President Obama's top economic advisor, Lawrence Summers, is finally out the door. The former Harvard University President resigned from Obama's Council of Economic Advisors amidst questions about his performance. Summers came to represent the very worst of the economic crisis. He was the man in charge, next to the man in charge, as the world came to associate Harvard University economists with the financial destruction of America.
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Summers wasn't a bad economist, but he was hardly an adequate representative of the American people. He was part of the academic aristocracy, the nephew of (not one, but) two Nobel Prize winners and the son of two Yale university professors. Needless to say, Summers was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and doesn't know a thing about economic struggle. He worked hard for what he ultimately received, but quite a few doors were open to him from birth. He personified the white male affirmative action program that has been in existence since slavery. At the very least, the chances of a black man having two Yale professors in his family (let alone a Nobel Prize winner) are virtually non-existent due to Jim Crow. So, if Lawrence Summers had been born as one of "us," we wouldn't even know his name.
Summers has insulted women, remarking that it might be plausible that men are intellectually superior in math and science. He has insulted the black community, by attempting to argue that the work of the great Cornel West was somehow not representative of true scholarship. The reality was that the brilliant work of Dr. West is not representative of Lawrence Summers' scholarship -- the kind that existed at Harvard long before African Americans were allowed to attend the university. Even to this day, Harvard university has an abysmal and embarrassing record when it comes to granting tenure to African American faculty.
It is because Lawrence Summers represented the worst of academia that I was ashamed and saddened that Barack Obama chose to hire him. Lawrence Summers wasn't even equipped to do what's right for white America, let alone black America. He had more ties to Wall Street than Dow Jones, making him hardly the kind of man to lead an administration allegedly founded on the concepts of hope and change.
I am not sure if Lawrence Summers made the personal decision to leave office, or if someone came along and gave him a "
Shirley Sherrod." Either way, I say good riddance. President Obama would be well-advised to avoid returning to the same Ivy League well to get his next economic advisor. Lawrence Summers was simply a horrible pick, and I am personally wondering how a man of the people can be so blinded and beholden to America's academic elite.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 
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By: Nox Edge on 9/23/2010 5:16AM
That is bed news for USA and specially Barak Obama.As far as, he has gone not we have to see, who next?
http://noxedgereviews.org/
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By: moptop on 9/24/2010 2:02PM
Some of what you say is acceptable to me but what you think about the political left is wrong. We are the people who do the work and pay the bills. We unlike the cooperate elite suffer the pains and take the blame for every problem this country has ever encountered. The wars we do not make yet we shed the deepest blood. The wealth we do not get yet we pay the tax on it. The foundation of every good inside this nation is of that left thinking frontal lobe for cognitive reasoning yet we are without any hope and change for that good to mature inside of you. WHY?
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By: moptop on 9/23/2010 2:50PM
Some of what you say is acceptable to me but what you think about the political left is wrong. We are the people who do the work and pay the bills. We unlike the cooperate elite suffer the pains and take the blame for every problem this country has ever encountered. The wars we do not make yet we shed the deepest blood. The wealth we do not get yet we pay the tax on it. The foundation of every good inside this nation is of that left thinking frontal lobe for cognitive reasoning yet we are without any hope and change for that good to mature inside of you. WHY?
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By: Joseph M.Dolcy on 9/23/2010 11:26PM
theoricly, you can be excellent but to perform excellentely you need to be a man of the field and have te field'sataff support!
Thanks
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By: rasfanta on 9/27/2010 9:49PM
Yes, he is gone. I understand that Rahm emmanual is also planning to leave and run for mayor of chicago. Summers made sure the elite got what they wanted: a weak, watered down health reform. They made sure no single payor, medicare buy-in or public option was done. insurance companies were given a windfall with mandatory insurance requirements. Summers and company made sure financial reform will not stop wall street's greedy practices: Too big to fail continues; bad accounting practices continue, OTC derivatives continue, bailouts will continue. The legislation that was enacted following the 1929 great depression to prevent what we are experiencing today, was not reinstated. Regulatory oversight remains weak. There is nothing for them to hang around for. They got what they wanted and obama and the american people are again left holding the bag. so sad.
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