West GS ’80, Brazile talk on politics

African American studies professor Cornel West GS ’80 held a discussion with Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist and political commentator, on the topic of politics and their effects on African Americans in McCosh Hall on Thursday.

Religion professor Eddie Glaude Jr. GS ’97, chair of the Center for African American Studies, introduced Brazile, describing her as embodying the “sweetness, the style and the swag of her native New Orleans.”

In the discussion, Brazile and West focused on the need for Americans to see past partisan conflicts and focus on directing the United States toward a promising future.

“Dr. King believed that we, as a people, would not get to the Promised Land,” Brazile said. “I believe that we are stuck on that mountain, afraid to go further, waiting to take a temperature of whether or not most Americans want to go forward. So we’re waiting for someone to lead us, afraid to go on our own, afraid to take the necessary steps and risks to move forward as a country.”

Brazile and West agreed that the election of President Barack Obama had been a “very important milestone” for the United States, but Brazile stressed that the current presidency does not mean that America is now “post-racial.”

West also repeated criticisms of Obama that he expressed in an interview with the Russian TV network RT earlier this month. “I’m unsure what [Obama] really stands for,” West said, noting he was disappointed in Obama’s choice of bringing “extensions of Wall Street” into the White House.

“God bless Brother Summers,” West added, referring to Director of the White House National Economic Council Larry Summers.

Brazile also described Obama as a pragmatist, but added that, “as [Jesse] Jackson said, there are tree shakers and there are jelly makers.”

“I’m a tree shaker,” she said. “But a president has to be a jelly maker to get things done.”

Later she added, “Obama makes jambalaya better than anyone I’ve ever seen.”

Throughout their discussion, Brazile used numerous New Orleans food analogies, at one point explaining, “I could make sports analogies, but I don’t want to give men that pleasure.”

Brazile and West then proceeded to make several football analogies about Obama’s political policies.

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Brazile also stressed the need for “marching in the streets,” saying, “When I used to run campaigns, the day after election, I would organize marches.”

“When we put Obama in the White House, the next day we should have gotten up, put our boots on, and gone to the White House and said, ‘Now it’s time to talk,’ ” she explained. “Instead, we waited. We forgot that we’re the change that we are looking for. We forgot that we are the movement.”

Brazile said that the tea party had filled this gap in awareness, and added that she understood the “tune they marched to.”

“[It’s an] old, dry tune,” she said. “How can you get your groove on with that kind of tune?”

Toward the end of their discussion, Brazile and West also discussed contemporary pop culture and what it shows about American society.

West suggested that today’s youths are faced with “weapons of mass distraction,” citing the recent film “The Social Network” as evidence for a “spiritual malnutrition in today’s youth approaching constipation.”

At the end of the discussion, Brazile said of West, “We could talk all day.” Their discussion was met with a standing ovation.

Brazile directed Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000 and was the first African-American woman to manage a major presidential campaign. Brazile is also the interim chair of the Democratic National Committee and the former chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Voting Rights Institute.