Cornel West INTERVIEW: Don't Appoint Larry Summers As An Economic Adviser And Tell Me You're Progressive (VIDEO)

In an interview with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, Dr. Cornel West discusses his long-awaited memoir "Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud." It's a great, wide-ranging conversation, definitely worth a full listen -- the two talk about West's childhood, the role of music in his life, the health care debate, and West's epic dispute with White House economic adviser -- then Harvard President -- Larry Summers.

"Larry Summers, I think, he had a long history of arrogance and relative ignorance about poor people's culture and working people's culture and so forth," West told Goodman. Their dispute began shortly after Summers was appointed President of Harvard, and ultimately led West to leave Harvard and join the faculty of Princeton. According to West, Summers accused him of canceling classes and called his interest in hip-hop an "embarrassment," among other slights.

West added that he was surprised when Obama selected Summers for his council of economic advisers:

I said, here's somebody who has no history whatsoever of sensitivity to poor people or working people, who had been supporting deregulation for a long time as a Clintonite, in the Clinton administration. What is going on here? Or has Obama already become so comfortable with the establishment that you had to have an economist who was legitimate to the establishment in order for him to get his regime off the ground? OK. I mean, if that's the kind of argument you have, then put it forward. But don't tell me you're a progressive, then, and generate that kind of support or major advisers speaking to you--speaking to you every day. Now, if he had Paul Krugman or Joseph Stiglitz or Sylvia Ann Hewitt, I'd say, "Hey, you got something going here. I think we've got a chance for some progressive policy that actually focuses on poor and working people."

But I do forgive Larry Summers for this reason: that I think we all ought to have joy in life, and you can only have joy when you overcome arrogance and open to your own ignorance, because you end up being smart and brainy, but suffering from spiritual malnutrition, emptiness of soul, you see.

Video below, the segment on Larry Summers starts around minute 43.

Comments

[longnow]

11:53 PM on 10/04/2009

I taught Renolds was day, but I now I havta tink about dat dar.
He is be a funny person and she am is butiful. Gud luk wid dat.

[madtom]

09:38 PM on 10/04/2009

This is just about West and his cheesy, self-righteous cult-followers.

A tempest in a dog-bowl.

[TrueSense]

01:04 AM on 10/05/2009

Summers has denigrated women and proved himself a blind follower of deregulation.

His attack as an economist on women's ability to do math is funny. Physicist and mathematicians design derivatives and then people like Summer's that do not understand them push them despite not understanding them and their destructive nature.

One women who does know math that Summers seems to have figuratively and literally dismissed is Iris Mack. I bet Harvard and their invested funds wish that they had listened to her.

When she raised the alarm to president Summers about some of their derivative investments, she soon was on the outs.

[madtom]

07:42 AM on 10/05/2009

I'm not saying Larry Summers is always right. I am saying Cornel West is a joke for criticizing him as an ECONOMIST. I am also saying that Larry Summers did a good thing at Harvard when he fearlesly upset the sacred PC applecarts.

Then again, I am a fan of Jefferson, and am drawn to chaos and revolution. And I don't care for Trotsky-style PC game-players. PC has become the weapon of choice for people who specialize in the dialectic and know little or nothing about anything else. PC has become a card to be played -- truly a Mau-Mau attack, in the Tom Wolfe sense of that term.

Larry Summers provided Harvard with some much-needed push-back against the insidious people who yap that yap..

I say to the PC crowd, tell your story walking.

Cornel West then showed his bare butt to Harvard, and departed for Princeton rather than defend his ideas.

[manicore]

09:35 PM on 10/04/2009

Obama is no Progressive! Hell he's not even Liberal. Not to worry though, he will only serve One Term.
There is a Giant Wave of Bad Will running against him..Most of it from his own Party.

[madtom]

09:00 PM on 10/04/2009

Cornel West discredit himself with his hissy-fit departure from Harvard.

If he had ideas worth having, he still didn't have the will or the fortitude to defend them.

In certain respects, he's keeping it TOO real -- and detracting from his credibility.

PC should be a shield, not a sword.

[jessicajuliette]

09:05 PM on 10/04/2009

are you aware oif the female professors summers insulted as well?

are women also fair game for summers attacks? are white women also too pc???

he didnt have a hissy fit, he did as many othes have done, went where he felt welomed and appreciated....

[madtom]

09:27 PM on 10/04/2009

I've supported the feminist movement for 40 years. I don't like the "womyn" who hate men, though.

I'm concerned ONLY with the quality of the economic advice Larry Summers gives President Obama, NOT whether the PC-cossetted, PC-cottage-industry elements in academia think he's warm and fuzzy.

He's not.

Summers is a formidable intellect. He does not suffer fools gladly. Some fools and frauds at Harvard got told how the cow ate the cabbage, and their widdle feelings are STILL hurt.

As one who could have gone into academia, but instead went out to serve ordinary people with real problems -- and is finally making a buck in the process -- I am horrified by the Stalinist thought-control the PC thugs have imposed in the academic world.

"Our loyalty is to our discipline, and not to the institution", my late, very liberal uncle, a university professor/administrator, quoted one obnoxious young asst prof.

I shudder to think that people like these PC Na.zis were at our side in the Sixties. I had no idea we had their kind in our midst.

My hero is Jefferson. Theirs is Trotsky.

[DCBarrister]

09:11 PM on 10/04/2009

Cornel West "discredit himself" or "discredits"?

You may want to wait until subject-verb agreement isn't an enemy before you start pontificating about ideas and credibility.

PC should be a shield...so should literacy.

[madtom]

09:15 PM on 10/04/2009

And what grammar school were you exorcised from sheepdip?

[youknowwhat]

08:32 PM on 10/04/2009

The more I learn about Summers, the more I see failure of the presidents economic policies. This joker clearly has no intention of helping middle class Americans.

[DCBarrister]

09:12 PM on 10/04/2009

President Obama, the confessed right wing Reaganite has no intention of keeping his promises to liberal Democrats and ordinary Americans...that's not exactly news, sadly.

Keep the change.

Hillary 2012

[madtom]

10:04 PM on 10/04/2009

How's the job-hunt going, empty-suit?

Passed your bar exam? How many times have you taken it, so far?

[co-sine]

07:35 PM on 10/04/2009

have heard prof. west discourse many times on many topics. more often than not i'm left with the feeling that i've just been less in the presence of a scholar but more in the presence of "daddy rich".

[avah]

07:54 PM on 10/04/2009

Cosign, co-sine.

[avah]

08:01 PM on 10/04/2009

and fanned.

[Balzac]

07:19 PM on 10/04/2009

Maybe now is a good time to replace Larry Summers with Nobel Prize winning economist, Paul Krugman.

[billhodges]

07:26 PM on 10/04/2009

That would be a big plus then he could write his column from the WH. That is all he would be good for.

[youknowwhat]

08:27 PM on 10/04/2009

If Obama keeps putting people like Summers in positions as ecomomic adviser, my guess is that this country is headed straight into the abyss.

[Balzac]

10:34 PM on 10/04/2009

It might have been a smart choice at the time, but perhaps now the time has come for Paul Krugman's ascendence.

[madtom]

07:18 PM on 10/04/2009

Where is my innocent post, and WHY was it busted?

[avah]

07:55 PM on 10/04/2009

Try, try again. This s*te is difficult at times. Which is NOT in its best interest.

[madtom]

08:53 PM on 10/04/2009

They have an attitude problem, a competence problem, or both.

I will continue to complain every time they treat one of my comments unjustly. I hope others will complain, too.

[avah]

07:14 PM on 10/04/2009

It doesn't take a genius to smoke out Larry Summers.

Cornel West is full of his own BeeEss. He's NOT an ordained minister for G-d's sake! This is news to me. He's been prattling on for years as if he were. And that phony man-of-the-cloth cravat he always wears? His act $me//s of REAL BeeEss.

He inflects his speech with street rhythms -- but he was a frigin' middle class suburban kid!!! Brothah this, sistah that... every other word he speaks. It's really laughable.

hen West and Summers met face to face, it was two BeeEssers çr@pping on each other. And in this case the $/imey Summers was right. West peppers his talk with "ya know" all over the place. THIS is a disciplined academic? GMAFB!!!

Who is the real Cornel West? We'll never know for sure, but I think his objective is to be the most successful jive-talker in the halls of academe.

[madtom]

07:09 PM on 10/04/2009

Some random stuff NOT found in the Harvard curriculum, nor in Professor West's canon:

"A harmful truth is better than a helpful lie" -- Thomas Mann

"For here we are not afraid to follow the truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it". -- Thomas Jefferson

"In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I'd become my enemy
In the instant that I preach"

-- Bob Dylan

The PC folks have turned a tool against hate speech into a formidable, Orwellian attack weapon against dissent -- and that PC dialectic most certainly IS central to Cornel West's ideology and vocabulary.

[avah]

07:57 PM on 10/04/2009

Agreed. Looks like a few of us are onto him.

[DCBarrister]

09:14 PM on 10/04/2009

Some random things no longer said about Harvard since Cornel West was run out of town.

* top African American scholars in the world
* home of the leading African American studies department (now it's at Princeton with Dr. West)

You can't even form basic sentences without help...who are you to make commentary about one of the top scholars of this century?

Try again, Obamacon, your ignorance is showing.

[madtom]

06:51 PM on 10/04/2009

Innocent post, busted again.

[jessicajuliette]

09:06 PM on 10/04/2009

sounds like someone is having a hissy fit......

[DCBarrister]

09:15 PM on 10/04/2009

Don't mind madtom, the nurses haven't changed out the lithium drip.

Cornel West is 100% correct here.

[moralmajority]

05:10 PM on 10/04/2009

Thank you KPFK.org the only radio station worth listening to in LA. Cornel is completely correct in his assessment

[Matt7]

04:46 PM on 10/04/2009

"He's a man who has successfully merged his Ivy League intellect with his "Blackness." He makes no apologies for he is and has the brains to explain to anyone why he is the way he is. He is a professional academic and cultural muckraker. With Cornell West, you get all the man before you."

"Dr. West doesn't have to deal with politics and Congress and Republicans and Blue Dogs and so on to get things done. Dr. West as president right now wouldn't get anything done because his strategy would be "My way or the highway" and that would get no results. .... But it would be fun to hear him rip Repubs *and* Dems from a podium in the House, even with the government at a standstill."

It took quotes from two different people, but that is Dr. Cornell West in a nutshell. I respect his intellect, but it's easy to presume to govern from the relative and unchallenged safety of an academic ivory tower.

Not unlike many across the internet who presume to navigate the country's turbulent roads from the latrine of their double wide.

[DCBarrister]

08:14 PM on 10/04/2009

Barack Obama's junkyard of broken campaign promises and full-out lies to the liberal Democrats he beguiled into voting for him continues to turn his presidency into something better suited for a latrine.

Keep the change.

Hillary 2012

[madtom]

09:04 PM on 10/04/2009

1749 posts -- and you joined us in September, 2009.

What a PROLIFIC little fellow you are!

I guess you must work at one of those law firms that still charges by the word.

[k6007]

04:33 PM on 10/04/2009

Is cornel related to kanye? The Pdiddy of black american intellectualism.

[avah]

07:59 PM on 10/04/2009

Lose the "intellectualism" part and you're right.

[antworks]

02:42 PM on 10/04/2009

From: The Prophet Richard Elijah
** please consult THE LORD's website to see if HE has anything to say on this subject of 'who Larry Summers is' ****

I spoke to Larry Summers telepathically. Only one question was asked, "Who are you Larry Summers? Describe yourself to America." This is the response I received, "I am the animal that used to be a human being named Larry Summers." This was all I, Prophet Richard Elijah, was interested in knowing about this man [who we now is an "animal".].

**************************************************************************************************************
Note: This is Richard Anthony speaking now.
On another note, I've been asking myself this question, Mr. West. I enjoy reading your opinions and listening to your views about the Obama Administration. But, I keep asking myself this question. Will what the first Black President in this nation's history ever be able to do enough for the minority community to satisfy prominent intelectuals like yourself? It sure seems like the answer is no, at the moment. He has to be a President for all of America, Mr. West. Yes, our minority communities are hurting economically. The whole country is. My point is this; It has taken over century of economic and financial disinvestment in our communities to bring us to these dismal conditions. How is one four year (maybe eight year) administration suppose to rectify all of that harm?

[PrinceHal]

04:08 PM on 10/04/2009

You write this to Cornel West: "But I keep asking myself this question. Will what the first Black President in this nation's history ever be able to do enough for the minority community to satisfy prominent intelectuals like yourself?"

Mr. Anthony, You should first ask yourself why so many, black and white, who voted for President Obama are now disillusioned by the difference between the presentation and the performance of the man they now have in the White House. Remember, we're not talking about the people who didn't vote for him -- nor any of those who would have hated and made trouble for him regardless.

[DCBarrister]

08:17 PM on 10/04/2009

I'm an African American. Who never even considered supporting Barack Obama.
A decade or so ago, we were calling Bill Clinton our first black President, and Barack Obama dishonestly plays the race card and suddenly President Clinton is a racist.

That move alone showed me the same level of cowardice and dishonest ambition that fuels 99% of the attitude of the so-called black Harvard elite.

The second Cornel West was run out of town by Summers, I knew that my law school career would never begin or end at Harvard. And I am a better lawyer and person for it.

Keep the change

Hillary 2012

To answer your question...Barack Obama is becoming the Clarence Thomas of presidents.
That's why he doesn't resonate with tens of millions of black Americans.