Thursday, February 25, 2010

Rev. Al Sharpton and Tavis Smiley "Disagree" On the Air



W.E.B. DuBois vs Booker T. Washington...2Pac vs Biggie...and now Sharpton vs Smiley

I heard about this yesterday. Evidently two of our "Black leaders" had a disagreement on Rev. Al's radio show. We all know that Tavis Smiley has been one of Barack Obama's staunchest opponents over the last three years. Mainly because he feels that Obama doesn't have enough of a Black agenda, if he has one at all. Rev. Al on the other hand has supported Obama (for the most part, but certainly not all the way) and took offense to some comments Smiley made about him on the Tom Joyner show. It all revolves around a February 9th New York Times article where Sharpton is quoted in saying that President Obama is "smart not to ballyhoo “a black agenda.”"...funny thing is the way it was written in the article, I'm not even sure if he said that exactly.

Anyways, Tavis took to the air and said somethings about Sharpton. Shaprton heard them, called Tavis and invited him on his show. The above video has this conversation in its entirety. Doesn't sound like anything really gets solved. Just sounds like two dudes saying "ay brah...heard you been talking shit about me."

However, one thing I do feel Rev. Al on is that its not quite right for Tavis to host a symposium in Chicago, about Obama, when he obviously isn't objective. He should rather be one of the panelist, instead of the moderator. Listen and leave your thoughts if any.
Labels: , ,

3 comments:

Robyn said...

Man Tavis needs to sit down some where. I believe this is a plow to try to make himself relevant because no one even is checking for what he has to say these days. I agree that as the President he can not focus on one isolated group of people, b/c quite frankly that would hurt us more than help because nothing would get resolved and then we will still be in the same place.

This is a quote from Dr. Height in that same article which I think sums it up.

“We have never sat down and said to the 43 other presidents: ‘How does it feel to be a Caucasian? How do you feel as a white president? Tell me what that means to you,’ ” Dr. Height said. “I am not one to think that he should do more for his people than for other people. I want him to be free to be himself.”

February 25, 2010 at 8:35 AM
Bayan The One said...

well i ain't watch the video yet, but something just hit me when i saw Obama's black agenda mentioned, and i never even pondered on this before

i'm speculating now, and could be a million miles from the truth, but on a personal level i guess he well may indeed not have one

cause to be able to give primary importance to and place special emphasis on the problems of black community (or any comunity for that matter) an individual has to identify with this community on a deeper level and feel belonging

i'm not sure that color of skin alone makes a person a member of black community and thus compel him/her to care more about it than about any other community. a person should share the culture and the history of the community to develop agenda for it ...

and i almost got to the point i'm trying to make LOL

so although Obama is black, due to his upbringing and family history he hardly shares the resentment and bitterness of african-americans about slavery and racism which i believe is one of the focal points in identifying oneself with this community

i wonder whether it's not this circumstance of his biography that helped him to get to the office

i'm not sure that he favors black falks over whites and other communities much enough to have a special agenda for them

i can judge by my own experience
i'm jew, but i never was a victim of antisemitism, i wasn't brought up as a jew, so although logically i understand who i belong to, psichologically to really feel connection with other jews i need to make an effort cause i didn't go through what many of them did

February 25, 2010 at 6:06 PM
boi-dan said...

Tavis wants to Mr. Black America, at any cost. "The sun don't shine if son don't shine."

But listen to Rev. Al's initial response on the TomJoynerMorningShow:
(Tuesday, February 23, 2010)
http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=ifyoumissedit

"Buck-dancing"

February 26, 2010 at 11:37 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)