BENEATH THE SPIN    • ERIC L. WATTREE

THE MODERN BLACK MAN:
21ST CENTURY ARGUMENTS FOR 19TH CENTURY THINKING

Less than three hours after Barack Obama declared his candidacy for presidency, the feeding frenzy began among Black people. It just so happened that Sen. Obama declared on the same day as Tavis Smiley’s "State of the Black America" national broadcast, and many had the audacity to criticize him for not putting this historic event off so he could appear on the broadcast. And during the broadcast--again, on this historic occasion–Dr. Cornel West of Harvard University ranted on national television that the Black community should be asking Obama, "How deep is your love for your people" and "Where is your money coming from?" He indicated that Barack didn’t put this historic event off to appear on Tavis’ broadcast because "he had people talking to him that didn’t warrant our trust."

I was deeply disappointed when NPR sunk to the level of the other MSM during the last couple of weeks politically motivated race talk.    On May 8th NPR got back on track with excellent reporting on race relations in the USA.

The Wright Backlash is Coming, but not in the way people were expecting.

I say this not to scare or alarm White America (since we all know White America is the "important" America, the America that "matters" at least according to the MSM), but because it is the simple truth. Through the corporate media’s demonization of Jeremiah Wright and subsequently the Black Church, Black America (and those who stand with Black America) are getting to the point where we say "I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!"

~*~*~*~Jump~*~*~*~

Last night on Tavis Smiley's show on PBS - Phil Donahue spoke honestly about the current sorry state of American affairs. He says that dissenters like himself have been told for years that they are unpatriotic but that in fact they love their country more than "they do" (ie: Bush administration & supporters). He goes on to explain why this is true and also comments on how our words often have no correlation with our actions.

He says that you cannot mention the troops without deifying them and talking about how great they are... but once they come home the VA office won't call them back. Just because you say something, he says, doesn't make it so. Anyways, very much worth watching:

The National Review’s chief pseudo-intellectual, Rich Lowry, corroborating Hillary Clinton’s warning to superdelegates that the Dems are about to nominate another effete candidate in the poisonous Al Gore / John Kerry mold, calls out Obama for undermining the two central rationales of his candidacy: his ability to unify the country and his insistence on leading us toward a more civil political culture.

Obama prides himself on his civility, but it has to go much deeper than dulcet rhetoric. A fundamental courtesy of political debate is to meet the other side on its own terms. If someone says he cares about gun rights, it’s rude to insist: "No, you don’t. It’s the minimum wage that you really care about, and you’d know it if you were more self-aware." But Democrats have an uncontrollable reflex to do just that. Since the McGovernite takeover of their party, they have struggled to work up enthusiasm for Middle American mores.

So, Tavis Smiley "quit" the Tom Joyner Morning show yesterday. Apparently he called Tom and said "I quit." In my opinion this is a bitch ass move, and I’ll tell you why under the fold.

Jump, and try to avoid the bitchassness, I hear it’s contagious.

Sweetwater Ruby says Read what the Republicans Wish You Wouldn’t

Today's Flipper includes continued news about Sen. John McCain.
In this edition:
A gaffe on African American voters in Philadelphia.
McCain = Bush
Sen. Lindsay Graham McCains' MiniMe
And for your reading pleasure a Gov. Mike Huckabee love story.
As usual, the LTE Action Item tool so you can let the world know that they don't want a McCain in the White House.

Flip the page to read the Daily Flipper. Flip it good.

Let me please add a short-but-sweet subtitle of "And, What Frederick Douglas Has to do with This Occasion."

The word "special" has lost its, well, "specialty" in our culture, so as a college professor who teaches writing, I try to choose my words carefully. And, I'm sticking with "special" to describe 5 wild roller-coaster years of Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

We all know the story about how Bill Clinton had been so good for African-Americans that he was declared, by author Toni Morrison, to be 'the first black president.' Toni Morrison

Yesterday a friend and colleague at work gave me this video of Dick Gregory from the State of the Black Union, recently held in New Orleans by Tavis Smiley. State of the Black Union

I'm writing today in response to this Diary:

Rev Wright and the White Observation of History which is a good diary, and a fair summation of how (some/many) white people may view the issues of Race in America and it's History.  

The discussion was robust, but apparently now has some formatting problems in it's comments and can't be responded to.

I wanted to respond to this comment:

I see Wright engaging in the same bullshit, but from the opposite direction.  The answer now isn't to tear down Jim Crow - that structure is long gone.  What we have to do now is the profoundly unsexy, technocratic shit of improving education in inner cities, fostering development in urban areas, and making colleges affordable.  IMHO, Wright's "get whitey!" rhetoric certainly doesn't help, and arguably hurts that effort.

We have to do all that, but "getting whitey" isn't neccesary.

Thank goodness Bill left the wing nuts like Kingston at home tonight and gave us a really good show and not one where I wanted to throw something at the TV. Tavis Smiley took Maher to task for his lack of knowledge about some of the things Martin Luther King had to say about war, and John Cusack seemed to put out a bit more "truthiness" than Maher could handle with his very good interview on just how horrid this Bush administration and its privitization scheme has been for our democracy. The panel also got into a very good discussion on how the media has attacked Rev. Wright, and has given Pat Buchanan a complete pass for the statements he's made on the air and in his op-ed.

I also wanted to give some kudos to Upper West for writing about this show tonight first here and Tavis' comments on MLK: Maher -- Tavis eloquent on MLK and Wright.

Videos below.

Tavis Smiley beautifully illustrated the link between Wright's sermons and MLK's anti-war 1967 speeches, where he said,among other things, that the US was the world's greatest "purveyor of violence."  Tavis linked this to the true definition of a "patriot," as someone willing to rebuke his country.

But -- Tavis continued the disturbing tendency of saying "You can't beat McCain on experience" -- and Robin Wright, otherwise quite good on Iraq, bought the "McCain's speech showed differentiation from Bush."

People like Smiley have to starting saying, "McCain may have longevity, but that doesn't equate to good experience.  Any "experience" that made him support the greatest disaster in US foreing policy is worthless.

Dan Savage added some good comments and a good bit about the "what if Obama/Hillary loses" issue with CA voters.

BENEATH THE SPIN    • ERIC L. WATTREE

THE 2008 STATE OF THE BLACK UNION

I had the pleasure of watching Tavis Smiley’s entire  production of the "2008 State of the Black Union" on CSPAN last week–and as usual, it was quite entertaining.  But while I throughly enjoyed the show, I failed to see the urgency of having Senator Barack Obama in attendance.  I could see it if the scholars, politicians, and community leaders in attendance were actually involved in a sober discussion of the Black condition and ways to move the community forward, but that wasn’t what it was at all.  What it generally turns out to be–and it was true to form this year–is a cross between the Def Philosophy Jam, an infomercial for Tavis Smiley Enterprises, and a Southern revival meeting ("Say amen, Black folk").  That’s not the appropriate venue for a man who’s trying to convince America that he’s a serious contender for President of ALL of the United States. So I don’t blame Obama a bit for not attending.

I am so shocked that I haven't seen this on Kos, that I felt compelled to finally post a diary entry.

Tavis Smiley criticized Obama's failure to appear at the State of the Black Union forum, and he gets inundated with hate mail and death threats.

From Washington Post's The Trail:

Tavis Smiley, the bestselling author of the "Covenant With Black America," is in a world turned upside down. He said he's being "hammered," "barbecued," and is "catching hell" from black Americans for suggesting that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) made a major mistake by declining to speak at the State of the Black Union event that Smiley plans to host next week in New Orleans.

"There's all this talk of hater, sellout and traitor," Smiley said to me in a telephone interview. Smiley even mentioned getting death threats, but wouldn't elaborate. He said his office has been flooded with angry e-mails. "I have family in Indianapolis. They are harassing my momma, harassing my brother. It's getting to be crazy," Smiley said.

Is this how we want to select a president?  Count me out of this "movement."

Note on correction after the jump.

Republican Michael Steele is speaking now at Black State of the Union. He's disarming, engaging, and is speaking frankly about race. (Update: see below for why Steele would be a poor choice.)

Will McCain pick this guy as veep? He's also speaking about Obama - he's very proud of Obama. "But all of that doesn't mean anything if we don't hold leadership accountable. I want to be held accountable."

Black State of the Union is streamed all day today on C-Span (click to get video.)

For those who are watching the State of the Black Union live on C-SPAN, or watching online here: http://www.cspan.org/...

Use this diary to leave your commentary and observations about the symposium.

After all the slavery, discrimination, and bondage of years ago, America has come to such a matured stage in its history to heal the wounds between the masters and the slaves by unifying and electing a first Black President.  It is a divine opportunity for the greatest nation in the world to inform its descendants and the world alike that the justice, unity, and freedom that has defined us for centuries is actually true and attainable.  Just when American is about to silence the world with its success story that will keep all its critics quiet, here come selfish Tavis Smiley and his State of the Black Union.  Is Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union more important that the union of the United States during a Presidential race in the time of war?

Let's use this diary for liveblogging responses to the State of the Black Union panels and speakers.

State of the Black Union LIVE on C-Span now.