To those who are criticizing Obama for not attending Tavis Smiley's event today

EffieBlack

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Sat Feb-23-08 12:19 PM
Original message

To those who are criticizing Obama for not attending Tavis Smiley's event today

Edited on Sat Feb-23-08 12:56 PM by EffieBlack

This is a non-issue. As I noted in another thread, Barack Obama is a black man. His race is an integral part of who he is, just as everyone's race - and gender and height and hair color and age and geography and religion - are integral parts of who we are. He is a black man. But he is not THE black man.

His black skin does not require him to attend every event at which black people gather. His black skin does not give other people with black skin the right to dictate to him where he should go, to whom he should talk, issues he must address and when he must address them. His black skin does not confer upon white people the authority to tell him when, where and how he is "allowed" to discuss race and racial issues, when he MUST discuss race and racial issues, and when he is FORBIDDEN to discuss such issues because doing so constitutes "playing the race card."

I suspect that many of the people who are jumping all over Obama for not attending this event just don't realize that, just because Tavis Smiley's "State of the Black Union" event is getting a lot of coverage (thanks largely to Tavis' overwhelming PR campaign), it is NOT the ONLY "black" event going on nor is it even the most important or most influential "black" event that occurs in any given year.

Practically every day of the week, black people gather in large and small events to discuss, address and mobilize around issues of importance to our community. Some of these events are huge undertakings, some are smaller. Some get press coverage, some don't. The notion that Tavis Smiley's program today is some kind of end-all and be-all, commitment-defining activity that is missed by a black presidential candidate at his peril can only be accepted if you don't know anything about black people and our community.

Tavis Smiley is good at what he does and he's an inspiring figure but, trust me, he ain't all that. His forum is an interesting discusion of ideas and policies, but it is not the ONLY forum for such discussion and, as much as he'd like people to believe otherwise, he is not the gatekeeper for Black America, who must have his ring kissed by any African American who wants to be politically viable in this country.

So please stop making such a big deal about the fact that Barack Obama is not attending Tavis Smiley's event today. He has good reason not to - he is running for president and is in the middle of two tough primary races - it would be foolish for him to pull himself off of his campaign to scramble to Louisiana because Tavis crooked his finger. Obama campaigned hard in Louisiana and I'm sure that just about everyone in the audience is well aware of his positions on all of the issues. Moreover, Black Americans are well represented at this event - there are dozens of black leaders, politicians, educators and others who are participating in the program and discussing the issues that are of concern to our community. Obama doesn't need to be there.

Obama is black, but he's not running to be president of "The Black Union." He's running to be President of the United States. And one of the reasons he's gotten as far as he has in life and in this campaign is that he's too smart to fall into the traps some people would love to set for him by both diminishing and defining the meaning of race in this campaign and in America in general - by, on the one hand, insisting that his race cannot be considered as a positive factor while, at the same time, trying to force him into narrow, race-defined boxes.

Thank God he knows better. The rest of us should try to, as well.