Smiley will host a conference in Chicago on race on March 20, 2010. The event will be broadcasted by C-Span.

According to Smiley he was compelled to hold this conference.  He stated during an interview that this conference is not about Obama that it is about us.  I say that Tavis Smiley is a hypocrite and a phony.  Smiley’s agenda is personal and anti-President Obama.

I believe that if it was really about “US” and improving the lives of African-Americans that Mr. Smiley missed a great opportunity to prove to the world that racism in general and employment discrimination in particular is a real issue in this country.  He could have used his platform, including his publishing company Smiley Books, to present a personal profile of an African American female who lost everything because of racial discrimination.  In an effort for full disclosure in 2006 I mailed and hand delivered proposed chapters of my manuscript of my now published book “A Case of Discrimination and Retaliation Real or Imagined to Tavis Smiley’s Los Angeles, CA office. Mr. Smiley company didn’t publish my book.

He could have also improved the Civil Rights in this country by having a “conference” on the need to for Congress to improve the Civil Right Act of 1964 as amended to prevent one judge from having the absolute authority to dismiss Title VII (discrimination) cases.

Vera Richardson