Ask Tavis Smiley about President Barack Obama and he won’t be shy about giving his opinion.
And once again, the political commentator did just that while mentioning that black Americans haven’t made as many strides under the current administration.
“We’ve been at the back of the bus. Every other constituency have spoken their truth and made demands of this president. Right now the Hispanic community, for obvious reasons, is livid with him for pushing back once again something he should’ve done, I think, a long time ago,” Smiley told HuffPost Live regarding the current state of black Americans.
“But the data is going to indicate — I said this before and I’m not happy about this, I don’t celebrate this. I don’t say it as a way of demonizing the president or casting an aspersion on him – but the data is going to indicate that black people lost ground in every single leading economic category during the Obama years.”
Despite questions surrounding his well-known criticism of Obama, Smiley insisted that his commentary stems from holding Michelle’s husband accountable as the President of the United States.
“I don’t have a monopoly on the truth. There is the truth, and then there is the way to the truth. And I’m always on that route to the truth. I don’t have a monopoly on it. I tell the truth as best as I see it, try to hold folk accountable, and do all that in love,” he admitted to host Marc Lamont Hill. “You will never find a tape anywhere of me being derisive, demeaning, derogatory, or demonizing about the president.”
“As Cornel West and I said many years ago; I respect the president, I will protect the president against white supremacist attacks or anything else he’s unfairly targeted for, Smiley continued. “So you’re respecting, you’re protecting, but you’re correcting when he’s wrong. Not because he’s Barack Obama, but because he’s the president.”
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