Black people, including President Barack Obama, are afraid to take on the issue of white supremacy, professor Cornell West said on Monday.
West, appearing on
"CNN Newsroom," was reacting to
Obama's use of the N-word on a Marc Maron podcast.
Obama said that though race relations have come a long way since the civil rights era, society is not yet cured of racism, "And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say [N-word] in public."
"Too many black people are [N-word]-ized," West said in response. "I would say the first black president has become the first [N-word]-ized black president."
Asked what that meant, West said he was describing "a black person who is afraid and scared and intimidated when it comes to putting a spotlight on white supremacy and fighting against white supremacy."
People such as himself have been told Obama can't focus on racism because he has other issues and political calculations to deal with, West said.
"We know he's president of all America, but white supremacy is American as cherry pie," West said.
He also criticized the press for focusing on how some family members quickly told Dylann Roof, the white man charged with killing nine black worshipers at Emanuel AME Church last week, they forgive him.
"You notice how quick the white press wants to accent black people forgiving?" West said.
"Forgiveness is not an utterance. It's a process. We are a loving people. We've talked to the world so much about love because we've been hated so."
He called forgiving so quickly "a twisted sympathy and a pathological empathy," adding, "You forgive as you have worked it through. You just make sure you don't hate. That's the key."
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