Tavis Smiley To Obama: Blacks "Ought To Be Looked Out For"

[Gunner]

Tavis needs to quit.

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Tavis Smiley To Obama: Blacks "Ought To Be Looked Out For"

Tavis Smiley says the President is ignoring blacks, the "most loyal" part of his base who "ought to be looked out for." Smiley spoke to NBC's Lester Holt. In April, Smiley said the 2012 elections will be "the most racist in the history of this Republic.

"It's just not that black folks are hurting the most now. It's that there's no sign that it's going to get any better. There really are two questions in black America, I think, Lester, have to wrestle with. At least two questions. Number one: what is the pain threshold in black America? What is our pain threshold, number one. And number two, what is the presidency really worth? Is it worth not saying anything? Is it worth being silent when you're catching the most hell, when you're suffering the most pain? Especially, when you're the most loyal part of the President's base," Smiley said.

"That's not hating on the President, it's defending your own flanks. And whatever happened to that notion that to the victor goes the spoils? If anybody ought to be looked out for, it ought to be the persons who represent the most significant and the most loyal part of the base. That would be African-Americans."

Smiley says he understands that President Obama is taking the "political risk" looking "tribal" if he were to look out for the concerns of his race. "What makes presidents great, makes them transformational is taking risks," Mr. Smiley says.

At the conclusion of the interview, Mr. Smiley says America is "less racist" but not post-racial.

 

[nittie]

N.Y. mayor Bloomberg warns U.S. conditions could lead to 'riots'

The United States' ongoing struggles with unemployment could lead to riots in the streets, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned Friday in his weekly radio address to constituents.


"We have a lot of kids graduating college, can't find jobs," the New York Post quoted Bloomberg as saying. "That's what happened in Cairo. That's what happened in Madrid. You don't want those kind of riots here."


Unemployment in the U.S. is sitting around nine per cent. Earlier this month the country reported a net job growth of zero.


President Barack Obama is currently trying to sell Congress on a massive job-creation plan worth nearly $450 billion, including cuts to payroll taxes, tax breaks for companies that hire new employees, and infrastructure-repair projects. "Doing nothing is not an option," he told Congress last week, urging politicians to pass his American Jobs Act by the end of this year.

Tavis is a good guy not the most optimistic social commentator but his heart seems to be in the right place. He's made a decent living complaining about racism and the plight of Black people who don't have his pedigree and it's easy to dismiss him but this time he might be on to something.