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    Wattree Defending Tavis Smiley and Cornel West - What is this World Coming to?

    By Wattree on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 1:45pm |

    Okay, so maybe Hell can freeze over. If someone had told me yesterday that I’d be sitting here defending Tavis Smiley and Cornel West today I would have assured them that such a thing would only happen the day after Adolph went snowboarding through the pits of Hell.

    But one must learn to prioritize one’s demons. While Tavis and West constitute a bitter threat to the poor, middle class, and Black communities in their effort to enrich themselves through yet another tour featuring self-service, demagoguery, and disinformation, it seems that the Washington Examiner has found themselves another grinnin’ young deludetant in the person of Ms. Star Parker, so we thought we'd nip this distraction in the bud.



    In her article, "How to Keep the Poor Poor," she says, "Media personality Tavis Smiley and Princeton philosophy professor Cornel West have just published their latest contribution to American poverty propaganda, ‘The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto’ . . . To the extent this book is taken seriously by anyone, the result will only be more entrenched poverty."

    While I make it a point to never go anywhere near any of Tavis and West’s personal enrichment pamphlets, if they’ve remained true to form, I find no reason to doubt any part of what Ms. Parker has said above. But then she goes on.

    "Smiley and West's message is simple. America today consists of a few powerful, rapacious rich people and a lot of unfortunate, exploited poor people. The rich are rich because they are lucky. The poor are poor because they are unlucky. And the only way to solve the problem is for an activist government to manage the economy and redistribute wealth."

    That’s where the red flag went up. Even though I consider these two hustlers the quintessential demagogues, unless they’ve made a radical change in their bamboozlery, they never say that the rich are rich because they’re lucky and the poor or poor because they’re unlucky. In order for their flimflam to capture the imagination they have to be accurate in their premise, so they rightly point out that many of the rich are rich due to corruption, and many of the poor are poor due to social manipulation.

    You see, Tavis and West understand that it’s very important that they maintain accuracy and not overgeneralize during the setup, so when they drop their false resolution on you, they’ll seem like reasonable men, not clumsy and transparently idiotic like Ms. Parker does when she voices her corrupted version of their corruption of reality.

    Ms. Parker’s spin on the Tavis/West resolution is, "the only way to solve the problem is for an activist government to manage the economy and redistribute wealth." We know that’s a lie because liberals don’t talk that way. The entire sentence is nothing more than a string of conservative talking points tied together - ie, ‘activist government,’ ‘manage the economy,' 'redistribute wealth.' Liberals have more finesse than that - even duplicitous liberals. The kind of gross inarticulation that Ms. Paker has engaged in has the glaringly obvious print of conservative clodhoppers all over it. So we know they didn’t say that, or even allude to it.

    Tavis and West would say something more like, the majority of the rich (except for ourselves, of course) got that way through corruption and social manipulation, and the poor are poor because Barack Obama (that jive, Johnnie-come-lately-sucka who butted before us in line and won’t invite us to the White House or return our phone calls) won’t do nothing to help you. But for you Obama-lovin book-buyers, we want to point out that we love our dear brother. So we're not saying vote Republican - just don't vote for Obama, and let the Lord decide the election." Then they’ll proceed to tell us everything that’s wrong with the country (primarily, Obama), but fail to tell us what’s wrong with us, or them.

    Then Ms. Parker goes on to criticize Tavis and West for saying, "The 150 million Americans in or near poverty are there as result of unemployment, war, the Great Recession, corporate greed, and income inequality." What? Is she denying that? That’s one of the few things they’re saying that’s true.

    One of the things that drives me up the wall about ultraconservative ideologues is how they can look you dead in the eye and spew hordes of total nonsense, inaccuracies, and flat out lies, then look at you like you’re the one that’s crazy. How can anyone with a brain say that we’ve got to keep the rich on a national welfare program because they're the one’s who are creating the jobs? Can’t they see that the only way that people are going to be hired to make tennis shoes is if the poor and middle class have the money to buy them? No one is going to hire anyone to make tennis shoes that they can’t sell. So it's the poor and middle class who create jobs.

    So while Tavis and West might be greedy and self-serving bogeymen, the Republican Party is the Devil, and if Ms. Parker can’t see that, she’s a fool.

    Eric L. Wattree
    Http://wattree.blogspot.com
    [email protected]     Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

    Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

    Comments

    I saw the duo recently on Hannity's show.

    I swear they managed to take Seany to the woodshed.

    A really fine performance.

    I mean Sean wont let anyone continue on a rant that he does not like; but this dynamic duo refused to heed his commands.

    It was fun to watch!


    by Richard Day on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 2:34pm

    I arranged my schedule to be able to hear Tavis Smiley speak tonight at an urban college in the South. I' ll be recording his lecture. I travel tomorrow in the AM, but will try to post my impressions in the evening.

    He had canceled an earlier scheduled lecture last month.


    by rmrd0000 on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 3:37pm

    I just wish to underline my curiosity as to your findings.

    No kidding.

    Tell us all a story!


    by Richard Day on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:07pm

    I attended a lecture given at an HBCU by Tavis Smiley yesterday. I will do my best to impart Smiley's words leaving out my personal opinions. I will do it in sections.

     

    The room was about 80-90% full.Smiley was an engaging speaker.He discussed the work his foundation was doing with 13-18 year olds to create leaders. The mottos are "you can't lead people if you don't love people" and "you can't lead people if you don't love people." The young people are taught the importance of love and service.

    Smiley brought greetings from theologian James Cone, who began his higher education at the college. Benjamin Mays poem "God's Minute" was then quoted. The poem is meant to stress the importance of living life to the fullest in Christian service. Don't waste time. The journey from womb to tomb (Smiley's words) is short. Service to others is the price we pay for the space we occupy on earth.

    The theme shifted to the words of a man who lived a life of  crime. Smiley wondered how the preacher was going t preach a celebratory funeral. The preacher rose up to say "The some of the man was not the sum of the man." Everyone has redemptive features.Smiley did note that the mother's expression suggested that she was not buying any of the attempt at redemption. Remember that you are leaving at legacy.

    We are living lives and leaving legacies in the era of Obama. How do African-Americans operate in the time of the first Black president. Smiley says the Black prophetic tradition is on life support in 2012. The Black Liberation theology of Jams Cone, a graduate of the college who is now at Union Theological Seminary, is virtually non-existent. Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Mary McLeod Bethune, W.E.B. DuBois and Rosa Parks were all a part of that Black prophetic tradition. They all spoke truth to power.

    Speaking truth to power allows the powerless to have a voice. 1 out of 2 US citizens are in or near poverty. Poverty has become a national security emergency. Louis Brandeis was quoted noting that we can have democracy or we can have concentrated wealth, but we cannot have both. Currently 400 people have more wealth than the bottom 450,000,000. That is not sustainable. Poverty threatens us. We cannot stop talking about poverty just because Obama is President. We need to resurrect the Black prophetic tradition.

    Smiley made clear that given a choice between Obama and Romney, there is only one choice. Smiley does not understand folks who are undecided given the stark choice. Jim Hightower of Texas was quoted, "the only thing that you find in the middle of the road was a dead armadillo.

    There are actually 4 choices in the election Obama, Romney, a better Obama and a better Romney. They both can be pushed to greatness with the right challenge from the people.

    End of Pt. 1

     

     


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 10:06pm

    Tavis Smiley t HBCU Part 2

    Great Presidents aren't born. Great Presidents are made. There is no Abraham Lincoln if there is no Frederick Douglas. The greatness of Lincoln is that he changed. Malcolm Little was a gangster until Elijah Muhammad got to him and helped create Malcolm X.

    Tom Joyner and Steve Harvey among others have lost sight of the need to put pressure on Obama to create change. Obama replaced a picture of Winston Churchill with a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. There are things Obama is doing right, but we need to criticize the things that are wrong. In the most recent issue of "Rolling Stone", Obama praises predator drones. Martin Luther King Jr. became despised because of his opposition to the Vietnam War. What would MLK say about the use of drones? Obama has killed more women and children than Goeorge W Bush.

    After MLK turned against Vietnam, the last Harris poll taken before King died showed that 75% of Americans disapproved of him. 55% of Black people disapproved of King in 1968. Roy Wilkins of the NAACP and Whitney Young of the Urban League publicly spoke against King. Carl T Rowan "The" Black media guy of his day wrote an article in the September 1967 Reader's Digest titled "Martin Luther King's Tragic Decision" chastizing King for turning against the Vietnam War and making "Negroes" seem unpatriotic. (As an aside, Rowan was criticized for suggested that J Edgar Hoover step down because Rowan felt that Hoover played a role in King's death. This got Rowan read the riot act by William F Buckley). King was dis-invited from the the White House. We turned a deaf ear to MLK when it counted, and now we have Santa Claus-ified MLK.

    Poverty was never mentoned in the three Presidential debates between Obama and McCain. With a 1 in 2 low income and poverty rate and a highway into poverty but not even a side road out of poverty, poverty has to be a prime concern. The Romney and Obama campaigns will raise $1.4 Billion. This does not include the money that will spent by the Super PACs.

    Smiley and West respect the President, protect the Presdent from right wing attacks, but they also correct the President. By protecting Obama has gotten death threats from the right. West and Smiley have had FBI protection.

    Smiley criticized Bill Clinton for not intervening in Rwanda on BET and on the Tom Joyner Morning Show. Smiley criticized throwing Lani Guinier under the bus.Clinton was criticized for signing the bill creating a 100 fold difference between crack and powder cocaine penalities.

    If Clinton can be criticized , Obama can be criticized.

    End of Part 2

    Tommorow the West-Obama conflict.

     

     


    by rmrd0000 on Thu, 05/03/2012 - 11:21pm

    Looks good so far.

    BTW, I think your quotes repeat in part 1, rather than giving the 2 for lead and serve 


    by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 1:02am

    Tavis Smiley at HBCU Part 3

     

    Clinton signed the Welfare to work bill. The safety net was destroyed Marian Wright Edelman's husband, Peter, quit his job in the Clinton administration in protest. The GOP is currently cutting Food Stamps. Obama has to be pushed. to do the right thing.Tavis has lost money and been denied opportunities. He has become persona non grata because of his stance. Drones and poverty need to be discussed> The Supreme Court is about to gut the health care bill. The focus should have been on jobs and not health care. We will wind up with no health care and no jobs. We have to have to courage to say what we see. The more truth King told, the more he suffered.

    People are thinking about themselves and pushing austerity. This may be the last best chance to do something, by pushing a friend in the White House to do better. There is no country in the world that did not falter at some point. It is considered unpatriotic to say that America is not in trouble. Poverty is the moral and spiritual issue of our lifetime.

    We realize that the Secret Service budget is higher under Obama because Obama receives more threats. We still have to criticize him. We criticized the "first Black President", Bill Clinton, we will criticize Obama.

    Obama is bragging about killing Osama bin Laden, that is wrong. We are more threatened by internal problems than by terrorists. We need to emphasize that all of us are worthy we need to love. All of our leaders right and left need to be pushed.

    The lecture ended.

    During the Q& A, Smiley noted that poor has become a "four letter word". The new poor, the former middle class, now feels what Black American has felt for years. Poverty has to be a focus during the election. 

    One question asked about the absence of Black clergy. Jeremiah Wright was tossed under the bus by the President, but by the Black clergy. In fact much of the clergy of all colors have been silent on poverty. The Catholic Bishops have criticized Paul Ryan budget. Smiley told Ryan that budgets are moral documents. If we don't care about the least of us, we fail.

    The Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta pastored by Martin Luther King was not a mega-Church, it was one of the smallest churches in Atlanta, yet it did great works. We now have mega-Churches, but no Mega-works and no Mega-faith. If King came back today, he would not be allowed in the Mega-Churches because he would speak the truth about the condition of the country. King would talk about poverty and the war machine. 

    Another questioner asked that since Clinton had conversations with Tavis, had Obama had conversations with Tavis. The answer was no. The charge that Cornel west made about Obama being afraid of free Black men was addressed. Smiley noted that West had done 65 engagements for Obama and therefore should be able to criticize the President. Smiley says that upon encountering West at an Urban League conference in 2010. Smiley said that there is a picture on the web with Obama pointing his finger at West and cussing West out. (See my comment on this issue in my self-reply to this post below.). 

    The President has returned fireside chats to the White House. They invited the "top five" Black scholars on one occasion. Skip Gates and Charles Ogletree were invited, Cornel West was not. Skip Gates did not campaign for Obama, West did 65 dates. Smiley wanted to emphasize that he was not complaining about not being invited to the White House, he was merely answering a question. 

    Obama has had Conservatives at the White House, but not West or Obama. The first dinner that Obama had out of the White House was with Bill Kristol and George Will. The room was filled with White male Conservatives. 

    When White Progressives criticize the President, he invites them to the White House. Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich and Paul Krugman have all been to the White House. The people Obama reads and watches the most are Jon Stewart and Paul Krugman. White Progressives are invited to the White House. west and Smiley are not. Smily does not disrespect the President, he just disagrees on occasion. Smiley voted for Obama and will vote for him again.

    Q & A ended


    by rmrd0000 on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 9:11pm

    The picture above is the only one I've seen of Obama and West at the 2010 Urban League conference. I have no found one with finger pointing by Obama.

    Here is how West recalls being "cussed out".

    West recalled that Obama “cussed me out” after a speech about charter schools at the Urban League in 2010. It was the last time they had personal contact.

    “He just lets me have it. He says, ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself, saying I’m not a progressive. Is that the best you can do? Who do you think you are?’ I smiled. I shook his hand… I wanted to slap him on the side of his head.”

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/05/17/cornel-west-obama-cussed-me-out-for-attacking-his-policies/

     


    by rmrd0000 on Fri, 05/04/2012 - 9:25pm