Flailing Obama in the Black Community
Smiley won the NAACP Image Award for best [black] news, talk, or information series an unprecedented three straight years (1997-99) for his work on BET Tonight.
He is the epitome of “do the right thing black socialism.” He founded the Tavis Smiley Foundation, which funds programs to develop young leaders in the black community. Black schools named buildings in his honor.
That is, until West and Smiley dared challenge Obama to make good on his campaign promises to the black community. West dared to publicly characterize Obama’s dealings with him as two-faced, rude, and dismissive. He told how Obama had tried to intimidate and bully him. Smiley has become increasingly more critical of Obama for what has been viewed as his inattentiveness to the black man and, specifically, to black poverty.
The vituperation was swift in coming. They were set upon from every sector of liberal blackdom. How dare they criticize Obama? They were committing the ultimate sacrilege — they were black liberals of unassailable “blackness” criticizing the prince of “blackness” in public. And if that weren’t bad enough, not only did they combine their efforts on a talk program, they also organized a “Poverty Tour” to bring attention to black poverty, the needy, and the failings of Obama.
The “Poverty Tour” traveled to Indian reservations, soup kitchens, and low-income housing communities. Judging from the attacks, it is reasonable to believe that the White House itself wasn’t about to let West and Smiley practice such disloyalty without punishing them. There was no way Obama could afford to allow these two men, both of whom have unimpeachable records of viewing things through racial prisms, to bastardize him in the very communities he is counting on to help get him reelected.
His minions were swift and vicious. Actor and television personality Steve Harvey blasted them as ignorant buffoons — even going so far as to do a comedy skit of them as Uncle Toms driving a bus. Al Sharpton chimed in on the attack as well. Radio jock Tom Joyner was particularly vicious in his criticism. There were accusations that Smiley was just bitter because Obama had turned down offers to be on his show. West was lampooned as a sad sack, as having been a failure at Harvard, and as being a bitter black man.
I’ve got prime real estate right in the middle of Lake Michigan to sell anyone who thinks Obama’s fingerprints aren’t all over these attacks. Let me remind you that these are the royalty of Blackdom. This is the Jet magazine and Ebony magazine set hurling these epithets.
Besides the fact that this criticizing is of Obama, what does it say about people who have been brainwashed to believe it is wrong to factually criticize another black if that black personifies the lowest levels of commonality? What does it say about a people who are said to live in tightly knit church communities?
It says that contrary to these and other “widely” held beliefs about blacks, success, and groupthink, it is not just those who are targeted as Uncle Toms who are attacked. It is any black that dares to reject the uniform code of black identity groupthink.
DAAAAAaamm.. that’s harsh.
Seriously though this should be interesting to see as reality keeps smacking these fools upside the head how much they’re going to have to start attacking one another since no one will accept responsibility or blame.
When the majority of the black community realizes that the relief policies of the Great Society, perpetuated by the government for 50 years now, have destroyed black families and relegated many blacks to a permanent mediocre welfare existance, maybe they will slowly begin to understand how they have been abused by those who mean well. The path to prosperity and independence lies in rejecting these policies and embracing entrepreneurism, education and individualism.
Smiley and West do not offer anything that will solve the problems of impoverished people. They want government to give you a fish, instead of creating conditions that will allow you to learn how to fish.
Great Society welfare programs can’t destroy families that aren’t willing to be destroyed. We need to stop assuming that the underclass lacks minds and free will of their own.
Toady,
Fair enough. However, the federal government created conditions that promoted the collapse of the black nuclear family. By the way, it did the same thing to white families too, it just wasn’t as complete a collapse.
Nothing good comes from government largess. The dependency created robs people of initiative and resourcefulness.
“We need to stop assuming that the underclass lacks minds and free will of their own.” Ah, 96% vote for “the Won” is not demonstrating free will.
Has the black community shown America that it can make it on their own? Nope! Sure there are the exceptions. But the rule is that they are a failure as a community. And it is directly related to their dependence upon the white progressive.
At election time, the democrats lay blame for the net result of their policies at the feet of republicans- and since the black community believe every word from the mouths of the MSM via Sharpton and Jackson (two of the most self-serving party shills with devastating consequences for the black community), they will believe it. Again and Again. The liberal left makes up 20% of the electorate. If democrats failed to keep the black community in an impoverished and militant state there wouldn’t be one among them could get elected Dog Catcher.
Smiley-West. Your Marxist Minstrel Show Coming to a Super Dome Near You!
The constant whining by black community leaders falls on deaf ears after all these years! Many of these leaders must know that not only has there been equality but in many ways blacks receive special status in many instances. The “You Owe Me”
attitude has not worked for any race!
“The constant whining by black community leaders falls on deaf ears after all these years!”
Oh no it doesn’t. People – middle class people who should know better – lap this this up and are in your face if you state the obvious to them. This it’s false and was also meant to destroy their communities.
“Many of these leaders must know that not only has there been equality but in many ways blacks receive special status in many instances. The “You Owe Me”
attitude has not worked for any race!”
Shoot! The think it works just fine – and they want more of it. If all white people (who have never owned a slave) are not stripped naked and left out in the streets to starve these people (who have never suffered under the yoke of slavery) will never be happy.
They are insane and quite frankly I’m getting sick to death of hearing about it.
….lolly’s…”They are insane and quite frankly I’m getting sick to death of hearing about it.”…
Thank you, this tersely sums up…..sums up the misguided entitlement programs of the last few decades. A permanent and circularly reproducing dependent class has been set up; a self-reinforcing claque. But it created votes for the Democrats……let that be a lesson in this coming election.
The stories of the Katrina-Superdome were in all probability racists lies. The Mainstream media wouldn’t accept stories of White Cannabalism after a mere three days, so it is unlikely blacks woould behave thus.(UNless you are pre-disposed to believe that Blacks are cannibles) Similarly, rapes at a stadium with everybody watching again are unlikely. The mass media gave itself all manner of prizes for unthinkingly spreading racists canards as a means of attacking Bush.
The Katina stories Traduced Blacks.
Earth to Truther, Earth to Truther….
The stories of abuses in the Superdome have all been thoroughly debunked. Not even the leftists try to peddle those lies anymore.
Mr. Massi didn’t mention that in his column, probably for the same reason he didn’t mention that the sun rose this morning – he assumes everyone already knows it.
This is simply race-baiting vaudeville brought to you by two guys who are in the “race business.” Both prize their positions as one of the first guys that the NYT or CNN goes to when they are looking for an “authentic black voice.” (Which shows you how dumb the Times and CNN is.) Obama’s election was probably hard on West and Smiley (and the rest of us but that’s a different story) because it reduced the stock of “black anger” available to exploit. Now with things in the dumper they don’t want to be caught going down with the ship so they open up an attack on Obama’s left flank. It this way Mr. West and Mr. Smiley remain “relevant” and therefore of interest to the MSM and the publishing industry.
West in particular has been performing this schtick for years (to the glowing reviews of a cowed media) and Princeton should be ashamed to have him on their faculty. However as Lyndon Johnson said about having some political opponent in his administration, “I’d rather have him inside the tent pissing out than outside pissing in.”
I hold no brief for Mr. Obama but these two are just opportunistic clowns carefully weighing the “corrrelation of forces.” If Obama is re-elected then no harm is done and they can bask in the glow of their “independence.” If Obama is defeated then they can claim (a) That he failed because he was not an “authentic” black man and had been co-opted by the white establishment and (b) That the U.S. is an iredeemably racist nation because it rejected it’s first black president. Either way they will continue to do fine and business will be good.
Two words: Marion Barry. He is the poster child for black groupthink. Blacks will vote for Obama again, no matter what.
Writers are getting more illiterate as time goes on. “tenant” is somebody who lives in your housing and pays rent. “Tenet” is a rule to live by. Get it right!
Morgan Freeman, himself an avowed supporter of the clown prince of presidents is quoted as saying, “You wanna stop racism? Stop talking about it.” Which, when I heard him say it years ago on Leno, struck me as extremely pithy. But by perpetuating the “struggle” myth for generations after slavery and then the way The South also perpetuated the white anger against blacks, well…my mind tends to think “perfect storm” kind of setup.
I am Caucasian. And I’m not sorry that I am. Nor do I feel I owe any compensation to any other race other than good ol’ American courtesy that is required of any/all people. When I go down to the corner store, I am not especially nice to any black people or treat them any differently than I would anyone else. This is called “fair and unbiased”. You know, the way I envisioned it since I was a kid in the 60′s.
Seeing what inept and angry black people in the public limelight do with it though is literally pathetic. As I’ve already said, Tavis Smiley has no reason to be angry. He has done well and though I’ve watched his show, I can’t put up with his sentence structure and word-usage. To say nothing of his constant discussion of “oppression”.
But then, it dawned on me some time ago that there are blacks who, for whatever reason, don’t expect equal treatment and opportunity, they want a free pass to great wealth, legal immunity and praise without having to atone for any of it. In many cases, they submit “evidence” that whitey does things just that way but they fail to acknowledge that hard work and intelligence can get you places far, far better than having it “gave to you” as some might put it.
Ask Mr Bill Cosby. In the 60′s and 70′s people of all races in this nation were very likely to purchase his recordings of his stand up comedy. And they are funny and have universal appeal. But, why then, if I don’t buy the latest angry, hate-spewing rapper-cum-criminal “art” I am tagged a racist? I hate that crap. And the root word of rap IS crap. And there’s BET, the black congressional caucus, the black this, the black that. They have been working for decades now to voluntarily segregate themselves because they have found competition in the empirical sense to be not-to-their-liking. Therefore they want a different playing field. But, aren’t these the same people who protested “whites only” facilities in the South? How about The Negro League of baseball? Admittedly, such things were poor choices by the then white leaders of society and a shameful testimony to our heritage.
But segregation, no matter who’s doing it, is still wrong. Thanks to “the new society” brought about by Johnson, et al, the myth of “black culture” was able to evolve into something very anti-American. I always laugh at Richard Pryor’s experience when he was in Africa and he turned to a local and asked him what tribe he thought he most look like he came from. The native African said, “You look Italian”.
An American black is a unique animal. In fact, they talk in Europe about the “ugly American” but when I was stationed in Germany, the blacks tended to act the most reprehensibly while in a foreign country than any of the white guys. It was never talked about or addressed by the command structure. We talked about it amongst ourselves quietly. We saw it, we noted it and it ticked us off. And they were never held accountable.
In any case, it has transmogrified into a marketing issue and there’s money in race-baiting. I have no idea how long it’s going to take for it all to eventually smooth out and go away and people can get back to the business of acting like normal people. I hate that I am a child of the 60′s and that I got inundated with all the politically correct GARBAGE that has been thrown at us over the years. I admit that there is a small bit of good that has come from it, but it was entirely unnecessary, overblown, intrusive, harmful and not just a little annoying. It also created a problem in many cases where none existed.
Once again, we can thank the government.
Hmmmm. Sentence structure? Are you sure you really want to use those words?
No, not in this case. I should have said “the way he puts things”. And by that I mean his choice of context and the prism which he has his viewers look through. I wasn’t referring to adherence to the king’s English; Rather his curious victim-based tone in conversation and choice of words to that effect.
Perfect word-choice and writing skills, I have not. My first post was stream-of-consciousness and I failed to proofread it. But then, I do that a lot.
In Smiley’s case, he cherry picks words and watching him as he does it is irritating enough. Even when he has a star on who I happen to like, his choices of topics seem self-serving and agenda-based.
My initial reaction is that Obama is particularly lucky to have a gibbering moron and a bloated, careerist fraud as his most prominent antagonists within the black community. Who could take them–especially the word salad-spewing West–seriously?
But after I reflect a little on the academic and media corruption that props up people like Smiley and West and repeatedly suggests to the wider public that their nonsense is to be taken seriously, it occurs to me that they are a much bigger threat to the uniform code of African-American speech than anyone infinitely more sensible could be.
When it comes to Cornel West and Tavis Smiley on the one hand, and Barack Obama on the other hand, I’m reminded of Kissinger’s famous comment about Iran and Iraq:
“It’s a pity they can’t both lose.”
“There were accusations that Smiley was just bitter because Obama had turned down offers to be on his show. West was lampooned as a sad sack, as having been a failure at Harvard, and as being a bitter black man.”
Just because Barry (or his minions) says something doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
So there is nothing wrong with Blacks that a consistent Republican government ( a party that believes government is the problem ) wouldn’t fix. And that would happen how?
Do you mean “consistently” as eternal or unwavering? If you mean unwavering it would be consistent with the way Republicans have approached black people since the beginning of the party. They’ve always stood for their rights under the constitution but do not believe in special rights for anyone. Individual Republicans go off the track sometimes, and the Party sometimes but the basic premise of the Republican Party remains the same. I’ll be happy to elaborate on this if necessary, but a quick look at actual history tells the story. As a single reference a compilation by Michael Zak, “Back to Basics for the Republican Party” is a good one.
Let’s be honest.
The Republican Party was favorable to black civil rights–but that’s because it was led by relative moderates (like Eisenhower), and included many prominent moderates (like Rockefeller) and even liberals (like Jacob Javits).
But back then, the conservative movement wasn’t that favorable to black civil rights. Here’s an excerpt from an infamous 1957 editorial in the National Review that had no problem with state-enforced segregation of the races:
“The central question that emerges–and it is not a parliamentary question or a question that is answered by merely consulting a catalog of the rights of American citizens, born Equal–is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes–the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race. It is not easy, and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing the median cultural superiority of White over Negro: but it is fact that obtrudes, one that cannot be hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropologists. The question, as far as the White community is concerned, is whether the claims of civilization supersede those of universal suffrage. The British believe they do, and acted accordingly, in Kenya, where the choice was dramatically one between civilization and barbarism, and elsewhere; the South, where the conflict is by no means dramatic, as in Kenya, nevertheless perceives important qualitative differences between its culture and the Negroes’, and intends to assert its own.
“National Review believes that the South’s premises are correct. If the majority wills what is socially atavistic, then to thwart the majority may be, though undemocratic, enlightened. ”
Fortunately, the National Review soon realized the error of this position.
Fortunately, the National Review soon realized the error of this position.
——————————————————————————-
What error? That article seems to be dismissing cultural relativism, the idea that all cultures are equal. Don’t most PJM readers agree that cultures are not all equal?
I’m not saying that anyone here wants society to return to a point where whites condescend to blacks and patronize them, let alone refer to them with racial epithets or hope for a resurgent KKK, but if we don’t reject cultural relativism as the National Review article did, aren’t we going to wind up in the same Affirmative Action scenario?
Tavis and his ilk are racist / collectivist stooges who parade around as academics.
Jobs, jobs, jobs. We hear it every day. But the Obama Labor Board’s outrageous attack on Boeing shows how little the union bosses and their political allies really care about jobs — unless they can force workers to pay union dues or “fees.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s54rFy9Db90&fe…
“Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.” George Washington
Why call a 50% white person black?
Why not call a 50% black person white?
Why make it a race issue in the first place? Isn’t that racist?
Just sayin’…
If that were true, then half the NBA players are “white”. Tiger isn’t black, he’s ASIAN. I guess we won’t need Affirmative Action for professional basketball after all.
Alternative headline: Tavis and Cornel’s Excellent Race Pimp Road Trip on Other People’s Money.
Couldn’t be any worse than Obama’s “Magical Misery Tour”…..then again…
“Bureaucracy gives birth to itself and then expects maternity benefits.”
“I have a dream today,A dream that one day my children will be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Faster Please.
Tavis Smiley in May 2010 was interviewing Ayaan Hirsi Ali and she made the point that Muslims in the name of their religion were committing murders and were attempting terrorists acts on a pretty vast scale.
Smiley the great thinker that he is then told Ms Ali that “Christians blow people up everyday in this country.” He went on to list “Columbine, post offices” and others as proof that “Christians” murder on a much vaster scale than Muslims.
Anyone with an IQ above normal room temperature would realize that Ms Ali was simply stating that the primary reason the 9/11 terrorists and others like Major Assan did their deeds was their religious beliefs. There is absolutely no connection between Christian beliefs and the murders at Columbine, the post offices etc. Tavis Smiley is should not be allowed anywhere near a national TV broadcast as he is unfit to carry on any type of rational discussion.
Equating Islamic terrorists who scream “Allah Akbar!” while murdering innocents and the Columbine shooters by labelling them Christians is sheer moral bankruptcy.
The left can never let go of race. Voluntary slavery of the soul is so much more lucrative than slavery of the body. It is essential that they never cure poverty, because that would eliminate their largest voting block.
I suspect the same thing of the ruling class GOP who have been stringing along the pro-life right for years. They will never actually make a serious effort to stop the slaughter of millions of Americans. The dirty truth be known, many fiscal cons and liberatarian types would desert them in droves.
Shakespeare was so right -the whole world is a stage.
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