Tavis Smiley
Tavis Smiley
Tavis Smileyis an American talk show host, author, liberal political commentator, entrepreneur, advocate and philanthropist. Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, and grew up in Bunker Hill, Indiana. After attending Indiana University, he worked during the late 1980s as an aide to Tom Bradley, the mayor of Los Angeles. Smiley became a radio commentator in 1991, and starting in 1996, he hosted the talk show BET Talkon BET. After Smiley sold an exclusive interview of Sara Jane Olson to ABC...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionRadio Host
Date of Birth13 September 1964
CityGulfport, MS
CountryUnited States of America
Give that to me so I can get out of here.
I thought our community should have a deep dialogue to make black America better. I believe if we make black America better, we make all of America better.
We believe that when you make Black America better - you make all of America better.
I'm trying to get to a point here of how much progress we've made in this business. Were you able to find that diverse crew that you wanted?
How do you grow up in the shadow of a guy-I want to talk about the movie in a second-but how do you grow up in the shadow of a guy who really is a legend in his own time?
I'm delighted. I don't know if he is, but I'm delighted to welcome him back to the show, this time here in person in our studios in L.A.
All kinds of folk, as you can imagine, have had things to say-as you well know-over the last week and a half about what you said.
This is not a skill problem, this is a will problem. Does America have the will to make education a priority? We know the things that work. Why don't we scale up those things that do work.
This whole notion of a post racial America was nonsense from the very beginning. It was a bad idea, a bad notion, a bad formulation when it was first raised.
To be clear, the gap between the have gots and the have nots is widening. In this most multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic America ever, that concerns me.
I believe if we make black America better, we make all of America better.
We give you the facts. I told you information is power -- knowledge is power. We can't be in an ideological battle to redeem the soul of this country if we don't have the facts.
It was impressive for everyone to see that progress is being made.
When you work for something, you appreciate it more, ... So what are y'all going to do with all the opportunities you inherited that you didn't have to work for?