NO TEARS FOR “VANILLA”
By David Vance On December 28th, 2012Cornel West is a prominent Obama supporter. Here’s his views post the Sandy Hook massacre…
On Thursday, Cornel West shared his thoughts about the Sandy Hook massacre on Tavis Smiley’s radio show. West expressed frustration over the media’s willingness to demand gun control when violence occurs in suburban havens like Newtown, but largely ignore minority victims in urban areas. “We can’t just shed tears for those on the vanilla side of town,”
West said. “But it’s a good thing that we now have a discussion on gun control. We need one on drone control. Not a peep, not a mumbling word when black folk get shot,” West added. “But now, Newtown, Connecticut, vanilla side — low and behold we got a major conversation. That’s wonderful. Each life is precious, but it just upsets me when we’re so deferential.”
What a degenerate,
In fairness to Obama, he has race baiting friends far worse than the airhead Cornel West.
He has attended events hosted by the NY based racial arsonist Al Sharpton, who is also a friend and ally of both Clintons.
West is a treasure.
I won’t get into a big debate here, but I find him to be both a lightweight and a barely literate individual.
On this site, which is rarely confused with a Mensa bulletin board, he’d be deep in the lower quartile. He’s perfect for ” African American Studies ” , a squishy subject. I’d love to know what his grades were in the hard sciences, and math, subjects that you can’t jive and bullshit your way through, subjects in which there is only one correct answer, arrived at by logic.
West has made his living on this type of racial nonsense. There has been huge media attnetion here in NY over the deaths of minority children due to gun violence. West however sees everything through a racial lense. He is a one ring circus.
And Tavis Smiley, the talk show host, also plays the race angle quite often. And he lets characters liek West get away with crazy statements all the time.
Opposed to having one almighty irremovable chip on his shoulder
Tavis Smiley can be a damned good interviewer. But this stuff, correctly, puts him in the limiting category of ” black interviewer “. He does it to himself.
And it pisses me off – esp since his personal story –rising from very real poverty – makes me want to root for him more.
Cornel West actually participated in a ” rap music ” recording, shucking and jiving and bejabbering, trying to to appeal to the young illiterati.
And he is a professor at Princeton University.
I’m not commenting on either men but I really don’t see anything wrong with his point…there’s some truth to the statement….I’m not offended by the vanilla part either. The last few times blacks and whites really came together on controversial issues big changes happened…think the civil rights movement and ending the VN war. Think what might happen if they come together on gun control.
There is some merit to the point, but it comes from one who has spent a lifetime in race baiting, and to see him seeing the deaths of ” white children ” as politically useful is as vile as seeing the NRA element trying to shut all argument for proper controls down.
You should not need a racial lens for this. He is the moral equal of Allan and his groupies here on this one.
Can you imagine how long a white public figure would last if he referred to an area as the chocolate side of town? Zero seconds before a howling storm of indignation would reduce him to ashes.
West makes his living playing up the racial divide. There are enough real race issues in America, we don’t need him to create more tension.
After reading this site for so many years, it’s hard to be offended by anything…I haven’t listened to the radio program so I don’t know what has been said exactly and we know a lot of quotes cited on this site tend not to be quotes at all. If West is race baiting then he’s doing more harm than good for his cause of the day…back to work…busy day ahead.
He does have a point.
When Bill Cosby commented on the sad state of black communities, minus fathers, minus middle class values language and all, everyone jumped all over him. But he was saying the same thing.
Gang gun violence in black communities is a far greater killer than mass killers and yet the MSM don’t care to address it while West and others glorify gun violence in rap. Just look at the stats in Chicago.
I see your point, David, but I thnk the real problem with West’s comment – aside from the offensive “vanilla” racism – is that it threatens to take the sanctimonious gun controllers off their mark.
Bill Cosby is a thinker, an intellectual.
Cornel West is an empty suit.
Gang violence (and gun violence) in the black community is not addressed in the mainstream media? I suppose that except for the fact that it has been covered by every major network, magazine and newspaper that such a statement could be made.
Allow me to point our something to Professor West, who seems bothered by the flavor of the Sandy Hook incident. Trayvon Martin’s shooting death was covered as a headline story with front page attention for days if not weeks even though he was not vanilla.
The inconvenient fact for the Gun Nuts though is that the huge majority of serial killers and mass killers are angry white males.
I think that none of the perpetually Angry White Males here, both the Americans and the Wanabees, should be allowed to get within five city blocks of a loaded weapon.
Shall we agree on this?
Angry White Males
Angry because there’s genocide and colonisation going on all around them, surely?
Chicago (Rhamaland) yesterday recorded its 500th homicide. Most of the dead were killed by guns and are black.
Maybe gun control advocates do have a point after all. The history of gun control in the US a history of attempts to keep guns away from blacks. Since nothing can be left off the table, and since intelligent attempts to reduce gun crime must be entertained, profiling by colour will no doubt be welcomed.
If you disagree then you don’t care about gun crime.
Phantom -
The inconvenient fact is that rednecks, Tea Party types, conservatives and other patriots rarely figure on the rolling news.
These spree killers increasingly seem to be young, nerdy, awkward, Democrats.
Pete – Actually profiling by economic status would be more appropriate, if of course we decided to isolate one fact only, ignore all otehr facts and then apply it to a complicated issue.
Pete
Please back up that assertion.
That the killers themselves were ” Democrats “
A lot of the gang related murders are of one another or others in the illegal drugs trade.
To some extent, they are doing society a favor in these pursuits.
Phantom -
Come on. Look at Lanza, Loughner, the Columbine pair and that Korean one. They ain’t Republicans. They were Democrats, like the militia members who were duped by the FBI into planning terrorist attacks. We remember how the media splashed that around until most of them were revealed to be registered Democrats.
Come on, Democrats need to look at themselves, at how their beliefs foster extremism among the young.
Not seeing the evidence bro.
Most of them might not know what a Democrat or Republican was.
Breivik and McVeigh were no Democrats.
Oh for God sakes some idiot could claim Republicans make serial killers (ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy) and they would deserve to be dismissed as readily as Pete’s specious allegation.
He seems like total idiot!
Pete
Come on! That is tenuous, to say the least.
Aileen -
I’m simply asking for some timely liberal self reflection.
If they can’t even do that …
There was an armed guard at the movie theater I attended recently and I felt much safer.
That’s the kind of society that you want to live in?
If more of us had concealed weapon permits I guess we wouldn’t need the armed guard…is that what you mean?
you can’t actually be implying that a gun free zone would be safer, are you, Phantom? cuz that would be very foolish.
the Colorado shooter specifically sought out a theater in a gun free zone (it was posted for all to see) and he chose that theater. I think all of of the mass shootings have occurred in gun free zones, now that I think of it, with one exception that I cant remember.
Maybe if the MSM didn’t publicize the killers of these sprees with such obvious gusto we wouldn’t have so many…ever thought of that, Phantom?
I’m not crazy about of the idea of a guy with a loaded pistol lurking at the back of the theater.
If that’s what it’s come to, I’ll rent from now on.
That’s no way to live.
There seems to be a misunderstanding about the vanilla quote…he wasn’t ‘t quoted in full…what he said was we shouldn’t only cry for the white children, we should be crying for the children of color too. He wasn’t saying don’t she’d tears for what kids at all. He was saying all the murdered children deserve tears no matter where they’re from or the color of their skin. With that said, he’s not very well spoken.
What was the name of the armed man?
What were his qualifications?
Movie theaters are not known for paying a lot of money to employees – I used to work in one. ( summer job )
Who was that Saturday Live character who used to go on rants because she misunderstood something…played by Gilda Radner…anyway…that’s what this thread is like. because David misinterpreted something, created a misleading headline…and away we go with rants…someone needs to say ” never mind”.
Pete
I think the liberals may be reflecting that your link between being a Democrat and a serial killer is tenuous
There was an armed guard at Columbine, A police force at Virginia Tech and, dare I say it, military at Ft. Hood.
Even cops who have lots of training make mistakes and shot bystanders (and sometimes each other). Do I want a minimum wage security guard at a movie theater ready to start shooting when he thinks it is appropriate? Worse yet, how about the other patrons all deciding in the dark as to who is a shooter, who may be with a shooter and if there is even a shooter.
More people with guns means more potential for people to get killed with guns.
This is a discussion long deferred that needs to happen over the next year or two.
Not a debate. We have too many useless debates.
We need to have a rational and unemotional analysis with an eye to a huge reduction in the violence / gunshot / murder rate in the US.
Everything should be on the table – more guns, fewer guns, more regulation, no regulation.
Let’s learn from the other parts of the country and other parts of the world, as appropriate.
Thanks to Patty for bringing this thread to a discussion about guns in the public domain rather than about the false premise that folks shouldn’t cry for white kids…;-)