It is ironical that these African Americans chose a celebration of Martin Luther Jr. to blackball and silence Tavis Smiley because of his political critique of a Black leader who like all other leaders should be held accountable for his deeds and policies.
by Ruby Sales
Do We Believe that a Black President is above critique even when he stands aloof from the human rights of ordinary people here and abroad? Tell me it is not so!
I just read a post that Tavis Smiley was uninvited to speak at an annual Martin Luther King, Jr. luncheon in Peoria, Illinois because of an organized protest by Black members of a book club. As I read this post, my stomach sank and a deep pool of sadness flowed throughout my body. After ruminating through my deep angst, sorrow and righteous indignation, I must boldly say that I am aghast at their aggressive demonizing, silencing and blackballing of Smiley because he is critical of the policies and stances of President Obama. I am aghast that I have not heard the thunder of these Black voices roaring over the fact that Newt Gingrich is speaking at a major NAACP event after he made the racist comment that Blacks should seek jobs rather than welfare. I am aghast and indignant that I do not hear them rising up and blackballing the White masters of redistricting maps that dissipate the meaning and power of our votes. I am deeply disturbed that I have not seen them uniting the power of their voices to challenge and blackball local politicians in Chicago whose policies and public rhetoric push Black youth into rivers of systemic injustice that drown far too many of them. President Obama can speak for himself, but what about our youth who are vulnerable and powerless in these turbulent waters. Who defends and speaks for them?
Where have we come on our journey for freedom and democracy when we believe that a Black President is above critique? When we silence speech and blackball people who speak out, we are dancing on a slippery slope that leads us further toward fascism.
I have heard the argument that Tavis Smiley is an awful person. I don’t know if he is insufferable, vain or mean spirited. Nor do I care because his personal defects are not the issue. The point is that they should not determine his right to speak and be heard in a democracy. The constitution does not limit a person’s right to speak based on character. If that were the case, many people would not be holding the microphone at Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations. And the truth of the matter is Smiley is not the problem. He does not have the power to diminish poverty, racism or any other assaults on our human rights. Vicious and personal assaults on Tavis Smiley turn our gaze away from interrogating the President on issues that matter to us and on issues that he can impact through his speeches and public policy leadership.
It is ironical that these African Americans chose a celebration of Martin Luther Jr. to blackball and silence Tavis Smiley because of his political critique of a Black leader who like all other leaders should be held accountable for his deeds and policies. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be aghast and would vehemently and eloquently stand on the side of democracy and Smiley’s right to speak out without being demonized, blackballed or isolated. Listen to King’s words on Black leadership in his article, “Black Power Defined”:
And so we have to create leaders that embody virtues we can respect, who have moral and ethical principles that we can applaud with an enthusiasm that allows us to rally support for them based on confidence and trust. We will have to demand high standards and give consistent, loyal support to those who merit it. We have to be a reliable constituency for those who prove themselves to be committed political warriors on our behalf… We must learn to refuse crumbs from the big-city machines and steadfastly demand a fair share of the loaf. When the big-city politicians demur, we must be prepared to act in unity and throw our support to such independent parties or reform wings of the major parties as are prepared to take our demands seriously and fight for them vigorously.
King knew and warned us that power does not trickle down to the bottom. Nor is a trickle the object of our long struggle for freedom. This includes the struggles of White progressives. Nothing changes as MLK, Jr. knew until We the People use the power of our voices and our actions to create mutual alliances that eradicate systemic injustice; the systemic injustice that robs us of our voices and shares of the fruits of the world that our hands help build. The future of the nation is in our hands, not in the hands of the President.
Do we really believe that President Obama has heard the cries of the systemic sufferings of Black people and our brothers and sisters everywhere? Are we supporting him based on merit or based on color? Are we called to protect the Presidency of President Obama or are we called to demand power, justice, regard and action for the people?
In balance, I must say to Tavis Smiley and the organizers of this event that a speaking fee to Tavis Smiley of $37,500 and his accepting it is obscene and stands over and against the life and values of MLK, Jr. I am deeply disturbed that my brother and sister veterans of the Southern Freedom Movement/Civil Rights Movement who fought to change the soul of this country are rarely asked to speak on this day, and rarely if ever are they offered such speaking fees. Their voices are sidelined as many of them struggle to economically survive in a society that overlooks them in favor of big names in popular culture who are the beneficiaries of the hard work of these veterans. I offer my protest and in the name of my movement brothers and sisters I say stop your shameless profiteering of the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Freedom Movement.
In addition to asking freedom fighters to speak, why not give a donation to the SNCC Legacy Project, Veterans of Hope, The History Makers or Historically Black colleges from which many freedom fighters came?
Ruby Nell Sales is a highly-trained, experienced, and deeply-committed social activist, scholar, administrator, manager, and educator in the areas of Civil, Gender, and other Human Rights. She is a co-director of the Spirit House Project.
It’s very hard to understand why we as black people expect less from Obama, because he is half black, granted..and not black American, but nevertheless part african. A man that got his, polical start from the South side of Chicago. He needs to be held accoutable like we would hold any other President accountable. Unfornately none of the political system is set in place for us. All it has done is contuine to divide us, in ways that has only caused more and more dislike amoungst ourselves, and keeps us confused. The divide is causing excusiating pain for us, that if we contuine may become unrepairable.it’s hard to believe that we have gotten to this place, and even harder to believe that we are allowing ourselves to be in this place…May God/Goddess be with us all.
The answer is, “Yes, black Americans can criticize President Barack Obama.” And, many of us do. I send postcards, letters, e-mails and make direct comments through members of Organizing for America, the President’s group, to him.
I did not appreciate the compromise of 2010 when the president allowed the tax cuts for the rich to stay in place in order to get an extension of unemployment benefits. I did not appreciate the manner in which I felt the president blindsided the Democrats in his agreement with the Republicans. And, I told him so.
I did not appreciate how long it took his administration to address Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. That was a campaign promise he made. Told him about that, too.
I also didn’t like how long it took to end the war in Iraq. He just went along with what was already in place, told him about that, too.
It is all of our duty to hold presidents accountable for what they do. Had the Republicans held former president George W. Bush accountable for the things his administration did maybe President Obama would not have inherited the mess he inherited. Maybe, we would not have attacked and destroyed Iraq. Maybe, we would have had had our housing market and economy destroyed.
I know from disputes that I have engaged in on Facebeook that many black Americans hold our president accountable and expect as much or more of President Obama as any president.
I was not appreciative of Tavis Smiley and Cornel West’s behavior towards the president because I did not feel that their behavior was about the president’s accountability. I felt that those men were being petty because the president did not lick their rings. Tavis has his yearly, “Let’s knock the Negro program,” every year (which has produced nothing) and Candidate Obama didn’t show and Tavis was pissed. Cornel was pissed because he wasn’t invited to the “Big Dance,” and so they say they are upset about poverty in the black community but they are really pissed because of their perceived slights.
Let’s not insult black Americans over Tavis and Cornel, those men have behavior in a very petty and jealous manner towards our black president.
Great post, CS. You recognize West and Smiley’s behavior for what it is. Obama is not perfect, but he will be “held accountable” in Nov. 2012, not by West and Smiley but by all of us who vote.
I have no problem with Cornel or Tavis turning up the heat on Obama. I hope both will intensify their views on the Obama. I know I will as the election nears of course I do expect Obama to now pay attention to the Black electorate and stop pandering and appeasing others at our expense..
Obama will not pay attention to the interests of African Americans as the election looms. Why should he? He has been on the side of the 1% ever since he stepped into the Oval Office.
Honestly why would Obama pay attention to black people. If he could slap a population around and still get their votes what would they matter to him? I’m sure you remember Obama referring to himself as a mongrel on that television interview. As well as Obama having his Sister Souljah moment for white audiences primarily. Also he basically treated the Black Caucus like what I can only guess they must be in their hearts to tolerate such an event, a bunch of chumps. It also didn’t help that the language and tone Obama used during that speech was befitting of children whom had been acting out.
Also the several cases of police brutality he remained silent on during his campaign and presidency going as far as endorsing the murders with the phrase “I respect the court decision”. The Skipp Gates incident is less severe in its events but more telling in its outcomes. Obama’s absolute silence on Oscar Grant case.
O did I mention he bombed and African country.
Can you give me a reason I should care about this mans campaign or anyone else of color? Bigger boogeymen around the corner? A White president would do us even worse? A White President could preside over a larger transfer of black wealth to banks? A White President could bomb Africa with black silence?
Serious questions.
@John I Could not have said it better.
Black Americans have gone through worse than what the most right wing Republican president can conjure up–and they have survived.
Obama should therefore be punished for his disgraceful duplicities and just lies and criminalities. He also a callous war criminal having overseered the brutal bombings and racist lynchings of blacks in Libya.
Black Americans would be doing the right thing by just refusing to vote for Obama next election or they should just vote for an alternative candidate. Without the black vote Obama cannot win. This shallow but criminal-minded trickster should be taught a lesson
Word.
I aint voting for this disgusting liar. And to BELIEVE I voted for him the first time. Man, I hooked on the HOPE & CHANGE media ploy. Not this time potna. Besides, I suspect so many black people are dejected they will NOT vote anyway. Therefore, the only way Obama can will is to STEAL the election or ….MAKE ANOTHER CATASTROPHE and scare the jesus out the “brain-dead” sheep. Even then I doubt they believe in this SELLOUT in the whitehouse
Tavis, Dr. West and others are being silenced and blackballed by the mainstream because they are challenging the president and keeping black issues up front. The liberal left has lined the pockets of the Sharptons and Jacksons to silence them on real issues and get them to push agendas that do not directly impact black people such as gay rights and blindly supporting illegal imigration. Most black people that I know want a president that will get them back to work. What is Obama’s vision? Its just not clear. Sadly there is no alternative. The GOP is full of mean clowns who would turn back the clock on many beneficial programs. GOD help us!!!
Hey! Don’t vote for him. Its ur right in a democracy. If he does win, u all can deal with the consequences! We all have a right to critisize. However, it is my belief that some of you all think that what you all feel should be the top priority of this President and if he does not act when we want, he is not worthy of our vote. This job is about priorities and pushback by the opposing side. He has accomplished more good with least amount of scandals in modern times. Example: some of u all are pissed with his signing the NDAA act, even though he added a signing statement and declared he would not act on the detention provision. Many say he just simply should not have signed the bill though millions of people would have either lost unenemployment benefits or been furloughed. Those people have a right to their belief but those millions have a right to eat and pay their bills. PRIORITIES! If he didn’t sign the bill and millions would have suffered, u all still would have not been satisfied. Some other thing would have pissed u off. So either ur choices seems to be: u learn to compromise; vote for someone else; or run for President urself!
The signing statement does not have the force of law. The signing statement is not binding on future presidents. The NDAA on the other hand has the force of law and should have been vetoed.
@Sayeed,
There was no way to get the good stuff without the bad stuff in the NDAA. The Rethugs set it up like that, and the POTUS gets the heat for it! Pretty slick on the Rethugs part, wouldn’t you say?
I don’t know why ANYBODY’D want to be president!
THE BLACK AMERICAN PEOPLE -we ARE a People- We WERE REPUBLICANS 140 Years ago.
At that same time, Barack Obama’s U.S. family were SLAVEOWNERS. One of them was JEFFERSON DAVIS, president of the Confederacy!! I hear he neglects to mention these facts in Dreams of My Father.
Then there was our turn with the Democrats, 1930s up to now. Enough with this DUOPOLY. Presently I recommend the U.S. Green Party and ROSEANNE BARR’s 2012 campaign for president.
http://www.GP.org
On the website above, look for info on the Green Party’s 2012 Annual National Meeting in BALTIMORE, Maryland. WILL YOU BE THERE???
In the GPUS, our main connection is with our STATE & LOCAL Green parties, so please try to/ do/ connect where you are. From that point, please try to make it to the BALTIMORE ANM (annual national meeting).
The Black American People, and all our people throughout the Americas, have been on the move for over 300 YEARS; since BEFORE THERE WAS ANY United States.
One monkey don’t stop no show. We keep moving on.
Also, many of u didn’t vote for him in the first place, and just use these sites to get off on ur hatred of Obama for whatever reasons! He is President and is excercising his constitutional powers in a manner he sees fit until he is no longer president. Deal with it!
First of all Stephen, if people had JOBS they wouldn’t need unemployment benefits. Secondly, the bill decreased unemployment benefits by 20 weeks. Look it up. That’s the problem with you zealots, you’re the FIRST to have an oppinion, but the LAST to study anything.
The signing statement does not have the force of law. The signing statement is not binding on future presidents. The NDAA on the other hand has the force of law and should have been vetoed.
Stephen obviously you recognize that NDAA is rotten legislation based on your comments. Rather than deal with the man who asked for it you wanna get mad at those who point out the glaring hypocrisy.
I’m just disappointed in his Policies. He is a BOUGHT man. He is not ‘president’ he is a person who follows directions from Rich people. He is everything I would not want to be.
@GG
Their both thugs in a good guy bad guy theater act. They hold hands more than people want to acknowledge because it would require them to do more than feel about a speech or vote. Every four years we circle the same predetermined ritual like raving cultist in the pursuit of the improbable… Progress. You become president because you best represent the collective business interest of the wealthy not because you want to. On the personal level people want to become president for the power to serve as a corporate mouth peace and populace pacifier. For their service they receive a cushy corporate job after they leave office that put them in the position to retire wealthy (not real wealth but the type of wealth a useful pawn would awe the underclass with).
@Sportsbruh
Don’t be to disappointed, he’s just following tradition. Bush became too toxic a face that was associated with America. So they had to change the mascot to fool people into believing some type of social revolution had occurred domestically and that a new day was dawning. What better way could you think of besides putting the most oppressed nationality as the figurehead of your nation.
I didn’t vote for Presiden Obama, because I was pretty sure of what he was really about as a politician. I also felt that a man who openly (and often) expressed his admiration for Ronald Reagan was just using Blacks and other members of the Democrats’ traditional base to collect enough votes to get elected. The biggest problem with most Black people’s uncritical worshipping of the cult of Obama will occur once he leaves office, when many of these same Black people attempt to hold other non-black Presidents and politicians who behave exactly as President Obama has, “accountable.” Good luck selling this hypocrisy to those outside of the Black community. Now the whole world knows that our freedom struggle was a lie, because most of us never really wanted real freedom, or to do the hard work required to truly change an unjust system, we just wanted in at any cost, on the terms of White establishment. This is truly a sad point in our history.
so it would seem… though much has been done to leave it that way. sad indeed…
Dumb negroes have scapegoated intelligent blacks since we first came off the slave ship. It’s called “crabs in a barrel,” and I know it when I see it.
If Obama had come to Smiley’s “State of the Black Union” or West had gotten his tickets to the Inaugural, you wouldn’t hear a peep out of them. Funny how lowbrow black folks buy into the “holding Obama accountable” line, a.k.a. taking their swipes at the smart, articulate, lightskinned, uppity negro, “acting white” Obama.
I didn’t hear you field negroes hold Bush/Cheney/Rice “accountable,” even when he left you to drown in New Orleans. Your hero Tavis didn’t go down there ’till way after it was over.
But don’t worry, negroes, Obama’s policies are pulling America up, and even though your ghetto-mindedness keeps you from really participating in America, you will reap the benefits.
Five years ago, people said there would never be a black president. Now that we have one, you want to kick him. Even when the GOP has gone all out to block him and has done everything but break out the white robes and burning crosses. Gingrich has said black kids should be janitors at their schools. Paul has ties to white supremacists. Santorum thinks blacks abuse welfare.
Are you holding *them* “accountable?”
Shame on you.
Obama/Biden 2012!
You are just like them using your class warfare to divid my people. Open your eyes and close your lips…you may just learn something.
P.S. The article itself above is abysmal. It reads like somebody who learned a lot of new words in jail and are trying to use them all in a few paragraphs. This unfortunately is the mentality who want to hold Obama “accountable.” It speaks for itself. Good job, Ruby.
I have rarely seen that much willful ignorance packed into so few sentences. All that you needed to say was that as far as you are concerned, President Obama is your infallible and perfect hero, and that anyone who disagrees with that sentiment is either evil or a fool, or both. I just happen to be one of those disagree with those sentiments.
The fact is that Mr. Obama was not raised up by the Black community, and presented by us to the America and the world as “our” chosen Presidential candidate. he was raised up by his handlers/masters in the DLC and by others among the White American elite who wished to “rebrand” American imperialism and to neuter the anti-war movement, and what passes for the left and the civil rights movement in modern America. Many Blacks, desperate to be “accepted” by America, after the trauma of the Bush years, climbed on board once “our” rubber stamp “leadership” gave him their seal of approval. As should have been expected, once elected, the only thing Mr. Obama consistently “articulates” is the corporate and miltarist agenda of the 1% which he dutifully serves.
In case you haven’t noticed it through personal observation, being light skinned has nothing to do with one’s intelligence or morality or common sense, or lack there of, or with one’s ability to be “articulate”. Most of those who were brought to the so-called New World on slave ships came as children and adolescents not as adults. They came alone, into strange and hostile cultures came from a wide variety of cultures without any unifying concepts of language or belief and most importantly, they came without a unifying concepts of Africaness or of “Blackness.” The idea of “race” and color as identity and as “values” are “gifts” imposed upon Africans by White Westerners and Arabs. No light skinned, articulate geniuses were imported by the slave masters to show their darker low-browed kin the way.
So basically your argument is that Obama isn’t “really” Black but forced on us by whites, and “some” Blacks are “desperate” to be “accepted” by America. Right, another tired African-American trope that keeps our people down; who’s “real” and who isn’t. Gotcha. Sorry to tell you this, Peasehead, but the ’60s are over. The game of blacker-than-thou is tired. If you can show me another so-called Black leader or “thinker” who outstrips Obama (the leader of the Free World) right now, I’ll eat my Jordans. And don’t mention ghetto apologist hacks like West or Dyson, either.
Serious question do you have any interest?
If so has Obama fulfilled them aside from being nominally black?
Honestly your outlook on how Obama came to be is sadly uninformed. A Black man in America receives more money than any other white candidate in the history of American politics. I’m sure some may think this is to carry out the best interest of brown and black people all over the world because that’s what America has been about since its inception. History fortunately intercedes with the facts that wash away such propagandized myths about America being the leader of the free anything. America is the land of genocide, slavery and rape and still is today. They have the victims of empire so drunk on the myth of good intentions and democracy that they can rationalize an attack on themselves. Do some research about how many unfree people of color are in this countries prisons.
I’m not telling you not to vote, I’m telling you voting has never solved our problems because it’s not a movement to jump on a bandwagon and act like you did something. Vote for Obama again if you want but at least know what your voting for. Also be more aware of how politicians appear in front of your face and who supports them.
Without delving into the ignorance of the rape of African women you displayed here, that would allow you to utter anything as slavish as their being a light-skin vs dark-skin dynamic in this opposition, I’ll ask a question that might help you better understand where people are coming from. You seem to credit Bush with Katrina, so does Obama belong to the same government? Also why stop at Katrina how about the Crack Cocaine epidemic? How about Tuskegee or Eugenics in America in general.
Also on the merits of intellectualism. Obama is not an intellectual he’s a public speaker. John Henrik Clarke was an intellectual, Malcolm X was an intellectual, Cheikh Anta Diop was an intellectual, Ivan Van Sertima was an intellectual, Marcus Garvey was an Intellectual and so on. Saying any of those names next to a buck dancing, grinning, sambo ass flunkie like Obama cheapens their legacies.
On apologist I offer no apology nor would any person with a spleen or a backbone to someone who views their own impoverished people with such dismissive disdain. No… no .. no, your boot licking is on your own time not on the backs of others.
The only thing holding us back is a mental schism that needs to be validated by people outside our own group. How else does one explain such insanity waged around the world for acceptance instead of power, acquiescence instead of affirmation.
To paraphrase Amos Wilson and end this, I just want you to ask yourself why is it that doing what you want to do is exactly what other groups want you to do?
Mr. Coonery: I see that you have carefully chosen to ignore what my post actually said. No one cares about who is the “Blackest” person or thinker in America. Blacks are no more monolithic than anyone else. In spite of that, that I believe that Black people in America have specific and legitimate group interests just like members of other ethnic groups do. These have been shaped by the fact that most Black people in America are not the sons and daughters of willing immigrants. Because of that, we have been shaped by an American experience unlike that of most other people. Like most White politicians and many Black politicians in this country, Mr. Obama enthusiastically responds to the demands of (White) groups ranging from the Israeli lobby to his friends on Wallstreet, while he distances himself from Blacks unless, of course, he can be filmed giving Black people condescending lectures about their alleged pathologies, as if they alone are a group of flawed people who are somehow unworthy of the same level of public service as are members of other groups who have supported him and voted for him. I don’t tolerate displays of contempt and disrespect from politicians and elected officials of any race or nationality because I do not have an inferiority complex, and I expect all of them to act as professional public servants. Professional public servants serve ALL of the people, not just members of the majority population or of the 1%. I have no use for public servants who play plantation games by pandering to White biases and interests while selling Black people empty hope and dreams even as they dismiss their genuine needs. President Obama has had both the opportunity and the power to do better by both Black people in America and in other parts of the world, but chose not to. He has chosen not only not to challenge or to change the wasteful and destructive military and prison industrial complexes, but to further enable them. Because of this, he has not earned, and he is not owed the blind allegiance which so many in the Black community bestow upon him.
Black’s were warned about this new world order BS.But no black’s want to watch BS basketball,watch dumb talk shows and pray to some jesus or some god to come save them.Black’s have been souled out and don’t realize it.To crazy and brainwashed to unite against this madness.
President Obama is a politician 1st and foremost. Remember, that Smiley and many of the other “so-called” black leadership supported Hillary and not Barack. NONE of these same Whinners held Bill Clinton accountable for Welfare Reform or the Crime Bill he passed. Oh, but Bill said that he was sorry for slavery, but delivered nothing!!! Negro folk were so busy protecting slick Willie, we forgot to protect ourselves. No matter what President Obama does folks from the left and right will attack.
No one should have to vote between the evil of two lessers and I don’t think anyone here is telling us to vote for or support any of the people you mentioned.
Again, here we are allowing ourselves to trapped in an illusion.
Reality check: President Obama is a mulatto politician, not a black leader.
Close ranks so-called black America and handle your business…
Submit to the will of righteousness, stop lying to yourselves.
We have not taken care of our internal affairs.
We are allowing our future (black youth) to be destroyed from within. We have timid and ineffective infrastructure across black America. And the masses are still “desperately seeking Susan (you’re not white). There is no black agenda and we have no one to blame but ourselves…
As a” ghetto negro” or one that don’t come near the ecomomic level of a Tavis or Barock I have to say I measure our “POTUS” by what he says and does by my people. Obama don’t “cut” for Blacks. It is clear to me that he don’t care about us either. He serves his corporate masters, from wall street to the military industrial complex. If bush had done half the stuff Obama has done every (thinking) black in america would be outraged and in the streets marching, singing we shall overcome. From the 250 plus drone strikes to the massive deportations, we would have found a Dr. King quote to match. This is not about crabs in a barrel trying to keep another brother down. Obama don’t even address the issues that affect black america, so how can we even act like he is one of us. Where was he when brother Troy Davis was killed? Where was he when they honered the slaves that built the white house? Where was he when they traced the first ladies roots to slavery? He was no where to be found because there is nothing politically to gain. It hurts me to see this politician on a t-shirt with the likes of Dr. King and Malcom X. Those men fought and died for the freedom of blacks in this country. They bring us a puppet and we all feel as if we have to get in line. Well I ain’t gonna get in line. I hope he don’t get re-elected…maybe then my people will wake up from this dream that we been living for the past four years. To think we were singing change gone come. Sam Cook must be rolling over in his grave in protest. I don’t think this is the change he wanted. Better yet what change?
Uncritical, blind and unquestioning support of any poilitician is a dangerous and foolish proposition from the door. President Obama’s disdain for African-American issues is clear and unmistakable, in my view. His patent disregard for Black Americans is due in part to the weak and wholly ineffective Black political “leadership”. Divorced from any actual concerns about mass incarceration, widespread unemployment or dismal public ed, Black elected officials do little more than gush and evade reality.
Obama’s essential hollowness was evident long ago in his political evolution. He practically quakes in the presence of powerful white men. The constant humble and non- threatening Negro shit has gotten old. Is one to suppose that Black manhood- as represented by the man who occupies the most powerful position in the world- will be redefined as the ability to absorb recurrent indignities, gross insult, contempt, invective and rebuke?
There is nothing “cool” about an obsequious Obama, and a servile, grinning and endlessly apologetic President cannot- by any definition- be considered “change”.
For those Black people that characterize Tavis Smiley and Cornell West’s critique of the Obama presidency as traitorous I ask one question, have they lied? Since I’ve followed the careers of Tavis Smiley and Cornell West they have both been stanch critics of every presidency. The only difference happens to be that Obama is black. I’m reminded of a comment by Louis Farrakhan that coincidentally he uttered at one of Tavis Smiley’s Town Hall Meetings, “let us not forget that Barak Obama was elected to manage the affairs of White people.” Might I add he has done an exceptional job of managing the affairs of wealthy White people. As long Black people fail to hold their leaders, politicians and public figures, accountable they have no motivation to serve the constituency that elected them to office or live up to our expectations.