University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: February 9, 2006

By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Contributor

Political commentator Tavis Smiley, speaking at UB's 30th annual Martin Luther King Commemoration Event on Friday, urged a new generation of leaders to take up the legacy of the nation's great civil-rights activists.

Tavis Smiley (right) chats with President John B. Simpson and Ruth Bryant before his Martin Luther King Commemoration Event speech.
PHOTO: NANCY J. PARISI

"The eyes of the future are looking back at us and praying for us to look beyond our own time," said Smiley, who spoke before a full house in the Center for the Arts. The event also was a part of the 19th annual Distinguished Speakers Series.

But the next generation faces a unique challenge due to "an unprecedented period in American history," he said. "We have never had leaders in black America who did not come out of slavery or segregation."

In the past, great leaders arose from great struggles, he explained. "What does it mean when there's a generation of leaders who've never had to lead?" he asked. "That dilemma is the most significant issue facing black America today."

Recent events have underscored the passing of the mantle of leadership, with the deaths of several great names in the civil rights movement: Coretta Scott King on Jan. 30, Rosa Parks in October and former UB playwright and activist Endesha Ida Mae Holland on Jan. 25.

All three were remembered in welcoming remarks by Ruth D. Bryant, assistant dean of the School of Architecture and Planning and president of the UB Minority Faculty and Staff Association.

Smiley, too, took a moment in light of Black History Month to remember the achievements of prominent African Americans-musical pioneers such as jazz artists John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis, as well as inventors and entrepreneurs George Washington Carver, Garrett A. Morgan and C.J. Walker.

"I would not want to live in an America without the contributions of black people," he said.

However, Smiley, host of "The Tavis Smiley Show"—seen nightly on PBS and heard weekly on PRI—stated he intended to focus on the future, not the past. He said it is time to create new black history. His main goal, he said, was to "unsettle" his audience.

"Racism is still the most intractable issue in America," he declared repeatedly in his address.

He pointed to a recent Newsweek magazine article that asserted that now is the best time to be black in America. However, the article missed the point, he said. Of course African Americans are better off today than yesterday, he said, but the real issue is to compare blacks today to whites today.

"Black folks still lag far behind in every leading economic indicator," said Smiley. Economically speaking, he said, African Americans earn roughly three-fifths the wages of white Americans.

The "color line" is not just an issue of the 20th century, but of the 21st century, he said.

Smiley addressed a number of controversial racial issues. He criticized the United States' policy of deporting Haitian refugees and spoke about the extreme lengths the government went to try to keep one Cuban—Elian Gonzalez—from returning to his country, despite the fact that thousands of Haitians await citizenship in vain.

He also took on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

A number of statements and actions—or failures to act—by members of the Bush administration, including the president, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, drew criticism from Smiley.

He also condemned a statement by Louisiana Rep. Richard Baker that the storm "cleaned up public housing in New Orleans," as well as Sen. Rick Santorum's suggestion that residents who did not evacuate be prosecuted.

Those who stayed behind had no choice, said Smiley, because they had no cars and no gasoline, and buses were not sent to help them. He called Santorum's comment "downright ignorance."

But, he said, most unsettling were results of polls that came out after the storm. While 71 percent of blacks said the hurricane highlighted racial inequalities, the majority of whites, 56 percent, disagreed. Moreover, 66 percent of blacks said the government response would have been faster if the victims had been white; 77 percent of whites disagreed.

The polls suggest a strong disparity in national viewpoints, he said. "We still live in two fundamentally different Americas," Smiley said. "One black, one white."

This is evidence, he said, that the next generation needs leaders to continue the fight for equality. "We are responsible for this moment," he said, adding that greatness comes from hard work, dedication to goals and commitment to service.

"Half these things aren't about black and white; it's about wrong and right," he noted. "You make black America better," Smiley said, "you make America better."