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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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Tavis Smiley
Age: 60
Born: 1964
Born: September 13
Businessperson
Journalist
Radio Personality
Talk Show Host
Television Presenter
Television Producer
Gulfport
Mississippi
Black
Comes
Even
Love
People
Symbolism
Eras
Substance
Obama

More quotes by Tavis Smiley

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Every community has a Martin Luther King Boulevard. It's the cornerstone we all know. It's not just a street or boulevard, but a place where Walmart stands together with your community to make every day better.
Tavis Smiley
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[John Carlos] has spent much of his life since that time as a dedicated human rights advocate and public speaker, and he is out now with a wonderful new text a memoir, in fact.
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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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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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
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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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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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Be careful about gossiping because loose lips really do sink ships.
Tavis Smiley
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What determines your altitude in life is your attitude.
Tavis Smiley
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He was a humanist then, he's a humanist now, and to my mind John Carlos is an authentic American hero.
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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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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There are enough bad films coming out of this town already without the process being more democratized. I'm a guy who loves democracy. I'm all for democratizing any process, but I think there is a price to pay for that.
Tavis Smiley
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Competition's always been a product of American lifestyle
Tavis Smiley
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Losing teaches you something
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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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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We come to know who we really are in life during the dark and difficult and desolate days of our journey.
Tavis Smiley
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Poverty and wealth inequality are a form of instability into the future.
Tavis Smiley
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Be careful about gossiping because loose lips really do sink ships. Now that I'm in the broadcast business, and people talk about me, I know what it feels like to be the victim of gossip.
Tavis Smiley