Jack & Jill Politics

That is better known as the “State of the Black Union”.

As a blogger/journalist who has covered at least five of these SOBU events, I can honestly say I didn’t really see or hear anything different, except Tavis is hawking another book: “Accountability”, and it has a picture of the new POTUS on it, looking a lil’ shifty.

Seems that Tavis is continuing with the hate-fest in undercover fashion, yet he knows he’s too far out there to be towed in.  What I’m not getting with is the attempt to make money off of the POTUS that he all but campaigned against because of his love fest with Bill and Hillary Clinton.

It’s kinda of sad that after eight years of silence on the Bush Administration’s raping and piliging the Nation, suddenly, we’re going to demand accountability from Barack Obama, and it makes me wonder if Hillary Clinton had won the nomination and the Presidency, would Tavis be making the same demands of her?

Don’t worry, I’ll wait….(cue Katt Williams impersonation).

Anyone who has followed Black Agenda Report, or the CBC Monitor Report Cards, already knows we’ve been hollering for accountability from our elected officials since 2002, and we first published our “report cards” in 2005 and haven’t stopped.  We’re trying to extend the report cards to include elected officials at the state, local, county and municipal levels.  So, this isn’t new to us.  What I’d like to know is where the hell Tavis was when we started calling out elected officials, and his ass as well, when we started asking questions about the purpose of his annual Negro Super Bowls?

Some things I’ve learned from covering these events:

(1) Tavis is not a Black Leader or Spokesperson – HE IS A MARKETEER. While I have no objection to people getting their legitimate hustles on, I do have problems when they utilize the plight of Black people as their hustle.  Suppose we take back our communities, challenge the government, improve the lives of African-Americans everywhere, raise people above the poverty level, everyone has an opportunity for quality public education and takes it – what is Tavis going to have to hustle if everything is going well for Black People?

(2) Tavis doesn’t respect women – He might have them on the stage, but let one of them call him out or challenge his ass.  That sista is getting a beat down, plain and simple.  Don’t think so?  I’m remembering when he hosted his last Negro Super Bowl in Jamestown, Virginia (only two hours from DC, so I drove down to catch the events), and there was a press conference in the back room.  As a credentialled member of the press corps, I witnessed the following exchange (as best I remember):

Richmond Free-Press: Why are you having this event in Jamestown?  Aren’t you really celebrating the event of Black People being ENSLAVED?

TS:  No, we are celebrating the 400 years when this Nation was founded and the contributions of African-Americans to the founding of this Nation.  While slavery was part of that, it wasn’t the sum total of our contributions.

RFP: So, who gave you the idea to hold the event here, and essentially market and promote the event that includes the celebration of slavery?

TS:  Well, uh, I was contacted by Daphne Maxwell-Reid, who told me that I should think about having my event here in Jamestown, because she said “Tavis, there’s something big going on down here and the SOBU should be a part of it.”

Every eye in the room focused on Daphne Maxwell-Reid, and Tim Reid was looking like he could have put his foot in Tavis’ ass for flinging his wife under the bus like that.

What I also remember about that weekend – if you got the deluxe package, including hotel accommodations and whatnot, you also got a bus trip to visit the actual docks where they off loaded the first Africans on these shores into slavery, y’all. One brother in my hotel was complaining major time about that shyt.  I sat with him and his wife in the hotel restaurant in Williamsburg, and he gave me the skinny because many attendees didn’t know about that lil’ tour of the slave docks just outside William and Mary College.  So much hell was raised over having the actual event in the city of Jamestown that Tavis had to move it up the road to Hampton University in order to save face.

Additionally, when noted blogger/journalist Jasmyne Cannick called him out, in backing up something I wrote, he tried to have her fired, then punked when she put her boss on the phone and dared him to do it.

Since then, Tavis lost a good deal of credibility with me, and his hateration of the POTUS put him to where even the Fly Jock couldn’t deal with him anymore. In gracious fashion, President Obama sent a videotaped message to today’s gathering in order to allow Tavis to save face.  AGAIN.

We should still ask ourselves why is Tavis Smiling and why do we continue to watch?