Cornel West puts Obama's "Trayvon Martin could have been me" speech in its proper place:
Cornel West Responds to Barak Obama on Trayvon Martin (PopularResistance.Org)
CORNEL WEST: Well, the first thing, I think we have to acknowledge that President Obama has very little moral authority at this point, because we know anybody who tries to rationalize the killing of innocent peoples, a criminal—George Zimmerman is a criminal—but President Obama is a global George Zimmerman, because he tries to rationalize the killing of innocent children, 221 so far, in the name of self-defense, so that there’s actually parallels here.
AMY GOODMAN: Where?
CORNEL WEST: In Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen. So when he comes to talk about the killing of an innocent person, you say, “Well, wait a minute. What kind of moral authority are you bringing?
...
AMY GOODMAN: This is the march of the—honoring the 50th anniversary—
CORNEL WEST: The 50th anniversary.
AMY GOODMAN: —of the “I Have a Dream” speech.
CORNEL WEST: And you know what the irony is, Sister Amy? Brother Martin would not be invited to the very march in his name, because he would talk about drones. He’d talk about Wall Street criminality. He would talk about working class being pushed to the margins as profits went up for corporate executives in their compensation. He would talk about the legacies of white supremacy. Do you think anybody at that march will talk about drones and the drone president? Will you think anybody at that march will talk about the connection to Wall Street? They are all on the plantation.
I don't agree with everything West says (for example, the sentence "I do believe in self-defense, just like I believe in self-respect and self-determination, but I don’t want people armed" makes no sense) but I've got a lot of respect for him.