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Authors Tavis Smiley (L) and Dr. Cornell West attend Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World Gala at the Frederick P. Rose Hall at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 5, 2009 in New York City.

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Princeton University professor Cornel West and broadcaster Tavis Smiley have been two of President Obama’s most outspoken critics.

West has called the President a “black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs” and “someone who was using intermittent progressive populist language in order to justify a centrist, neoliberalist policy”—some pretty strong words from a man who supported the President in the 2008 campaign. So what caused the riff? With 50 million Americans—one in six—living in poverty and a black unemployment rate that is double that of whites, both Smiley and West believe that the Obama Administration isn’t doing enough to help make the economic playing field more equal.

In an effort to put a human face on the economic crisis, the two joined forces in August 2011 for The Poverty Tour—a bus tour of 18 cities across nine states. Smiley called what he witnessed both “inspiring” and “heartbreaking,” noting that “Americans who were recently middle class are now considered the ‘new poor’.” What ideas do West and Smiley have for President Obama to combat poverty in America and how economically and politically feasible will they be to implement? Does the President have any special obligation to address those suffering in the black community? Given the state of the economy and the political realities Obama has to grapple with, is West and Smiley’s criticism of the President justified, or unproductive?

West has called the President a “black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs” and “someone who was using intermittent progressive populist language in order to justify a centrist, neoliberalist policy.” Some pretty strong words from a man who supported the President in the 2008 campaign. So what caused the riff? With 50 million Americans, or one in six, living in poverty and a black unemployment rate that is double that of whites, both Smiley and West believe that the Obama Administration isn’t doing enough to help make the economic playing field more even.

 

Guests:

 

Tavis Smiley, broadcaster, author and co-host of the Smiley & West show on PRI

Cornel West, Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University, New York Times best-selling author and co-host of the Smiley and West show on PRI