A meeting of TBCE.

I caught some of 1/2 of Reverend Inc's conference on TV One. It was the latest effort by the black community experts (or TBCE) to cure all that ails black A-merry-ca. All the usual suspects were there. (Except Tavis) And, of course, they talked; and talked; and talked some more. Black folks sure love to talk. 1/2 of Rev. Inc. said that his conference was different. He actually had a 12 month plan and goals that he wanted the participants who were there representing various organizations to meet.

"Among the pledges:
Sharpton said that NAN will launch a voter registration drive in key states with a goal of a 5% increase turnout in mid-term elections in November.
Marc Morial of the National Urban League said his organization will help 10,000 people find jobs over the next 12 months.
Debra Toney of the National Black Nurses Association said her organization would identify, train or re-train 10,000 people for the nursing field.
Dr. Lezli Baskerville, who represents HBCUs, said the network of campuses would provide 500,000 students for voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts and that more campuses will make their facilities available to young people for after-school activities, including recreation." (h/t The Root)

I sure hope that this isn't 1/2 of Rev. Inc. showing Tavis that two can play that game. Of course Tavis never accomplished much. (Except for Tavis.) Let's see if something meaningful can come out of this from some of the grass roots organizations that were represented. 100 Black Men is a fine group, and their leader was in the house. So that's a good sign.

ER Shipp writing for The Root said the following:

As the Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, told me after a ministers' luncheon Friday at the National Action Network annual meeting: "This conference is important at a moment like this because we are still confronted with major issues in the African American community, and in some ways they are more complicated than they were 30 or 40 years ago. Our coming together around shared struggle, sustained resistance and deep analysis - in some ways it takes more work."

In trying to tackle some of those "major issues," Tavis Smiley has been at it for years with his State of the Black Union summits that seem to draw from the same pool of leaders every year but which accomplish little. He held a pared-down version in March in Chicago, where the focus of 12 panelists was on pressuring President Obama to reward black support by explicitly addressing that elusive "black agenda".

The National Action Network came at it a little differently during the convention that concluded Saturday. It promised a 12-month action plan. I naively expected a plan in the form of a document prepared ahead of time that would be discussed, modified and endorsed. That was not the case. Instead, an impressive revolving panel of leaders of one thing or another and academics and journalists talked for two hours in a forum broadcast by TV One."

"A 12 month action plan" in the form of a prepared documents would have been nice. But then, if there was such a document, what would there be left to talk about? Black folks need to talk.