Do black folks know that Tavis Smiley has declared himself their king? I’ve been asking around and most everyone I’ve spoken to barely remembers him from his days as a BET talk-show host. I should qualify that, most people don’t remember him at all. Of the people who recognize the name, not one person has admitted to seeing Tavis as a “black leader.”
So why is he going after Barack Obama for essentially “not being black enough?”
This whole issue stems from Smiley’s attempt to promote his “State of the Black Union” event in New Orleans. Tavis invited the presidential candidates, including Barack Obama. I imagine Tavis had visions of a stirring Obama speech as the keystone to his event. But then something happened. Obama turned down the invitation. Something about being a little busy running for president. The nerve!!!
How dare Barack Obama turn down the overture of a man looking to profit from proximity to power and celebrity? How dare he not kneel at the altar of those who see themselves as the foundation stones of black opinion in the United States? How dare he be about the business of putting a black man in a position of power that no other black man has ever occupied in the history of this country?
Tell me something Tavis. If Barack Obama attended your event and then lost Texas and Ohio by miniscule margins, would you man up and admit that the day spent at your event in the immediate run-up to those polls might have cost him? What if he lost by 5,000 votes? What if he lost by 50?
Which is more important to black people in the United States? Barack Obama making a 20 minute speech at a private event or Barack Obama occupying the White House for the next four years? Where can he do the most good?
State of the Black Union has the stated goal of mobilizing volunteers to help rebuild New Orleans. But Tavis, don’t you think Barack Obama can do more to rebuild New Orleans from the White House than he can from your stage? Don’t you think he can do more to advance the goals of the entire black community? Will your ego not let you set yourself aside? Or are you really that selfish and near-sighted?
Perhaps not attending an explicitly race-based event makes Barack Obama “not black enough.” That’s what Tavis Smiley implies even as he is too timid to say it outright. In conversations with friends and colleagues, I have criticized Obama in the past for not being more involved in issues such as the plight of the Jena 6. But I’ve realized something since then. If being black means doing his best by the black community, then Barack Obama is doing the very blackest thing he can possibly do. He is single-handedly changing the perception of what is possible for a black man.
White people are embracing a black presidential candidate. That in itself is enough to spark hope that a presidential candidate can in fact change a country. But more importantly for the black community, Barack Obama’s campaign means that a generation of young black people are now growing up with the knowledge that they can aspire to the very highest peaks of accomplishment. That message is more important than anything that will be said at or accomplished by the State of the Black Union. If Tavis were “black enough” maybe he would realize it.
