A VIEW FROM THE WEST: Tavis Leaves Tom

Originally posted at KENNYBURNS.COM, but customized for Salisbury News

In a move that should of happened ages ago in my opinion, Tavis Smiley has seen the light. This June, he will be departing from the Tom Joyner Morning Show (heard in Delmarva on WSBY 98.9FM.) In The Washington Post this morning, Tavis said (in a nutshell) that he is leaving because he has a lot going on. Now, this is where us media people can more than likely call out the BS in this. The same article said that good ol' Tommy Boy went on his blog and said "The real reason is that he can't take the hate he's been getting regarding the Barack issue -- hate from the black people that he loves so much." Yeah, way to spin a smack into a positive.

In case you missed that, I thought Tommy Boy's comment on his blog was a back handed slap to a guy who has been dedicated to a program for 11 years. I'm going to take this one step at a time, because I have a lot to say on this one. I am first going to start out by saying that for starters, I always thought that Tavis Smiley was WAY too good for Tom Joyner. Keep in mind that Tavis is on the opposite end of the spectrum, but he provides a fair shake on his commentaries and when he is interviewing people. He cannot be lumped in with the likes of Joyner or Sharpton or every other Black liberal that is way out there. He actually cause you to think and go 'yeah' or 'ok, but...."

A true show of Tavis' character came during the time when BET was under fire (and rightfully so). The issue was going to be discussed on BET Tonight, which Tavis hosted in the late 90s...but it wasn't Tavis hosting, is was the "Black Eagle" Joe Madison with one of Robert Johnson's cronies as a guest. I have the suspicion that Tavis wanted no part of that broadcast that night. When BET fired him, Tavis blew up! He was everywhere, including a guest host spot on CNN's "Talkback Live." Now, he has a show on PBS that is so popular, ALL THREE PBS stations that we get here in Central Maryland airs the program (including Maryland Public Television.)

Tavis has broad appeal, as opposed to Tom Joyner. I am not going to hold back on Joyner when I say is a hack poverty pimp supporter. Excuse me while I ask publicly why in the world would he spend money on kids to only attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities? I thought the whole point of the civil rights era was to give kids an equal opportunity at Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, UMCP and other schools that are majority white.

This is the point that I brought up to my sister, Brooke, one day about Joyner paying money for Black kids to go to college. For argument sake, there is a family mom, dad and two kids who started out living in a rough Southeast Washington neighborhood. They're doing well, but they want a better life for their kids. They move to the suburbs, either in Maryland or Virginia. Mom and dad knows that the cost of living would be higher than their current neighborhood, but they do not want to see their kids fall to the peer pressure to do negative stuff. So they move to the burbs, they kids work hard with the oldest kids nailing the scoreboard (academically) in his senior year when he finds out that he just got accepted to an Ivy League school. Mom and dad who regularly listens to Tom Joyner thinks this is freaking great and rightfully so. They look into the scholarship program Joyner always talks about and they find out, they have to send their kid to an HBCU? What do they tell that kid?

I admit that is a far reaching scenario because the family can simply apply to any scholarship that could help them and problem solved, but for Joyner to close it off to just kids attending HBCU's is ignorant, especially since that was the whole point of the civil rights movement so our generation can have an equal opportunity to attend any school we want. I should also note that I have nothing against HBCU's, just Tom Joyner. Whether it's a black or white school, the piece of paper is the same. When you face the real world, brains, behavior and the execution of common sense will be tested rather than brains alone.

Which now leads me to Joyner's audience which comprises of "The Secret Order of Black People." For those unfamiliar, this is the group that I created in the last year and a half to describe those who think that one black person speaks for all black people. A group of people who do not want the dirty laundry of black people out on display, despite the fact that it has been seen by everyone in the world. This is the group that came out against the Hot Ghetto Mess TV show on BET, BET in general and defended Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Vivian Stringer for throwing a good ol' 60s style party during the Imus flap last year.

Tavis struck a nerve with this bunch that caused such a backlash. He said the "a" word....accountability. From The Post: "Don't fall so madly in love [with Obama] that you surrender your power to hold people accountable. . . . I'm not saying overlook Senator Obama, but you now better be ready to look him over." I don't find anything wrong with this. ALL people running for office should be looked over and held accountable, they should not get a pass on any grounds. But still, the secret order was upset and expressed their outrage against Smiley. I do disagree with a later comment from Smiley about Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) not being attentive to Black issues (due to the fact that I believe that Obama has to run for President of America and not Black America.)

Whether Tavisis leaving because of his heavy workload or because Tommy Boy pissed him off one to many times, he made the right decision. I also have to give credit to Tavis for holding to his convictions, as opposed to a particular audience.

P. Kenneth Burns is a contributor to Salisbury News. He is the editor/writer of Maryland Politics Today (www.marylandpolitics.us). He also contributes to Red Maryland (redmaryland.blogspot.com) and is a columnist for PolitickerMD.com. He lives in Laurel, Maryland. His email is kennyburns@marylandpolitics.us.