One of the many surprises from Tuesday’s Primary night was an unheard of black candidate winning the South Carolina Democratic nomination for Senator.

Theroot.com has begun to unwrap what many would call the strange case of Alvin Greene:

Alvin Greene, a 32-year-old, unfunded, unemployed veteran who is black and lives with his mother in Manning, S.C., ran away with the Democratic nomination for the Senate in the Palmetto State last night. In the November general election, he will face first-term GOP incumbent Sen. Jim DeMint, who many expect to seek the GOP presidential nomination in 2012.

TheRoot.com Alvin Greene

Alvin Greene himself was able to put his win into historical perspective:

Greene, who is completely unknown to Democratic officials in South Carolina or anywhere, put his win in dramatic historical perspective: ”I want to thank all my supporters for making history in South Carolina,” he told the Greenville News. ”It’s been over 100 years since a black has won the nomination of a major party to the U.S. Senate from this state.”

However, I think this says a lot about Greene’s unlikely candidacy’s ability to succeed and the lack of Democratic machinery in South Carolina.

Dorothy Irene Height  legendary figure in the 1960′s  civil rights movement died in Howard University hosptial She was 98 years old. Born in Richmond Virgina in March 24,1912. She was an extremely brilliant woman who earned her BA and MA at New York University in 4years.

Height dedicated her life to service of the people and still some of us have failed to realize is just how her life shaped the direction and forward motion of our  own. Her leadership skills were  key in heading several organizations through out her life.UYCM ( United Youth Christian Movement)  NCNW( National Council of Negro Women for 40years, YWCA to name a few – one of her more infamous movements “Wednesday in Mississippi”consisted of women from different races and faiths from all around the globe. Her founding organization assisted Freedom schools and voter registration drives. And perhaps most important she made her presence well known to many of her male counterparts of her time such as, Philip Randolph Whitney H. Young and Martin Luther King Jr She was there to ensure black women’s rights were addressed.   Dr Height proved essential when it came to important legacies  such as “ The Bethune Council House” a national historic site which contains national archives for black woman’s history. She received 40 honorary doctorates from educational insitutions  Spell man College, Princeton University and of course NewYork University.Height was the winner of many awards Congressional Gold Medal,  inducted into National Woman’s Hall Of Fame.Her memoir “Open Wide the Gates” later became a well known stage musical “If This Hat Could Talk”Im grateful this woman lived I would not be where I am today as a black woman in North America if it had’nt been for her tireless efforts. Perhaps her birthday should be a National holiday?   source: thegrio.com

TheRoot.com’ Prints an Advertisement for Tavis Smiley.
TheRoot.com is the latest to conduct an interview advertisement for Tavis Smiley Enterprises.

The “interview” was a commercial for Smiley, as the interviewer did not bother to press Smiley on any of the issues people want to really hear explanations. Beyond the issues the tussle with Al Sharpton, but rather get to “the root” of the what Smiley feels his role is in the African American community, and Tavis Smiley’s own responsibility for his participation in the Wells Fargo sub-prime home loans events targeted for African American consumers. While Smiley is busy critiquing and complaining about other black public figures, he ignores his own issues. In addition, Smiley has yet to specify in interview after interview what specific policies should be created to improve (unstated) issues in African American Communities.

Like him or not Al Sharpton has created an black organization, and managed by hook or crook to become a relevant figure in both Democratic politics, African-American political leadership and gained enough of a position within the Whitehouse to have spots on various boards that are enacting policies. So, while Smiley is bitching and moaning about this that and the other unarticulated issues, Sharpton is busy working on reforming NCLB, and looking at numerous other issues.

Smiley is still caught between a role as both a talk show host and an activist, and manages to do a very poor job at both. As a talk show host Smiley tries to push a line of policy that has no constituency (unlike Hannity or Beck of Fox, which play issues to grassroots organizations) , and as an activist Smiley simply has no grass roots organization to actually implement whatever he says is the latest and greatest thing to do.

So, rather consistently Smiley is simply talking for Tavis Smiley Enterprises, and as a result it is no wonder the people who tend to stick-up for Mr. Smiley tend to be included in his events.

However, on theroot.com’s infomercial for Smiley’s book and feel good talk show tour:
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Columbia Journalism Review has an interesting feature article, “An Icon Fades” by Don Terry, that conducts a bit of analysis on the failure of Johnson Publications to transition from print publications of their flagship Ebony and Jet magazines into a strong position on the Internet.  Mr. Terry leads into his analysis of the African American icon with a brief bit of history.

Born November 1, 1945, Ebony showed off her glamour and vitality for decades. But she is tired now, debt-ridden and seriously ill, her once crystalline voice a raspy whisper. The black celebrities who once courted her now have other media suitors, thanks in no small part to the trail Ebony blazed. Too many readers and advertisers have followed them. “An Icon Fades” by  Don Terry.

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National Urban League partners with NBC owned theGriot.com, calls campaign “I am empowered.”

Yikes.

It is great to see a new media campaign by an historic black organization, somehow I feel we are right back debating about the mythical “black agenda,” and how relevant it is in the 21st century United States.  While the National Urban League deserves credit for trying to stay relevant and promote actual policy-based solutions to improve the lives of Black Americans.  I’m not sure whether I should laugh or cry at the ineptitude of launching a campaign to empower Black men and Women on a GE and Comcast owned NBC property.   Now, the National Urban League could be receiving a significant amount of in-kind contributions from NBC/ General Electric / Comcast, it is hard to know unless the National Urban League decides to be completely transparent about the advertising campaign.

Fair enough.
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I have basically gone point by point to deconstruct the gentleman’s argument, as it has been the lone argument in support of Tavis Smiley’s behavior that I have seen. In addition, my site was initially referred to by comments of his article in some fashion at theRoot.com.

I tried to contact McAllister via twitter to get a better idea of his thoughts… anyway

(I saw the article “http://www.theroot.com/views/tavis-smiley-was-right/” in my server logs).

In his rush to criticize where the president should assist black people, Lenny McAllister either blatantly ignores the faulty premise of Tavis Smiley’s statements this week or completely misunderstood the problems with Tavis Smiley’s strawman position.  Regardless of the reason behind Mr. McAllister’s support of Tavis Smiley, the end result is a position that doesn’t seem conservative at all — support of Tavis Smiley’s unclarified race-based “Black Agenda.”

Further McAllister’s critiques of what the Obama administration are misguided. While I believe PBO needs to be critiqued from all corners, from all ideologies and all people,  the critiques should be focused on well-thought out specific policies issues, or executive-level execution rather than idle wishes.  Among these idle wishes, policies need to be detailed that will help segments of African Americans as opposed to an undefined race-based “black agenda.” So, without further ado, I’ll examine McAllister’s piece at theRoot.com.

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