Wells Fargo Hired Tavis Smiley as Headliner for Seminars Targeting African Americans
As the housing market began booming in mid-2000, Wells Fargo & Co. teamed up with prominent African American commentator and PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley and financial author Kelvin Boston, the host of “Moneywise,” a multicultural financial affairs show, to host something called “Wealth Building” seminars in black neighborhoods.
Smiley was the keynote speaker, and the big draw, according to Boston and Keith Corbett, executive vice president of the Center for Responsible Lending, who attended two of the seminars. Smiley would charge up the audience — and rattle the Wells Fargo executives in attendance — by launching into a story about how he hated banks, and how they used to refuse to lend him money for his real estate projects in Compton, Calif., and elsewhere. After Hurricane Katrina, Smiley also emphasized the importance of building assets and wealth, saying those who had done so were able to leave New Orleans, while people with nothing had to stay behind, Boston said.
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1 comment:
As a real estate broker for over 40 years, what Tavis Smiley is alleged to have done to the people he pretrends to care about so deeply is reprehensible. Yes, he and his buddy "led the sheep to the slaughter...probably laughing all the way to the bank. With the charges filed by the Attorney General, who's laughing now?
Of course we know there is an unwritten rule in the black community that BLACK MEN are almost never chastised in a public manner, by the black community, regardless of how egregious the charges are (i.e. O. J. Mike Tyson, Clarence Thomas, etc.) If Tavis had been a white man, the black community would be enraged, calling for his head (or worse!) But call a brother to accountabilty, not hardly!
Tavis & buddy, although not preaches per se, followed the script that many black preachers /false prophets(primarily male)swear by...exploit the vulnerable (black people) in your quest for wealth and riches! (Many Blacks instinctively and erroneously trust folks just because they are black.
For all the scattered dreams of those home buyers who were set up to fail, their subsequent bankruptcies, and shattered lives, if Tavis & buddy are found guilty, held accountable for their misdeeds, and lose their personal "financial wealth," some folks would say that is "poetic justice!"
Isn't it ironic that Tavis Smiley, the man who is widely known for having an opinion on everything that's good for "Black America," amidst these serious allegations is suddenly SILENT??? HYPOCRISY???
Rev. Loyce
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