Tavis Smiley is a blowhard, welcome to the party pal.

Politics: Over at THEROOT.COM Jimi Izrael figures out what I and others have been saying for a while now that Tavis Smiley is a self-promoting egomaniac who thinks he speaks for black people.

It isn't that I have a plan so much better than Tavis'. No ma'am. I take care of mines and do what I can for my brothers and others. I just reject the rhetoric of people being paid just to be black—they are Race Brokers: Grievance Merchants and Professional Negroes who give white America the word from Darktown, so no one actually has to engage race relations in a constructive way. They put on nice suits, get in front of microphones and tell black people how to feel and when to feel it. They remind white folks that we are not a monolith, then reduce blacks with generalizations and best-guesses. Black pundits like Tavis want to encourage black folks to disconnect their critical mind, so they write handbooks and covenants, and do your thinking for you. They pretend to know more than the rest of us and sell you cue cards to remind you how to get your mind right. They motivate folks into marches and movements with lots of fire and outrage, and everyone has a t-shirt, but no one has the facts straight. Lots of burning outrage and book-selling. Not much else. Michelle Obama offered to stand in for hubby, but Tavis waved her off. Wow. And when I read that Tavis says it's his duty as a commentator to call Obama himself on the black carpet so he can stand account, and I wondered how dude can even pee straight with that kind of swagger. But he better ask somebody: Obama doesn't need People anymore. He's got swagger of his own.