Every story, letter, and remembrance at paw.princeton.edu offers a chance to comment
Readers offered mixed reactions at PAW Online to a July 6 Campus Notebook story on how Professor Cornel West *80’s criticism of President Obama had stirred debate in the black community.
“It’s sad to me to see Obama cut down by the very people who initially wanted to see him succeed,” commented Alan Johnson *08. “The criticism he receives from the left is just about as harsh as that which he receives from the right.”
Ezra Mersey *82 said that while West “has brought valid attention to critical issues regarding economic imbalance that run society-wide in America,” he undercut his views “by framing the personal element of his disappointment so highly, and choosing to use what he knows very well to be historically racially charged language.”
Ira Kaplan ’83 wrote: “Obama is president, not king; I am sure there is much he wants to do that he cannot do.”
Kerry Brown ’74 offered a suggestion: “Wouldn’t it be great if Princeton sponsored a Professor West vs. Congressman/Col. West debate on this topic?”