Reflecting on speeches at the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” speech, Professor Cornel West lamented how the event was marked by “the coronation of the bonafide house negro of the Barack Obama plantation, our dear brother Al Sharpton.”
Mediaite has audio of West’s comments on the Tavis Smiley Show, where he said if this anniversary had happened during the Clinton presidency we would have seen the same things.
He described “the Clinton plantation” as “very similar” to the Obama plantation. West said the difference would have been that Jesse Jackson was willing to step out under Clinton, whereas “Sharpton is not.”
West said Martin Luther King Jr. “would just shed tears” if he could see black leadership personified by Sharpton at this point in time.
Added West: “[Black leadership] is just so sold out, it’s so bought out, it is so differential, [and] it is so subservient.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.
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