Open Letter to Team Zeteo
Re: Presidential candidate Dr. Cornel West
Intention
Welcome, Readers.
I’m writing this letter to the following:
Dear One Mehdi Hasan
Team Zeteo
Readers who resonate with Zeteo (Greek)
“To Express a Hope on the part of the Speaker that Another should Live.”
Readers who resonate with Guiding Principles
I am encouraged by this venture known as Team Zeteo.
Regarding an interview with Dr. Cornel West entitled, “‘We Call for Revolution’: Cornel West Defends His Independent Presidential Bid - Mehdi Unfiltered.”
Transparency
Readers,
I have invited Team Zeteo to be a contributor for this post.
My interventions are strongly worded. I am investing my energies here because I want to see that Mehdi Unfiltered; Team Zeteo platform is revolutionary.
I would enjoy to see Team Zeteo succeed in its stated mission re: “bias towards democracy and human rights.”
Sincerely Me,
Being
Earth Sanctuary
Structure
The layout of this letter is as follows:
I comment on the content of the interview near minute 20.
I observe a clear shift in the tone and pace.
I illuminate a pattern of bias against presidential candidate Cornel West.
I describe the tones I perceive in this interview.
I ground these observations in the words of the interview itself.
I assert my opinion.
The pattern of bias against presidential candidate West is counter to Team Zeteo’s stated intentions re: “bias toward democracy and human rights.”
I provide clarification and insight.
It is imperative this bias against a (1) Black american (2) presidential candidate is addressed and corrected.
Reverberating Impact.
Bias against candidate West undermines global solidarity between Black, Native, and Palestinian communities.
Bias against candidate West are already present in other interviews:
“DEBATE: Should Muslims vote for joe biden in November?”
Team Zeteo effectively participates with two elected officials to publically dismiss a third party presidential candidate.
Whilst begrudging the “lesser of two evils” conundrum.
Closing sentiments for consideration.
The way we interact with survivors of genocide and their descendants speaks louder than the content of the conversation itself.
Mehdi, and Team Zeteo; I am available for a conversation about the content of this post. You can send a message or leave a comment on this post directly.
Comments; a (conversational) moment in (interview) time.
I appreciate the way Dear One Mehdi started the interview with context, context, context. Beyond being informed- Mehdi connects many geo-political dots to set the conversational stage for presidential candidate Dr. West to engage.
I felt the interview started well, but as I continued to listen going into minute 20, I noticed a stark shift in tone and pace thereafter.
Going into minute 20, Mehdi asked plainly “You don’t think you can win, right?”.
This isn’t an open ended question and is telling of bias.
Mehdi then provides historical context re: the challenges of third party presidential candidates. Mehdi then asks: “So how do you win?”
Candidate West states he believes he can win because the two-party u.s. political paradigm is currently in flux.
Mehdi reiterates that many third party candidates (I.e ‘spoiler candidates’) run to help one of the other two primary candidates get elected.
“Are you going to do what {other third party candidates have done in the past to} help give the presidency to the Republican candidate…?”
This is the second question that carries a subtext that candidate West is not a serious candidate.
Minute 22 Mehdi asks again “Are you worried that you might help Trump get re-elected?”.
This is a third statement to hold a similar subtext of candidate West.
Going into minute 23, Mehdi identifies president joe biden as a “neoliberal centrist”, and candidate West adds another qualifier: genocide denier.
Minute 23. Mehdi quotes candidate West who, in 2020, was suggesting that ‘biden’s neoliberalism will be worse than trump’s fascism’.
Mehdi then asks; “why in 2020 do we need to stop trump’s fascism but in 2024, we don’t?”
Beyond personal bias against candidate West, there is no basis for this question whatsoever. Here is a fourth time this bias has come through.
Let’s put aside the glaring fact that, at the time of the quote (in point 6), biden was not actively engaged in funding / denying genocide as a sitting president.
The idea that candidate West is suggesting trump’s fascism ‘doesn’t need to be stopped’ has no basis. That is, unless you believe West’s third party candidacy will give the election to the republican candidate.
I invite and make room for clarification from Mehdi or Team Zeteo at this point.
I am hard pressed to find any evidence that candidate West is unaware / does not take seriously the impact of a third party candidacy in a two-party u.s. election system in 2024.
Dear One Mehdi,
Regarding third party presidential candidacy:
I understand your concerns and I personally feel they are (i.e. valid) rooted in historical u.s. political context and socio-political discourse.
However, the bias I illuminate here also regards a perceived (in)ability of candidate West to impact an upcoming 2024 u.s. election.
The bias I illuminate here also regards Team Zeteo’s influence re: free-to-public socio-political discourse.
If Team Zeteo were to pick any time ‘to be biased toward democracy and human rights’…
If not now, then when? After another national round of ‘pick-your-poison-president’?
Illumination: Tonal patterns.
Going into minute 24 Mehdi’s response to West’s assertion that he “can beat trump” was “ok.”
Remaining unconvinced is not problematic in and of itself.
However, this next question…
“You can beat him in a one on one but can you beat him in a three party election?”
…starts a series of redundant follow up questions.
Instead of listening to a Black american trying to grasp what is arguably an unprecedented moment in u.s. socio-political history, you insist on asking the same redundant questions.
Going into minute 26 and 27 especially highlights this fact.
“So you’re not stepping down even if another candidate comes forward {to replace either of the other two candidates}?”
“so you’re not stepping down?”
“so you’re not stepping down?”
“…you’re not leaving the race?”
Again and again you continue to interrupt someone who has (1) been clear from the start that they are serious in their candidacy and (2) provided socio-political context as to how/why this chance is achievable in 2024.
I could continue to zoom in on the specific ways Mehdi spoke over / interrupted, asked / reframed irrelevant questions (hint: what bernie sanders thinks of Dr. West’s candidacy is not particularly insightful here).
However, I am confident I have established this pattern as a problematic bias against both (1) candidate West and (2) the stated intentions of Team Zeteo.
Dear One Mehdi,
The insights you’re looking for here could have been found when candidate West described the two-party u.s. candidacy system being in flux. But instead of allowing this socio-political context to be fully present, you continue to pivot back into this default: ‘third party gives presidency to republicans’ and ‘third party = spoiler candidate’.
Reverberating Impact
I encourage us all to internalize why an interview with a Black american presidential candidate absolutely should not take this tone.
Candidate West’s community directly involves Black / African american communities and Native american / american Indian communities by both extension and proxy.
There are coalitions and solidarity created between Black and Palestinian communities.
There are coalitions and solidarity created between Native and Palestinian communities.
I encourage Team Zeteo to further consider the inter-community coalitions candidate West himself has built over a lifetime career as both activist and philosopher.
Going into minute 10: When asked about the role the u.s. could play in sustaining Peace in the middle east, among the tangible / concrete / achievable strategies candidate West mentioned was: preserving the memory of a people.
Ensuring the “living memories” of Palestinian people are preserved - given space to Be Here Now - directly counters the patterns of settler-colonialism toward erasure of Indigenous peoples.
This is about the way we interact with survivors of genocide and their descendants.
“That Another shall Live”
‘Zeteo’ is already the precedent between Black, Native, and Palestinian communities.
Dear One,
Socio-political spheres in the US are frustrating, to say the absolute least. We witness too many people faithfully devoted dis-believing anything survivors of genocide say.
But we also know why fervent genocide denial is the political status quo.
Because a national-historical precedent has already been set to not believe survivors when they come forward.
Especially when there has been so much concerted effort to portray these survivors as un-human.
Here, you are interviewing a Black american presidential candidate who believes we can effectively disrupt this “lesser of two evils” conundrum.
There needs to be more solidarity with such momentum.
Observations re: Compounding Interest
This pattern of bias is already reverberating in other interviews on the Team Zeteo platform.
In the interview “DEBATE: Should Muslims vote for joe biden in November?”, the entire premise of this titular question, and all of the questions within the conversation itself, are based on the premise of two candidates in a two party system.
Mehdi states “…att. gen. Keith Ellison suggests there are only two candidates…Cornel West is on the ballot but he can’t win.”
Here, Mehdi is not only uncritical of these notions, his tone suggests he agrees with these sentiments. Mehdi only acknowledges candidate West long enough to dismiss this candidacy as ‘unable to win’.
I’ll also note how this “DEBATE” occurs shortly after Mehdi personally gave public support of “much of {candidate West’s platform} policies” in the previous interview!
All participants in this “DEBATE” are clear on how we have seen genocide occur under both presidencies: biden and trump.
However, there is no support of candidate West’s politically viable positions, nor any mention of the specific strategies candidate West talked about in the Mehdi Uncensored interview.
Effectively, Mehdi and Team Zeteo participate with two acting elected officials to publicly dismiss a third party presidential candidate.
Both in action and in word, Mehdi, it is clear you do not believe West’s candidacy is politically viable.
Even so, at the bare minimum: candidate West’s political strategies need to be used to inform discourse of the 2024 u.s. presidential election.
I am here to witness the bias toward democracy and human rights be upheld; to maintain Team Zeteo’s guiding principles.
Especially when we are clear that a two party system isn’t a complete democratic process.
Setting up a socio-political narrative re: “lesser of two evils” and then asking ‘for whom should Arabs / Muslims vote?’ felt insulting to me, personally.
It seems disingenuous to dismay over the “lesser of two evils” quandary when Mehdi just interviewed a third party candidate who provided achievable socio-political goals.
For all of the 'being in support of many of your political views’ to candidate West, I find hypocrisy where you, Mehdi, failed to bring in any of West’s political talking points into the “DEBATE”.
Even just to raise the “lesser of two evils” socio-political discourse bar out of hell.
And now the entire comments section of this “DEBATE” is full of listeners who quickly slipped into implementing (1) bias against candidate West and (2) the erasure of his socio-political interventions.
These outcomes I’ve described here directly counter Team Zeteo’s assertion of “bias toward democracy and human rights.”
For Your Consideration
If there is anything that I could impress upon Team Zeteo, and Mehdi specifically:
The way you interact with descendants of survivors of plantation trafficking speaks louder than the content of the conversation itself.
It is clear you are unaware of the international connections between Black, Native, and Palestinian communities.
When you speak over a descendant of survivors of plantation trafficking, it makes me question how you would treat the descendants of survivors of other genocides.
The way you choose to not remember candidate West’s socio-political interventions, communal achievements, or political contributions renders your verbal assertions of support meaningless.
The way you (1) participate with standing elected officials to (2) publicly dismiss a third party presidential candidate just so you can (3) bemoan the woes of the “two-party” conundrum speaks
VOLUMES
in
ENTIRE
Libraries.
Dear Ones: Readers, Team Zeteo, and Mehdi Hasan.
I thank you all for your time and energies here. May each of us continue to Be a Solution to each Here Now Moment.
To continue our bias toward democracy and human rights.
Zeteo.
Sincerely Me,
Being
Earth Sanctuary.
