The pariah.

So the Tavis Smiley Negro shunning continues. This time it's his former friend, Tom Joyner, saying less than flattering things about him.

"On Inauguration Day, television personality Tavis Smiley and his friend former Princeton professor Cornel West lashed out at President Barack Obama for using a Bible belonging to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for his swearing in. (Never mind that the King family gave Obama the Bible, and attended the Inaugural to witness its use.) That same day, Smiley’s onetime friend and host of the show that made Smiley a household name among many black Americans, slammed Smiley’s comments, saying his former protege is “fascinated with his own legacy.”

Noting that Smiley said in his latest attack on Obama, this time on CBS Sunday Morning, that “Obama is a politician, and a pretty good one, but King was a prophet. And while I can appreciate the president’s fascination with King’s legacy of unarmed truth and unconditional love, I’m feeling some sort of way about King being used symbolically for public pomp and circumstance, but disregarded substantively when it comes to public policy,” Joyner had this response:

… I believe that Tavis is the one fascinated with Dr. King’s legacy, but more importantly Tavis is fascinated with his own legacy, and that’s not good. He wants more than anything to be remembered the way Dr. King was, and to some how make that kind of mark on the world.
Dr. King wasn’t concerned about how he would be remembered, he was concerned with doing good and doing right. In the end, that made him great. Tavis has done a lot of good things but his obsession with becoming great is destroying him. The whole issue with the inscription on the King Memorial illustrates the differences between Tavis and Dr. King. Days before he was killed, believing that death was imminent, Dr. King dealt with it publicly in his Drum Major speech.
Dr. King knew good things would be said about him in death and he was humbled at the idea of it. Tavis is afraid of what will be said about him and it’s driving him crazy. …

Smiley became a regular commentator on Joyner’s top-rated, syndicated morning radio show in 1996, but he and Joyner parted ways in 2008 in the wake of scathing criticism of Barack Obama — who Joyner actively supported — by Smiley, including during his daily commentaries. Joyner has since become a fierce critic of Smiley and West, who have taken every opportunity to attack the Obama administration and the president himself, often in very personal terms.
Much of Smiley’s enmity toward Obama is said to stem from the then-Senator rebuffing an invitation to attend Smiley’s annual “State of the Black Union” panel, which was held on the same day Obama announced his presidential campaign in Illinois. Tavis has denied that, and said he is simply attempting to hold the nation’s first black president accountable." [Source]

I don't think that you can find 20 black people in America who believe Tavis. Of course he is mad because O didn't kiss his ring. And so are a lot of other traditional black folks in the civil rights establishment game. (I see you Cornel)
Obama was smart; he knew that black folks would support him no matter what and that the folks who like to take the lead on civil rights issues would become irrelevant once he gained a national profile. He didn't need their money (not that they have any); he got plenty from left leaning liberal white folks. And he sure as hell didn't need their organizations to help him organize a ground game and help with manpower. He had young white folks and true believers -of all colors- to do that for him as well.

Then, of course, there is the ultimate trump card: his wife. No matter what Obama does he will get a pass among black folks because of his wife. They know that, at the end of the day, they will always have that person whispering something like this in his ear at two o'clock in the morning: "Barack, you know that's f****d up right, you know that should have gone to that little girl's funeral. But don't worry, I will go. " 

Sorry Tavis, as long as O and Michelle are doing the whole Ashford & Simpson bit, your hater-aide is only going to get stronger with each passing day for the next four years.


*Pic from theGrio.com
  






 

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.