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My role on television is one of helping people reexamine the assumptions that they hold. I regard Dr. King. You would never hear me get up and speak without in some way, shape or form, referencing, Dr. King.

Tavis Smiley

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Tavis Smiley
Age: 60
Born: 1964
Born: September 13
Businessperson
Journalist
Radio Personality
Talk Show Host
Television Presenter
Television Producer
Gulfport
Mississippi
Form
Regard
Referencing
Without
Role
Smiley
Way
Hold
Assumptions
Never
Roles
Assumption
Would
Television
Shape
People
Hear
King
Speak
Shapes
Helping
Kings
Reexamine

More quotes by Tavis Smiley

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I don't want the Obama era to be more about symbolism than substance when it comes to black people. I love him, but I love black people even more.
Tavis Smiley
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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.
Tavis Smiley
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Poverty and wealth inequality are a form of instability into the future.
Tavis Smiley
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I don't think I'd live anything over, even though I've made a lot of mistakes. I have learned how to see failure as a friend. So, I'm not one to live a life of regrets. I try to learn from my mistakes, but I'll take my life the way it is.
Tavis Smiley
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Losing teaches you something
Tavis Smiley
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I believe if we make black America better, we make all of America better.
Tavis Smiley
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Regardless of your race, religion or political affiliation, never hesitate to question those in authority.
Tavis Smiley
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Be careful about gossiping because loose lips really do sink ships.
Tavis Smiley
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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?
Tavis Smiley
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I love my cross-sectioned, cross-cultural audience. Some of them are doing better than the average guy, but my audience has always been people who are struggling to stay in the middle class.
Tavis Smiley
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We think of - there are too many wars, of course, in the world as we speak, but my read on this suggests to me that water is going to be the resource into the future that we're really - that countries, nations, are going to be fighting for control over.
Tavis Smiley
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I fear that we are living in a society, living in a world where forgiving people is becoming more and more difficult to do.
Tavis Smiley
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I'm always fascinated by people from the Midwest, because it is so different than Hollywood, who discover at some point that they want to be in Hollywood.
Tavis Smiley
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Even in the era of the first black president, racism is still the most intractable issue in USA. Regarding poverty, half of all Americans are either in or near poverty. Poverty is certainly worse for African-Americans now than it was during King's lifetime.
Tavis Smiley
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That is still the case in this country for too many students, the soft bigotry of low expectations. If you don't expect them to learn, if you don't expect them to succeed - then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Tavis Smiley
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Music is the soundtrack of our lives, it's essential for our lives.
Tavis Smiley
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Struggling to stay in the middle class, and I love that. That's me and my dad and my family.
Tavis Smiley
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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.
Tavis Smiley
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I think when I stop fighting, I die in a sense.
Tavis Smiley
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The City of Angels is a microcosm of the world, and so living in L.A. makes me feel like a citizen of the world.
Tavis Smiley