How do I get on the Tavis Smiley mailing list? Sorry Tavis, I missed the "State Of The Black Union" conference again. Damn it! I hear it was out in L.A. this year. Nice. And I hear you had some pretty heavy hitters in the house. Black dignitaries and talking heads getting together to discuss the future of our race and where we stand in A-merry-ca. You can't get any better than that. There was Michael, Cornel, Maxine, Al, and Marc, (still no Obama, but hang in there Tavis, maybe one day) and of course they all had something to say....and say....and say...
Blogger, Faye Anderson, makes good point. Why is Wells Fargo, (one of the banks responsible for the housing collapse) the primary sponsor? Still, I have to give it to my man Tavis, he sure knows how to get those corporate sponsors. I wonder if he could cancel the "State Of The Black Union" get together one year and just ask all those sponsors to donate that money to a black scholarship fund or something? I mean I like to hear Dr. Dyson and Dr. West yap away sometimes too, but I would much rather listen to some poor kid tell me how his first semester of college was paid with money from one of the sponsors thanks to Tavis. Michael (M-Diddy) Steele was there. In between licking Rush's boots Michael has been doing the black tour thing lately. And what better place to see black folks than at the "State Of The Black Union Conference." Michael and Tavis together. What more could black folks ask for? Any day now all of our problems will be solved.
Finally, I hear that Tavis had a segment for bloggers this year. That's not like Tavis. Tavis does not like us bloggers very much. And to be honest, if you judge from this post, the feelings are mutual. But I am not mad at him. Tavis is on to the power of the Internet. He saw it work for the O man, and he wants to tap into some of that magic for himself.
Oh, and one more thing: I need some help with this. (I am serious) Do we have to go to the "State of The Black Union Conference" to be able to sign on to the "Covenant with Black America"? I have been looking for that damn covenant to sign my name to it and I can't find it anywhere. I am so frustrated. I am almost as frustrated as the poor guy who left the following comments on AOL Black Voices:
"State of the Black Union" shows that tremendious [sic]amount of research was done, every year he has the same presenters and they repeat what they said the year. Knowing what the problem is not Blacks problem, we know that black males have a high percentage of school dropout, in jail, unwed fathers and on and on and on.What have the State of the Black Union done to eliminate these problems. You have great panelists but all we get is "retoric" [sic].You did not do anything to get Obama elected, why should he bend over backward to deal with you, you are a black journalist and not considered a black leader. A high percentage of Blacks don't think your forum is necessary. Dr. West and Atty. Ogletree are the only one that discuss issures[sic] with substance.Write a book of your conclusion and make another million." ~Ernie Oglesby~
Ernie, I bet you aren't on the mailing list either.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Tavis Smiley's name sounds like a minstrel show character.
ReplyDeleteI saw a good chunk of it and I understand the concerns over constant rhetoric. I can't really much that you already know...back to work!
ReplyDeleteI miss Dick Gregory...
ReplyDeleteField:
ReplyDeleteMany thanks to you for doing your "Philadelphia Reads" part - mentoring and sharing print literacy with children - authentic 'Field Negro' behavior. I'm sorry, but some of the people who comment/respond to your blogs could sure benefit from your guidance; some of our real men should follow your lead. Thanks.
"Flash"
Ummmh the President did attend via live feed from the White House, thanking Tavis...hello are you staying in tune????
ReplyDeleteI too stopped watching / paying attention to this event. Would rather spend my time actually working on something to help fix the problems we face. Don't talk about it, be about it.
ReplyDeleteI didnt watch this hot air fest on tv, but I did get some idea of its happenings from Los Angelistas blog, becuase she live-blogged the event. I encourage folks to go check it out.
ReplyDeleteL
Field, I just got back from Tavis's book speech (and our faculty reception for him) at Georgetown.
ReplyDeleteIt blew my mind. He is our Rush Limbaugh. Yes there is a personality contrast fo' sho' but he is the oppositie side of the same coin. Plenty of comparison points however. Supreme self-importance. I got to give you some details, Field. Lord...
I dislike Tavis because he continually self promotes and has no problem dropping to the lowest common denominator. The man does not like bloggers because we use our individual online spaces to tell the truth; a concept which he is not familiar with. While boot lickers like Kevin Ross may make him feel comfortable, I do not exist to prop up the ego of Tavis Smiley. I think what he did was an affront to all of the hard work that we do. If he didn't want to get cussed out all he and his crew had to do was give bloggers the respect that we deserve.
ReplyDeleteI was with my relatives in Vacherie, LA, and we talked over the panelists sometimes, listened at others, and compared what they were saying now to what they were saying in 2007 back when the point was made that Obama was not actually an African American. Discussed that for a while.
ReplyDeleteAnd then we looked up and saw security carrying this woman out. She was flailing a bit and shaking her hair all over the place. She was not a happy camper. I spent the rest of the time discussing the local plantations and how we lost our original last name due to a white person's clerical error on an elder's birth certificate, examining my grandfather's journal listing births and deaths and how much he paid for land. And sometimes I wondered, "Who was that woman they carried out and why was she so ticked off?"
Then State of the Black Union went off and the Conservative PAC came on with a 14-year-old kid imitating his mama or daddy, spouting right-wing rhetoric. Twilight zone.
I'm not on the mailing list either.
Seeing as how there aren't many nationally recognized events that celebrate black intellectualism, I wonder why we cast dispersion at this SOTBU every year. I mean, most people come off as hatin' on Tavis for his alleged hatin' on Obama. Aside from the fact that we've already elevated Obama to the status of MLK and maybe Jesus, it seems no one can criticize Obama--not even if he needs criticizing.
ReplyDeleteThe point still remains that there are no FREE public forums and events that exist such as the SOTBU that engage public intellectualism. Call it "intellectual masturbation" all you want, but its weird because we tell our kids to be professionals, to go to school, and then we don't lift examples of those that actually get to the level and actually become scholars in the tradition of DuBois, Alain Locke, B. T. Washington, E. Franklin Frazier and C. Eric Lincoln.
I think it's a good thing.
TAVIS SMILEY, seem's to have a problem with the PRESIDENT? or is it just me? but, I don't miss too much, it seem's hard for TAVIS to get with the PRESIDENT, and I am sick and tired of BLACK MEN like TAVIS SMILEY finding fault with the PRESIDENT!
ReplyDeleteTAVIS SMILEY, was on the larry king show tuesday night, and mentioned when BARACK was CAMPAIGNING, he never mentioned the word (POOR).
BARACK was trying to get that WHITE vote, and their is no way in this world, he would be PRESIDENT if he turned into JESSIE JACKSON or AL SHARPTON, when will AFRICAN AMERICAN'S get it! when you mention the word (POOR) most people think in term's of AFRICAN AMERICAN'S so should BARACK have went into the SURBURB'S telling WHITE AMERICAN'S that he was going to make life easier for POOR PEOPLE? I think not, if he had, he would not be sitting in the WHITE HOUSE! the word (POOR) mean's middle class now!
Thank you, CHRISTOPHER CHAMBER'S, TAVIS exalt's himself, I have witnessed him in action! tavis has been out their for a long time, and why isn't he into POLITIC'S! he find's time to suggest that the PRESIDENT should do this and that, but, why is he not holding a POLITICAL OFFICE, TAVIS SMILEY should be a SENATOR by now, but yet he play's it safe on the side line's! now that's just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteWould you please let me know the name of your WEBSITE.
Not only that Tavis used this event to push his latest book accountable. How many times did you hear that during the SOTBU. Even though I agree the discussion is good the man did not do it for altruistic reasons. The bottom line is Smiley is about promoting Smiley. You will not how he kept licking his lips like a snake. Even his body language betrays him.
ReplyDeleteWe all know the problems damn we have known them since the 80's I think he needs to get an endowment ready and start a school or something that people can see. Everyone is tired of these think and do nothing tanks.
ReplyDeleteD.FreeMan
www.Reachfolk.com
Have you all seen this:
ReplyDeleteDate: Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 8:50 PM
Andrew M. Manis is associate professor of history at Macon State College in Georgia and wrote this for an editorial in the Macon Telegraph.
Andrew M. Manis: When Are WE Going to Get Over It?
For much of the last forty years, ever since America "fixed" its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, "When are African Americans finally going to get over it? Now I want to ask: "When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?
Recent reports that "Election Spurs Hundreds' of Race Threats, Crimes" should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in "Bombingham," Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than "talk the talk."
Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.
We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes.
Call for their impeachment, perhaps. But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.
But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we're back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we've proven what conservatives are always saying -- that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that school children from Maine to California are talking about wanting to "assassinate Obama."
Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, "How long?"
How long before we white people realize we can't make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us?
How long until we white people can - once and for all - get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color?
How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior?
How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?
How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin?
How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?
I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners?
How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?
How long before we starting "living out the true meaning" of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that "red and yellow, black and white" all are precious in God's sight?
Until this past November 4, I didn't believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don't believe I'll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here's my three-point plan:
First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built, I'm going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.
Second, I'm going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama.
Third, I'm going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can "in spirit and in truth" sing of our damnable color prejudice, "We HAVE overcome."
**************************************
I copied this from the IMDB Board...This YT is spouting some serious truths.
Why is Tavis smiley?
ReplyDeleteBecause he's gettin paid by Wells Fargo and others to dump on the President...
Well Field, Omar Bashir might be a house negro, but he's lucky it's a Chinese house. He'll never see the inside of the Hague, nor will Mugabe probably. The Chinese have even overtaken us in the area of dictator support apparently.
ReplyDeleteI read Losangelista's live blogging of the event.
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to see Randall Robinson but other than that the event seems to be more about Tavis and less about our community.
I'm curious to see what Mr. Chambers has to say about his Tavis event. Lawd!
"Ummmh the President did attend via live feed from the White House, thanking Tavis...hello are you staying in tune????"
ReplyDeleteAnon.9:57PM, I guess the O man IS the "chosen one", because being there and being on the phone at the same times is a hell of a trick. The omnipresent one.:)
And how can I "stay in tune" if I am not on the mailing list?
Jmee, thanks for cut and pasting that post. It was pretty deep.
Christopher C. - I think you hit the nail right on the head with that one.
ReplyDeleteTavis is very much our Rush Limbaugh.
BT
Field,
ReplyDeleteYou stated, "...but I would much rather listen to some poor kid tell me how his first semester of college was paid with money from one of the sponsors..."
Should not a panel like this include young people as well? It seems to me that most of those folks are in the 50 -70 age brackets.
I'll have to agree with the Uppity Negro. Apparantly I'm the only one that does. If Tavis has an ego and is out for himself, name me the public figure who isn't. Obama? Please. We're all human and all of our leaders are flawed in some way (not that Tavis is necessarily a leader). Our only unreproachable leader was Malcolm X. And that is because he did his dirt before hitting the national stage.
ReplyDeleteYou're tired of talking? White folks aren't. Those right wing think tanks that produced the NEOCON agenda we've been suffering under are well funded and effective. You can't organize without talking. You can't create an agenda without talking. At best we can all go our separate ways hitting our tiny little fists against the walls of power individually. There is strength in numbers though if we recognize.
BTW: we understand that Obama had to do certain things to get elected. What I don't understand is why getting Obama elected is more important than implementing policy that is favorable to our community.
Are you concerned about racism? Why has the Obama administration refused to attend the UN conference on racism, citing language that calls for the mere DISCUSSION of reparations for African Americans? Are you concerned about our troops in the middle east? Why has the Obama administration vowed to move soldiers that were dying in Iraq to Afganistan to get shot up? Are you concerned about the rising costs of health care? Why has Obama not rolled out a plan for a single payer system? Are you concerned about police brutality and the prison industrial complex? Why has Obama not uttered one word on the subject?
I'm no Tavis fanboi. I get tired of listening to Cornel West and Micheal Eric Dyson too. But I sense an anti-intellectualism in this discussion. The same anti-intellectualism that got Bush elected twice and will put Sarah Palin on the GOP ticket in the next couple of years. And don't think she can't get elected.
You can ask what the State of the Black Union has done to eliminate the problems in our community, but you can ask that of all our leaders, programs and initiatives. Thus far we have failed collectively to provide health, safety, jobs and education for our children in general.
Obama is not above criticism or accountability.
uppity negro and false1
ReplyDeleteON POINT.
Just curious though false1, do you think Dyson, West et al just talk too much and we need to hear other voices or is that you don't like what they have to say?
I stopped by a couple of black conservative blogs today and they did they did their usual whining about the SOFTBU being all liberals.
I responded that...
a) black conservatives audience is primarily white conservatives and most black righties deliberately avoide black forums...and
b) Just as Malcolm X pointed out 45 years ago, you put these black conservatives in front of some white folks and they will sit up, roll over, bark....whatever they think massa wants to see and hear.
But put them in front of some black folks and they won't dare say the same things because they know they're frauds.
Great post, FN.
ReplyDeleteTavis is a ' hater'. He just is. He spent the entire second session baiting everyone to join him in his ' haterade' of President Obama.
I read Black Commentator and Black Agenda Report regularly, and no two sites are more critical of President Obama. But, I'd never consider them ' haters'. They are ' critics'. There is a a difference, and Tavis is a HATER.
His entire ' contest' to find bloggers was a joke. In 30 seconds, I could give him 10 names of Black bloggers, from all sides of the aisle that would have made a brilliant panel. But, they would have spoken their mind, and not followed any Tavis hateration.
OT FN,
ReplyDeleteJon Stewart last night on Santelli and CNBC. Must spread the word:
Stewart Sinks Santelli and CNBC
Worst mistake since Mr. Morton dissed Letterman.
rikyrah sez - "I read Black Commentator and Black Agenda Report regularly, and no two sites are more critical of President Obama. But, I'd never consider them ' haters'. They are ' critics'. There is a a difference, and Tavis is a HATER. "
ReplyDeleteI don't classify Tavis so much as a hata' as a guy who is so far in the trees...
He can't see the forest.
I think he is unabashedly ambitious, self promoting, and has an oversized ego...
Which make him a successful talking head...
But not necessarily a hata' - his fear of displacement by Obama notwithstanding.
Looking at the picture of folks he had on the podium - I think he's out of his depth - but, you have to give him props on bringing both the old guard and (a small portion) new guard together...
Neither of which is what Obama, or the Obama Presidency are about - as the context and scope of Obama's Presidency spans infinitely more issues than race.
Thank you uppity negro, false1 and uptownsteve. Just what is all the Tavis hate about?
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the corporate sponsorship - NEWFLASH - there is not a single corporation that is without serious issues since our government allows them to put profit over people & the planet.
Field, if you think you can get corporations to donate to a black scholarship fund, then have at it. I'll be your first applicant.
--Bos
False1 sez - "Our only unreproachable leader was Malcolm X. And that is because he did his dirt before hitting the national stage."
ReplyDeleteReally?
You must not have been alive when Malcom was.
Amazing the level of historical revisionism accepted as fact today- as folks choose only to remember Malcom's "Second Awakening" - which, in terms of timeframe only covered the last few months of his life.
The core issue is simply this - With an Obama Presidency and a Democrat led Congress we are in position to roll-back near 30 years (Since Raygun) of Executive, Legislative, and Judicial re-establishment of virtual Jim Crow...
To the benefit of not only minorities, but to white middle and lower class - in removing the economic and statutory impediments established under conservatives to the growth in income and opportunity.
Several things were done by Obama to start chipping away at conservative Jim Crow. First, a rejection of outsourcing by the government of government provided services. That's important because it 1) eviscerates efforts during the Bushit administration to whiten the government workforce while capping middle class income levels, and 2) it moves control of essential government functions out of the hands of the big 6 government contractors - and back to the government. Second, was a order that the government is back in the business of small business contracting, which has historically been the dominant business sector for non-white wealth accumulation in this country...
Tavis is out of his depth...
In a lot more ways than one.
11:20 and 12:25 were me, BT.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the gift that keeps on giving and talking heads...
ReplyDeleteRush Limbaugh Challenges President Obama to a Debate
Posted March 5, 2009
Kenneth R. Bazinet In Washington and David Saltonstall In New York
There's a reason White House aides have dubbed conservative radio ranter Rush Limbaugh the new face of the GOP - polls showed he's a big, fat target of opportunity.
Only a tiny fraction of voters younger than 40-11%--have a positive view of the talk king, a survey James Carville and other Democratic advisers to President Obama took last fall found.
That - combined with Limbaugh's more recent wish to see Obama "fail"--was all the White House needed to launch its coordinated campaign this week to cast Limbaugh as the hydra-headed leader of the temporarily headless GOP.
"Who in the Republican Party commands more fear than he does?" Carville asked the Daily News. "Nobody."
Limbaugh, clearly enjoying the attention, upped the ante Wednesday by challenging Obama to a debate on his radio show - while conceding that, yes, he is the GOP's "last man standing." The White House declined to comment.
"If you can wipe me out in a debate ... do you realize you will own the United States of America?" Limbaugh said on-air. "You will have no opposition."
Stoking the flames, Limbaugh mockingly urged the President not to send in his place any "lightweights," including "the ballerina, Emanuel."
The reference was to Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a serious ballet dancer in his youth, who kicked off the strategy by calling Limbaugh "the voice and intellectual force" behind the GOP.
The White House's central aim, insiders say, is to stoke the anger of independents, a key bloc always more interested in solutions than in partisan naysaying.
Wednesday, the strategy came into full bloom when former Obama campaign manager David Plouffe penned an Op-Ed in The Washington Post headlined, "Minority Leader Limbaugh."
But the self-reinforcing power of the strategy, others noted, is that it depends on Limbaugh continuing to talk in ever-more divisive tones--a bet many are happy to make.
"As long as he's talking, we're happy," said Carville, whom Limbaugh referred to Wednesday as "a second-rate talking head" who--along with Emmanuel and adviser Paul Begala--looks like "a reunion of the Village People."
"It looks like that is going to work out," Carville said of Limbaugh's rhetorical ramp-up.
BT
Uptown Steve Said:
ReplyDeleteJust curious though false1, do you think Dyson, West et al just talk too much and we need to hear other voices or is that you don't like what they have to say?
I like Dyson's MC meets PHD style quite a bit, and he usually hits the nail on the head.
I only understand about half of what Cornel West says most of the time, though I don't begrudge those that do understand him :-)
I think some new voices would be refreshing though, and the above mentioned have been kinda sanctioned by the establishment by now. Where are the revolutionaries?
@anonymous
I'm not referring just to Malcolm's second awakening (I assume you mean after he left the nation), his time with the nation was necessary, righteous, and productive.
false1
ReplyDeleteI agree that Dyson and West are the establishment's designated "black intellectuals".
West gives a good speech but he's a poor debater.
George Will made him look bad on a "This Week" segment recently.
Ta-Nehisi Coates is a brilliant young writer and pundit.
Khalid Muhammad, an African-American studies professor at Indiana University is great as well.
And I sure do miss Steve Gilliard.
What Uppity Negro said.
ReplyDeleteAll Tavis Haters All the Time. Yall need to stop drinking the Hateraide. It's making you "bitter".
False1 sez - "...his time with the nation was necessary, righteous, and productive..."
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that at that time the Nation was righteous...
It's corruption was one of the key elements in driving Malcom out.
The original sin being the trade of one slave holder's religion...
For another (twice in Malcom's case).
That is not to belittle Malcom's accomplishments or influence...
It's just to point out that the terminology "unreproachable"...
Is a bit of an overstatement.
I suspect, that had Malcom survived, he would have arrived at much the same place as King did in recognizing the real battle to come was economic, and covered a lot more than the parochial interest in achieving some level of American Civil Rights.
BT
Steve - if you still post over at those conservative sites...
ReplyDeleteHere's a little muckraking material:
http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/2009/03/why-should-we-even-listen-to-right-wing-pols-.html
BT
BT
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link.
If you ever get a chance, stop over at "Conservative Black Woman".
She makes Shay Riley look like Harriet Tubman.
Field,
ReplyDeleteI looked this up. http://www.covenantwithblackamerica.com/content/background
CBW's conservative only in the sense of being as retrograde as the House Negroes who were allowed to sit in the back balcony of Massa's church...
ReplyDeleteBelieved Jesus had blonde hair...
And God is an old white dude.
The lights are on...
But nobody is home...
Indeed.
the little bit I cd stomach was Tavis asking everyone to hold President Obama accountable. Yawn. Tavis never bothered to hold Clinton accountable when he was the first to interview Clinton after the Lewinsky scandal. Think of all the crap iin the world that was going on then--Rwanda, for one.
ReplyDeleteTavis is a joke.
@BT
ReplyDeleteYou make good points but just because the Nation was corrupt doesn't mean Malcolm was. In fact his unwillingness to look the other way is what caused his downfall.
Your point on religion is deep, but the Nation was run by black men, corrupt as they may be, not the Pope or the Ayatollahs. In fact the "mainstream" muslims put the Nation down as not being "real" Islam.
I'm with you though, "Give me back my witch doctor."
If you support the PRESIDENT, you need to be informed, their is a WEBSITE called the CONSERVATIVE BLACK WOMAN, she allow'S conservative BLOGGER'S to post on her site, and she allow's them to PERSECUTE the PRESIDENT and FIRST LADY, keep in mind, this a AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN who allow's white folk's to spew WICKED word's at the BLACK FIRST LADY of the UNITED STATE'S of AMERICA! what's going on!
ReplyDeleteField:
ReplyDeleteI dunno know what to say about my cousin-in-law Kevin Ross, except thank God we're not blood related and only in-laws, because I'd be totally embarrassed. Smh!
Sharon...thanks for the link.
ReplyDelete"Field, if you think you can get corporations to donate to a black scholarship fund, then have at it. I'll be your first applicant. "
Check.
False1 sez = ""Give me back my witch doctor.""
ReplyDeleteFunny you should say that...
Until WWI, unless you needed to have an appendage chopped off, due to the extensive knowledge gained in the Civil War...
You probably were better off with the witch doctor, if you were ill.
:)
BT
I believe the idea behind these forums evolved from a sincere effort to elevate discussion and inspire action.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I hear Tavis' critics loud and clear.
However, my resolution is simple: I eat the meat and leave the bones.
'Nuff said.
I don't listen to Tavis' words or the words of any other self-styled black leader, I listen to their actions.
ReplyDeleteIf all I get from them are words, then I feel they're out to promote themselves, and not those that they say they represent.
And this whole notion that President Obama is above criticism, has not been born out here on this blog, or any other blog that I read.
This criticism, that we hold Obama above criticism, is a red herring, designed it seems to either diminished him or us, or both.
I have criticized him here. But if criticism is all that can be leveled at him, without regard for the good that he does, then I feel that those who criticize him are more interested in elevating themselves with those criticisms, than using them to galvanize others toward constructive behavior and actions.
If Tavis feels, and I don't know if he does, or not, that it's President Obama's mission to right the wrongs that have been heaped upon black Americans from the inception of this country, and before, then he's a bigger fool than I can imagine.
That's not a fire to which I wish to hold his feet.
Just as with the economy, Obama didn't create the problem, and, if it going to get solved (or is solvable), it will take the combined efforts of all, and not the work of one.
As for race: It's going to take all of us, white as well as black, to right those wrongs. No one man is going to achieve that.
I have been giving this a lot of thought over the years, and I've come to the conclusion that much of the negative crap that we see manifested in our black communities come from a perception that some disaffected blacks have--that they they're not a welcomed, essential part of the American family.
And this society, white and black, can scold (get over your black selves and get a job), punish (throw in jail), shame (you're a discredit to your race) until we're blue in the face, but until we can embrace all blacks as respected, valued, members of the American family, we're going to have a significant number that are going to "act out," and repudiate the values and mores that we hold dear.
What we don't need are more Rush Limbaughs, regardless of color, to point out our missteps. We all know the nature, and the source, of the problem, and the solutions.
What we need is more action, and fewer words, and more whites like Andrew M. Manis, who asks the question: "When Are WE Going to Get Over It?," and have an action plan, to boot.
Black Diaspora-"And this society, white and black, can scold (get over your black selves and get a job), punish (throw in jail), shame (you're a discredit to your race) until we're blue in the face, but until we can embrace all blacks as respected, valued, members of the American family, we're going to have a significant number that are going to "act out," and repudiate the values and mores that we hold dear."
ReplyDeleteVery true! Thank you Black Diaspora.
"...this a AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN who allow's white folk's to spew WICKED word's at the BLACK FIRST LADY of the UNITED STATE'S of AMERICA! what's going on! Anon 6:18 P.M.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, I could be wrong, but...
I think that it's a form of self-hatred, and self-deprecation, hiding behind a facade of conservatism, allowing these blacks to say and do what they wouldn't dare say and do without it.
black diaspora:
ReplyDeleteAmen to everything you stated. Lord knows that's the truth and nothing but the truth.
Black diaspora:
What I've always observed about you is that you're a person who gives deep, analytic, and careful thought to a situation with fairness and wisdom. In addition, you have a good heart and it pours out into whatever you write.
I feel that people expect President Obama to perform miracles for every little wrong that's ailing America. He is not a miracle worker, he is just a man like any other man. He is not God.
Nevertheless, he is trying his best to keep his promise to America, because he meant what he said. He is going to try and make good on what he promised and most of it he is going to succeed in doing it but it's going to be a tough battle.
What some folks don't seem to understand is that he has a bigger fight on his hands than most assume. The battle he has to fight is against some very rich and powerful folks. What he definitely needs is for us to stand behind him. Because those that want to stop him are dangerous people whose greed has blinded them and they plan to do whatever they can to stop him, but it won't work.
What disturbs me is how in a time like this some of his own people are trying to tear him down because of jealousy and to make themselves look good in the eyes of the very people that have practically destroyed America.
Ahhh...like you and I agreed on last year, this year is going to be a year of happenings.
@ Black Diaspora
ReplyDeleteBRAVO!
Black diaspora:
ReplyDeleteWhat I've always observed about you is that you're a person who gives deep, analytic, and careful thought to a situation with fairness and wisdom. In addition, you have a good heart and it pours out into whatever you write.
Granny, I'm humbled and honored by your assessment.
But, you know, I've thought the same of you: Yours is a voice of reason, wisdom, and commonsense.
I come to this blog primarily to hear what you have to say on the topics presented here, and I have learned and grown by your example.
You're right: President Obama is going to need all his personal assets in the days ahead--a steady hand, a nimble mind, and his willingness to hear all sides--as he attempts to navigate our nation through the treacherous economic waters ahead, and the divisive storms gathering not too far out at sea.
More than our criticisms, our president needs, at this time, our prayers and our support.
I'm sure that he's going set a course or two that I'm going to oppose, but overall he's been steering the ship of state with dignity, statesmanship, and a sureness that is sorely needed at this time when the nation's courage and resolve might flag, and flounder.
His calm demeanor is what is needed right now, and in the days ahead: the ship of state is sure to receive more buffeting from those forces that would love to see this nation's economic ship take on water, or capsize, rather than stay afloat with Obama at the helm.
I worry as you worry, and I concur:
"What he definitely needs is for us to stand behind him. Because those that want to stop him are dangerous people whose greed has blinded them and they plan to do whatever they can to stop him...."
Jack Kennedy stepped on toes as well, and was quickly dispatched. I will do whatever I can with my prayers to see that that end won't come to him.
"What disturbs me is how in a time like this some of his own people are trying to tear him down...."
Our enemy shall be those of our own household, our own kin, those with whom we sup, and who sup with us.
This, for me, is the greatest cut of all.
Black diaspora:
ReplyDeleteAmen!
I almost felt sorry for Steele. He has become the scapegoat for the GOP party. But he put himself in that position by getting too big headed. Yea, first they were giving him pats on the head. He was their good "N". However, now they're showing him that go around to the back door boy mentality. All I can say is he made his bed and now he'll just have to lie in it. Greed is a number one killer and mass murderer in America.
ReplyDeleteTheir playing games with that Dow thingee. Their lowering the numbers on purpose to manipulate. Someone is playing the Wizard Oz behind the scenes with those numbers.
ReplyDelete@granny: "I almost felt sorry for Steele. He has become the scapegoat for the GOP party."
ReplyDeleteGranny, when I think of Steele, I'm reminded of the movie, Fiddler on the Roof, where the fiddler is compelled to play, but, by playing, he risks losing his footing.
Steele is like that fiddler: He's compelled to play--find someway to defeat Obama's national agenda-- but, by playing, he risks losing his cultural footing in the black community, and, if he fails to dethrone Obama (the primary reason why he was appointed in the first place), the political favor of those within his own party.
For sure, a precarious place to find oneself!
Rush Limbaugh, the human trampoline, has singlehandedly eviscerated him, really showed him "Who be da man," and barked out, for all to hear, Steele's marching orders.
Steele's not going to be able to take on Obama and the Dems, if he can't effectively speak his mind to a party big mouth without being escorted to the back of the bus.
Greed is at the heart of this recession, and not all have been hurt by it.
Many have become obscenely wealthy at the expense of what may very well become the collapse of the world's economy.
There are hints out there that the problem is greater than we can imagine, but they're keeping that information relatively quiet.
"Their playing games with that Dow thingee. Their lowering the numbers on purpose to manipulate. Someone is playing the Wizard Oz behind the scenes with those numbers."
Granny, you could be on to something here.
I'm also hearing that this whole thing, the sudden collapse of our financial sector, may have been orchestrated by those that want to position themselves to manipulate worldwide supply and demand of all the things necessary for the economic health of the world's nations.
Greed is to power, what power is to greed--bosom buddies.
I see Tavis was here posting anonymously! People aren't hating on him by the way. We are holding him ACCOUNTABLE - like he wants us to do with President Obama. Tavis is not the even close to being on par with Rush Limbaugh. First I think Limbaugh has a much bigger audience and I'm certain he makes way more $$$ as well. The SOBU is Tavis' hustle. What has he DONE IN TEN YEARS except sell his products and use all of the attendees detailed sign in forms for this "free" event and sell those to market researchers. You can't attend without giving valuable info that these companies would normally have to pay for so the costs of this "free" event are in fact rather extensive. It's not just the pontificators but they're not talking about the HIV/STI rate that's jumped, they exclude LGBTs from participating or even discussing matters if importance, there's too much fake religiosity and they all parrot each other year after year after year. The few that do stand out and challenge Tavis usually aren't heard from again. Plus I found it hilarious to watch Cornel West lie and claim to have been working to get Obama elected for the past 2 yrs when LAST YEAR he and Tavis were publicly castigating Obama nearly every chance they got. Tavis is jealous and was trying to annoint a Messiah. Obama did not and does not need him. Tavis has zero credibility because he hasn't offered any serious critique of the Clintons or Bush oh but it's all about monitoring Obama unh huh. The double standards roam free in Tavis land. Besides, he's not really interested in Black people being viable when he makes money from our pain and confusion.
ReplyDeleteI said this on another site recently, when the topic of the SOTBU, and it's relevance came up, and I'll repeat here (the best I can):
ReplyDeleteYou know, it kills me when people say they are tired of the SOTBU, because there is too much talking, too much rhetoric, and not enough strategy, innovative ideas, and problem solving. All people have to do is eliminate some of the excess, and truly key in, and you'll see what you're looking for.
I'll never forget there was a brother on the panel this year by the name of Van Jones, who is an advocate of the environment, and "going green." He laid out a BRILLIANT analysis of available funds, what can be done to get to that money, how it can lead to more jobs, more money, and how it can DIRECTLY BENEFIT BLACK PEOPLE, and that wasn't given enough attention. I don't know ANYTHING about going green, but after hearing him break it down, it makes me want to learn more. That's a direct example of why this forum is still needed.
I think what happens is people are quick to jump on the obvious: yes, there are talking heads, I'll admit that much. Yes, there are people there who may seem to be there more for self-promotion. That's obvious, too. But there are people there, such as the brother mentioned above, as well as The Great Randall Robinson, who brings a wealth of substance, but may not get the attention he deserves, because people are quick to point out what's wrong and what's convenient to harp on, when it comes to the SOTBU. I just think it deserves to be looked at a little closer, as opposed to what's on the surface, and what's convenient.
Field,
ReplyDeleteIf Tavis does his little blog contest next year, I hope you enter and win. Heck, I think most of us could get up on that stage and speak our minds just as well as the intellectuals.
I went and live blogged as much as I could of Tavis' "Obama Will Be Accountable, So Buy My Book" event. I registered as a blogger and I can't begin to tell you how much dissing I got at the check-in when I asked if there was a special section with power cords for bloggers. "What, you just wanna write something on your personal blog while you're here?"
Nevermind that my blog may be one of the more read blogs by a black non-celeb in Los Angeles. And nevermind that I go to non-SOTBU events all the time where bloggers are given snacks, powerstrips and are, in general, treated as a pretty powerful entity.
Anyway, that Van Jones guy and Randall Robinson were the business, and as always, I love Tricia Rose.
black diaspora:
ReplyDelete"I'm also hearing that this whole thing, the sudden collapse of our financial sector, may have been orchestrated by those that want to position themselves to manipulate worldwide supply and demand of all the things necessary for the economic health of the world's nations."
You hearing right. If Fred, Bob, and Issac were on their job, it would help, and even bring back some respectability to their profession in the eyes of the people. However, they've gotten a little lazy in these last eight years because honesty and integrity wasn't exactly an ideal characteristic to have if you wanted to keep your job under the last administration's rule. I pray that they'll wake up from their slumber and realize that the economy affects them too.
Black disapora:
ReplyDeleteI hope I didn't lose you on my last statement.
SoulOnIce:
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about Van Jones, he did lay it out there. Also, I liked Assembly Woman Bass for California what she said was very enlightening as well. However, I've been saying something similar to it about the laws in America.
"it will take the combined efforts of all, and not the work of one" -Black Diaspora
ReplyDeleteThis is so true.It would be incredible if everyone who is interested in seeing the black community flourish would set aside their philosophical differences and work together. We need the intellectuals, politicians, revolutionaries, ministers, journalists, and the bloggers. The positive steps that we make today are going to be most beneficial to our children and to their children.
"The positive steps that we make today are going to be most beneficial to our children and to their children." anon
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right!
We've got to start sometime, somewhere. And it may as well start with us--as you've pointed out--"intellectuals, politicians, revolutionaries, ministers, journalists, and the bloggers".
All of us, regardless of where we are on the color spectrum, political spectrum, or social spectrum.
I am very, very disappointed with many of your comments.
ReplyDeleteI have attended for 2 years now and have come out totally edified and hopeful.
I'mma hold my own. No one has to take me by the hand. Take from it what is relevant to you and run with it. Grow into the other information that was represented. Challenge that that you know to be underpar. Participate.
Right now, many of you sound like "HOUSE NIGGERS".
These companies already give scholarships to universities across this nation...including historic Black colleges.
Do you have a scholarship out there Field ? Love ya, but you push the very same bullshit you are accusing Tavis of.
Once again, you.are.on.point.
ReplyDeleteI am on a mission to find Lisa Turtle for you. I swear. You deserve it plus more for your thought provoking posts each and every day.
Much love Field.