Goodbye, Friend: Michael Eric Dyson On His Break With Mentor Cornel West

Goodbye, Friend: Michael Eric Dyson On His Break With Mentor Cornel West
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 23: Cornel West speaks onstage at Advertising Week: Here Are All The Black People at Metropolitan Pavilion on September 23, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 23: Cornel West speaks onstage at Advertising Week: Here Are All The Black People at Metropolitan Pavilion on September 23, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images)

It was personal.

In Michael Eric Dyson’s takedown for The New Republic of his friend and mentor Cornel West, he has a come-to-Jesus moment that is neither pretty nor kind, but painfully blunt. The realization comes to Dyson that West is a parody of the intellectual he once was, that his vicious and often personal attacks on President Barack Obama have come at a cost—the loss of his credibility.

And the loss of their 35-year friendship.

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