How Barack Obama Failed Black America | Ideas

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The Great Black Prophetic Tradition in the Obama Era

The great paradox of our time is that, in the Obama era, the great black prophetic tradition has been weakened. Obama, as the black face of the American Empire, has made it difficult for brave and radical black voices to criticize the system. On the empirical or experiential level of the black experience, people have suffered more in this era than in the recent past. Rates of infant mortality, mass incarceration and unemployment, as well as the drastic decline in family income, attest to this sad reality.

There are three main causes of the decline of the prophetic tradition. First, figures who no longer hold black leadership, leaving a vacancy for elected officials of the hegemonic political system to take their place. This change has led to the absence of critical voices within the system. Secondly, this neoliberal transformation generates a culture of unbridled ambition and instant success that attracts the majority of potential leaders and intellectuals, incorporating them into the ranks of the neoliberal regime. Thirdly, the heartless repressive apparatus of the neoliberal regime persecutes the most energetic and dedicated prophetic leaders, activists and intellectuals, discrediting or even assassinating them.

The main task of the mass media, especially the corporate ones indebted to the North American neoliberal regime, is to feed a narrow and adulterated public discourse, excluding prophetic and radical voices.

Despite the rise of the neoliberal regime, the black prophetic tradition has never been limited to the interests and problems of black people; it is founded on principles and visions that reconcile those interests and address those problems, but its message is addressed both to the American nation and to the world. When the black prophetic tradition is strong, the poor and workers of all colors benefit.

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Cornel West (Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1953) is a philosopher and activist. This excerpt is a preview of his book ‘Black Prophetic Fire’, from Ediciones del Oriente y del Mediterráneo, which will be published in Spanish on December 13.

The Obama era has been built on three pillars: the crimes committed by Wall Street during the 2008 financial catastrophe; imperialist crimes; and the social crimes perpetrated by a criminal justice system that is itself criminal—it acquits torturers, wiretapping cops, and Wall Street investors who break the law, but sends poor criminals like those accused of drug possession. In the Obama era, black America is mired in despair, confusion and defeat.

The righteous indignation of the black prophetic tradition is not only directed against the oppressive system that subjugates us, but against the fraudulent figures who pose as prophets while covering up the suffering of the people. Given the current state of affairs, the black prophetic tradition is fundamentally committed to prioritizing the poor and the workers, therefore opposing the neoliberal regime, the capitalist system and the imperialist policy of the North American Government.

The excerpt highlights the weakening of the great black prophetic tradition in the Obama era, citing the causes of its decline and the impact it has had on the suffering of the black community in America. The insightful analysis by philosopher and activist Cornel West provides a thought-provoking perspective on the current state of affairs.