Too Much Talking, Not Enough Action

At what point does complaining become a distraction from dealing with the issue at hand?

It is a valid question to ask after observing a couple of events this past weekend.

With much of the nation’s political energy focused on health care reform, I was not surprised to see Iowa Representative Steve King Davis call on followers of the Tea Party movement to meet in Washington, D.C. to protest against the bill. He is one of many politicians hoping to use the Tea Party to advance their own careers.

What I didn’t expect was for Davis’s stunt to backfire so badly, as the nation was treated to the public unmasking of the Tea Party as a group of people fuelled by hate.

John Lewis was called a nigger , Barney Frank a faggot. Missouri Representative Emmanuel Cleaver was spat upon.

It’s clear that people associated with the Tea Party are upset. At what? Who? What do they want? Nobody seems to know, and it’s not due to lack of inquiry.

Indeed, the Tea Party takes pride in their lack of ability to articulate their desires. A Tea Party convention failed due to high admission fees that guaranteed an audience more A-list than grass roots. In fact, some people criticized the convention for daring to attempt to define their agenda.

Like Howard Beale in Network, the tea party is mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore, but I suspect they put more energy into showing how pissed off they are than into thinking about policy changes they’d like to see.

Tavis Smiley is on the opposite end of the political spectrum as the Tea Party, but his performance at a Chicago roundtable reminded me of the James Brown song “Talkin’ Loud And Sayin’ Nothing’” nonetheless.

I’m speaking of We Count Too, the hastily arranged event Smiley organized to provide a platform for those who feel President Obama is neglecting African-Americans.

You may be thinking that Smiley’s signature event, the State of the Black Union, would have been the ideal venue for such a critique. But earlier this year he announced there would be no more SOBUs. At the time, he thought “There are other spaces and places to have these conversations about issues that matter. ”

So why the sudden change of heart?

I agree with this writer that much of the reasoning comes down to Smiley’s desire to keep his name and “brand” relevant. Smiley may feel his clout is slipping since he was not one of the people invited to meet with the President during one of his rare moments of addressing leaders of black organizations.

Then again, considering the history between Smiley and Obama, he should not have expected to be welcomed into the inner circle. Smiley through his support behind Hilary Clinton in the race to become the Democratic nominee for President, particularly after Obama declined to appear at the SOBU in 2008.

Regardless of motivation, I was hoping new ideas would emerge from this meeting of black intellectuals, whose names were familiar to anyone who watched past SOBUs: Michael Eric Dyson, Louis Farrakhan, Ron Walters, Jesse Jackson, Julianne Malveaux, Michael Fauntroy, Tom Burrell, Cornel West, Valerie Jarrett, Dorothy Tillman, and Angela Glover Blackwell. The one exception was Raven Curling, a student at Chicago State University, which hosted the affair.

But was there a call to action or suggestions for steps to take to ensure that the needs of black people are taken into account by the government? No.

Based on what I saw online, all that happened was a bunch of talking, the equivalent of barbershop and hair salon conversation, only with Ph.Ds. (C-Span will broadcast it, so you can judge for yourself.)

It is one thing to vent, but at some point you have to stop focusing on the problem and begin working on the solution. That is the true mark of leadership, and despite their public posturing, the Tea Party and Tavis Smiley are lacking in that area.