Cobb

Oh man! That was some good stuff. He's good. Wow.

I don't like Dyson. But you certainly can't say he doesn't understand his loyalties.

Yeah, it was really just nice to hear someone tell it like they think it is, unvarnished, and without any political hedging. That's refreshing.

I would urge all to be skeptical of any punditry by M.E. Dyson. Any Negro who appeals to Hebrew folktales to existentially justify himself should be viewed with skepticism.

It would impress me if he engaged in serious intellectual work, and stopped putting out these popular tabloidy rags call books. What fundamental contributions do they make.

But, as Marie Antoinette once said...Let them eat cake.

--DM

Dyson is special. Not in a good way. He gave the best lecture on hip-hop I've ever heard, but I'll be damned if he never ever ever talks about his SPECIALTY--religion. He's not a social scientist. He's the left version of a Shelby Steele....

or a Thomas Sowell, come to think about it. Only in this case Dyson has the history right.

Ok. I'm listening...and I don't see anything wrong with what he's saying. His analysis is on point. His command of the history is right. What he's doing that I can see Mike and others disagreeing with is making the case that the class warfare within black communities is wrongheaded.

Not only that but he goes out of his way to talk about the EVIL of corporate profits by making a fetish of Ken Lay and Enron. This was part of his justification for not mocking the names of Shanequa. If he'd read Freakonomics, he would have known that his rhetoric was contradicting reality.

What I was shouting at my radio was that kneejerk leftist twang against corporate profits. See here's the way it needs to go down, I interrupt the professor...

Cobb: Excuse me but I have to correct you because you just said something very offensive.

Dyson: Did I?

Cobb: You went straight from corporate profits to Ken Lay and Enron. If you can do that, I can go straight from black power to OJ Simpson. Or I can go straight from African Americans to crime. You mischaracterize what corporations are and what they do by talking about the isolated criminals.

Dyson: Err.. Mumble...

Cobb: If that's what you mean to say, that we should be leery and suspicious of all corporations because of the crimes committed by a few..

Dyson: I see your point.

Cobb: But do you stand corrected?

Dyson: I feel you my corporate brother..

Cobb: That'll do pig.