder statesman that’s able to embrace the coming of others?” Dyson said. “These things have been developing longer than Obama and his presidency.”

Danielle C. Belton is an associate editor at The Root. Follow her on Twitter.

Like The Root on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.

 

[Stiff]

Dam that column MED wrote was the scholarly equivalent to a diss record

Put It In An Essay

 

[jono]

Yeah bruh going in on West now. I'm a fan of both guys and I don't really want to take sides but Dr. West been taking cheap shots for years now.

 

[Stiff]

Yeah bruh going in on West now. I'm a fan of both guys and I don't really want to take sides but Dr. West been taking cheap shots for years now.

Yeah he always came off as bitter..he been going at Obamas neck way harder than he ever went at Bush

 

[Already Home_17]

I learned a few words while reading all that

 

[thegreatunknown]

 

[jono]

Yeah bruh going in on West now. I'm a fan of both guys and I don't really want to take sides but Dr. West been taking cheap shots for years now.

Yeah he always came off as bitter..he been going at Obamas neck way harder than he ever went at Bush

There are a lot of people are doing that. It seems the expectations were too high for the Obama presidency. That and of course the fact that Obama isn't as liberal or populist as he pretended to be.

 

[Ip man]

You beat me to it

 

[zzombie]

Obama is far too fucking liberal and fuck both west and Dyson useless intellectuals serves no one

 

[janklow]

Yeah bruh going in on West now. I'm a fan of both guys and I don't really want to take sides but Dr. West been taking cheap shots for years now.

without endorsing Dyson, he definitely kills West in this piece (or, i suppose, kills West circa 2008-2015)

 

[jono]

Yeah he took Dr. West to task. Smh was a long time coming though.

I would hope it becomes more than just cheap shots and they begin to discuss things that are more substantive.

 

[A Talented One]

Dyson's comments are problematic in so many respects, it is hard to know where to begin.

Yes, West did complain about not getting inauguration tickets, but his wariness of Obama precedes that. (Look up his interviews right after Obama won in '08 (and so long before the inauguration); it is clear that he was fearful that Obama would be the kind of president that he in fact turned out to be.) Moreover, West is all about speaking truth to power, and has been for a long time. So his critique of Obama is principled, not personal. Furthermore, by personalizing West's critiques, Dyson avoids the need to respond to the substance of those critiques.

A couple more points. It is true that West has described himself as someone who tries to be "prophetic," but he uses 'prophetic' in a specialized sense such that that self-description is not as arrogant as it might seem. (He calls his brand of pragmatism 'prophetic pragmatism.') Second, Dyson's use of The New Republic to attack West is problematic since this was same magazine that published Wieseltier' scandalous attack on West nearly 20 years ago.

 

[MR.CJ]

Its over

 

[jono]

I don't think Dr. West is wrong about his criticisms of Obama and MED and West have been on opposing sides before but managed to disagree respectfully, these days though it's gotten low brow.

Many of the real liberal thinkers have had the same reaction to Obama as Dr. West. Obama ran as a populist and he seems to have ignored that and he only invokes it In typical political parlance.

West shouldn't have extended his criticisms to Dyson and MHP, even though I understand what he is attempting to do.

For me, it seems that Dr. West's run in with Al Sharpton is what changed him. When he was accused of being out of touch, "sitting in his ivory tower" a few years later Sharpton is on MSNBC regularly even though he accomplishes nothing and produces nothing of worth.


^ I think that's the moment it got real for Dr. West, his criticisms were being discounted as the prattling of someone that doesn't get in the trenches but coaches from the bench.

Not too long after that Dr. West teamed up with Tavis Smiley and they began really hitting the streets, even going so far as to get arrested a few times.

 

[zzombie]

Both these negrows are useless

 

[The Lonious Monk]

Dyson is saying exactly what I've been thinking. Of all these supposed Black leaders, I respected West the most at once. Now every time I hear him talk, he comes off sounding like a clown. I can understand not agreeing with Obama, but the constant attacking of him is just silly. Now he's attacking people just because they don't hate Obama as much as he does. That's crazy.

 

[Purr]

Dyson tryin to fuck a nigga. Sooo im with him

 

[S2J]

Not readin all that but i really hope neither gets called a "COON"

Damn near impossible for 2 black men to disagree with each other philosophically/politically without 1 bein called a "COON"

 

[A Talented One]

A few more points.

West campaigned for Obama, but before he decided to do that he was publicly skeptical of him. (They had a meeting and he decided to give him the benefit of the doubt.)

As I said, West was concerned about what sort of president Obama would be long before the inauguration. Here is an interview he did with Amy Goodman within two weeks of Obama's election in '08:http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/19/cornel_west_on_the_election_of

In his book Race Matters (1993) West talks about the pitfalls of what he calls "racial reasoning," the blind support of blacks in positions of power who are not really good for the black community. His criticism of Obama is congruent with this criticism of racial reasoning.

The idea that West's criticism of Obama is personal, and not principled, is untenable.

 

[atribecalledgabi]

At first i was bout to come in here and bash dyson for airing nigga problems to the public.

But after reading, he made some valid points so i have no issue with it. Plus these people are public figures who speak about black issues publicly. If somebody has a problem with the message might as well put it on front street and create that open dialogue