Last Thursday, Cornel West sat for an interview on CNN International where he lauded President Biden and took jabs at former President Barack Obama in regards to their stances on race, reported The Grio.
West, likening Biden to President Lyndon B. Johnson, noted that his transformation is what makes him praiseworthy. “He reminds me very much of LBJ, who started as a White supremacist from Jim Crow Texas and ended up one of the major forces for good against White supremacy. That’s why you never give up on people,” West said.
West, whose comments seemed to be inspired by the fact that Biden mentioned his plans to tackle racism and law enforcement issues in his first speech to Congress last week. Apparently, that was all it took for West to flip from believing Biden is a “milquetoast, mediocre Centrist,” to a president who will be a “strong force for good” against white supremacy.
No interview involving West would be complete without him gratuitously broaching Barack Obama. “He’s brilliant, he’s Black, he’s poised, and so forth. Didn’t have the courage. Didn’t have the willingness to fight that Biden does when it comes to this issue when it comes to a variety of issues,” he said.
During the Obama presidency, West tag-teamed with Tavis Smiley in rants about why he was not fit for the office. The criticism began over something that sounded personal. West started comparing Obama to Machiavelli when he only received one ticket to the 2009 Inauguration instead of the three he requested. Smiley complained in 2011 that Obama was the only president to never invite him to the White House.
West, who calls himself a non-Marxist socialist, has shown Biden, who had a poor record on race as a senator, much more grace in 100 days than he showed Obama during his entire presidency. But, his grace may be premature as Biden has only spoken about his ideas on hot-button issues like race and police brutality. So far, there has been no substantive national policy change.
Cornel West was an on-again-off-again professor at Harvard.
