[img]583|left|Eric L. Wattree||no_popup[/img]He is at it again, people.
In spite of the fact that President Obama has saved the nation from a second Great Depression, is responsible for getting a stimulus bill passed that has saved tens of thousands of jobs, has been struggling to reconcile a jobs bill in Congress, and is hard at work trying to get a “New Deal”' for the American people in healthcare reform, Tavis Smiley seems stuck on stupid.
He has unleashed a groundless, and needlessly divisive, criticism of President Obama during one of the most crucial moments in American history.
And now Tavis has taken it a step further.
He accused “Black leaders” — (the phrase suggests Black people don't have sense enough to think for themselves) — including Rev. Al Sharpton, Ben Jealous, Charles Ogletree, Valerie Jarrett, Marc Morial and Dr. Dorothy Height, of saying the President doesn’t need a Black agenda. In doing so, he grossly distorted the meaning of Sharpton's comment that the President doesn't need to ballyhoo a Black agenda. In my view, that position signals tremendous growth on the part of Rev. Sharpton.
While Tavis vehemently denied it when confronted by Sharpton, on Tuesday, Feb. 23, during his commentary on Tom Joyner's Morning Show, Tavis said the following:
“My Lord, what a difference a year makes. Over the past few weeks, a chorus of Black leaders have started singing a new song. I must have missed that choir rehearsal, J., because I don’t know the words to this new hymn. The President doesn’t need a Black agenda, they sing. He’s not the President of Black America. He’s the President of all America, and he need not focus specifically on the unique challenges Black America is facing, they sing.”
I certainly don't want to imply that either President Obama, or Black leaders, are above criticism. I have criticized both. But if one does have an issue, one should at least make every effort to see that one's criticism is accurate, specific, valid, and most important, constructive.
He Never Changes
From my point of view, Tavis's allegation was none of those things.
But I'm not surprised. This is the third time I've written about Tavis's rants against the President.
Each time, he has seemed to be more ego- based and self-promoting than substantive. First, even if Sharpton did say what Tavis alleged, I wouldn't have a problem because the President is the President of all of America. His job is to address America's agenda, to create an environment where all people, including the Black community, can prosper.
In the same commentary, Tavis referred to Dr. Martin Luther King as “the greatest American we’ve ever produced.” Yet, MLK didn't advocate a “Black agenda”, either. He advocated what President Obama is pursuing, universal equality for all. Like President Obama, he was being criticized for it at the time. I know because I was young, dumb and critical of him myself.
Dr. King didn't look upon Black people as intellectually challenged. He was of the firm belief that all Black people needed was a level playing field, and we could compete with any other group of people in the world. He was the walking, breathing personification of that. So were Colin Powell, Johnnie Cochran and President Barack Obama. They are the very best the world has known in their chosen fields.
Home Is Where It Starts
They have demonstrated that the Black agenda must originate, and be pursued, in our homes and at our dinner tables. We must teach our children that character and excellence take priority over bluster, ego and greed; that what is important in life is who you are, not what you are or your social status.
We must teach our sons that our women are to be treasured, respected and cared for, that our children are our most valuable asset. We must be there for them. We must teach them that it takes more of a man to build a life than it does to take one.
Black people are the product of a racist society. We are just as racist toward other Blacks as the most racist White man in the country, more so.
Of all the murders of young Black men in the past year, not once was the perpetrator wearing a sheet.
We have allowed the killing and degradation of Black people to become ghetto-chic. If the Klan were putting out the same videos that are being put out by Black rappers, advocating acts of violence against Blacks or portraying Black women as butt-swinging “bitches and whores,” the nation would be in an uproar.
Black hip-hoppers have raised dragging other Black people through the mud to an art form.
We not only condone it, we reward it. We allow our children to consume it all day.
The top priority of any “Black agenda” must be to correct the situation. President Obama, even with Fort Knox at his disposal, cannot bestow responsible parents or common sense upon the Black community. We must do it for ourselves.
Tavis should know that.
But I don't think he's interested. I know he has done this and that for the Black community.
I think everything he does is calculated to optimize his profile. I have come to look upon Tavis as just another self-servicing demagogue who uses the dysfunction within the Black community to pursue his own agenda.
He is not all bad. He never does anything without considering what it can do for him. Look at his website, tavistalks.com.
You never have seen such self-congratulations.
Tavis's criticism of President Obama is nothing more than a temper tantrum that has been going on since then-Sen. Obama had the audacity to forego Tavis's State of the Black Union telecast in order to declare his candidacy for President before the Illinois statehouse.
Tavis acted as if he had been anointed by the Black community to determine whether to confer our collective approval.
Thereafter, Tavis was quoted as saying, “I knew Barack Obama, before he was Barack Obama.” That seemed to imply that after Obama started to attract notoriety, he became too big for his britches. What Tavis fails to understand is, Barack Obama always has been Barack Obama. That is how he became President.
Tavis needs to recognize they are in two different classes, intellectually and substantively.
Tavis fails to understand that Barack Obama will be remembered as one of the greatest men in American history while he is simply a dime a dozen talk show host. Tavis is making a damned fool of himself by trying to compete with the President. He looks like a '52 Chevy racing his engine at a brand new Bentley.
One would think a man who has stumbled upon the success Tavis Smiley has enjoyed would have gained wisdom. All Tavis has acquired is a tremendous ego, a mind-clouding delusion of grandeur that is turning him into a national joke.
Tavis personifies the crab in a barrel, desperately trying to reach beyond his grasp.
Mr. Wattree may be contacted at wattree@verizon.net
You may learn more about Mr. Wattree at wattree.blogspot.com
Religious bigotry: It’s not that I hate everybody who doesn’t look, think and act like me. It’s just that God does.
