Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Sharpton-Smiley fight reveals rift in black leadership over Obama
By Dr. Boyce Watkins
I sat at my desk, as frozen as a block of ice, listening to one of the most heated conversations I've ever heard on the radio. Tavis Smiley and Rev. Al Sharpton were mad, and you could hear it in their voices. This wasn't "radio mad," where you pretend to fight in order to get ratings. It was "I'm coming to your mama's house to get you" mad, the kind of anger that normally doesn't spill over to the American public.
The contentious dialogue was rooted in Smiley's recent attack on Rev. Sharpton for a New York Times article in which Sharpton was quoted as saying that he feels the president is wise not to "ballyhoo" a black agenda. In a platform granted to him by The Tom Joyner Morning Show, Tavis put Rev. Sharpton, NAACP President Ben Jealous, Urban League President Marc Morial, Harvard Professor Charles Ogletree and even Dorothy Height on "super blast," arguing that these individuals have not shown sufficient evidence that they care about the interests of the African-American community.
Bad move Tavis. Very bad.
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