(ThyBlackMan.com) Stephen, King Solomon and I had dinner last week and we were discussing your recent dinner with Donald Trump at the White House.
He asked me to pass along a couple of messages to you.
In Proverbs 15:23 Solomon told me, “A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!”
And in Proverbs 17:28, Solomon told me to tell you, “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”
So, you may be asking what is the meaning of all this. Let me explain.
A few months ago, I wrote a column titled, “Social Media’s Feminization of Black Men.” Click on the link to read it.
In this column, I discussed how high-profile people like Smith, because of social media, have the insatiable need to respond to everything that is said about them on the internet; thus, they have begun to adopt feminine traits that are normally associated with women.
These men have become more emotional and too verbose.
King Solomon and I were arguing that we need to get back to the old school notion of letting the truth speak for itself!!!
Or as my boy Denzel Washington once told me, “The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.”
I have stated on many occasions that Smith is over exposed and doing way toooooooo much!!! Sometimes the best and loudest response is silence.
Smith has yet to learn this lesson, despite being fifty-eight years old. I do not understand why a man of his age and stature feels compelled to respond to every perceived slight thrown at him.
My latest evidence of this is Smith’s recent private dinner with President Donald Trump, along with comedian Bill Maher and musician Kid Rock.
Smith attended as a guest of Maher’s.
Smith received heavy criticism from the usual cast of rabid crazy extreme radical liberal Blacks like Jemele Hill, Cari Champion, Charlamagne, and comedian D.L. Hughley.
As mentioned in my previous column about Smith, he then felt the need to run to his YouTube channel and justify his actions, which only made matters worse.
Below I will dissect Smith’s own words from his YouTube video he posted after his dinner with Trump. Click on the video link to see the unedited version that I am referring to.
One of my biggest criticisms of the Black community, especially those who “claim” to be part of the bourgeoisie and the “talented tenth;” is that most have little to no understanding of how to operate on the power level.
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) comprises the largest voting block in the U.S. Congress, but has nothing to show for it. Africa has the largest voting block in the United Nations, but has nothing to show for it.
Both groups are quick to blame white folks and racism for all their respective group’s problems. Name me one time that either group has shut down the U.S. Congress or the United Nations to extract something of particular importance to their group?
They have the power, authority, and the position, but not the understanding.
The same can be applied to Stephen Smith.
I was mortified by his comments about his dinner with Trump. It was quite obvious that Smith’s understanding of politics and power is minimum.
Let us go to the video tape.
In the first fifteen minutes he rambled incoherently about a lot of nothing. It was quite obvious to me watching the video that he was very nervous because he was on unfamiliar ground discussing the substance of the dinner; and his lack of knowledge and understanding of the issues were exposed.
He said many things that were simply not true. He had so much bravado in his voice, then played himself.
At the 12:43 timestamp, Smith states, “But I’m going to tell you where, why I was there. My mission is always to look out for my community as best as I possibly can.” I have no idea what this is supposed to mean.
At the 12:57 timestamp, Smith states, “…And when I see our national unemployment average at 4.2%. At about 3.7% in the white community, but 7% in the black community…It’s always worse for us [Blacks]…”
Smith has absolutely no data to back up this asinine assertion. You are having dinner with the president of the United States and you make a blanket statement like that. Really?
Even if Smith’s statement were proven to be true, what was his ask of the president to address this issue?
Solomon told me in Proverbs 4:7, “Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting get understanding!”
It is quite obvious Smith has little to no understanding of economic policies; so let me help him.
A better indicator of the economic health of the Black community is the labor force participation rate as opposed to the unemployment rate.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Black labor force participation exceeds the rate among white Americans and is near pre-pandemic levels. The unemployment rate for Black workers is near record lows but is still persistently higher than for white workers.
Labor force participation reflects the share of the civilian population that is either employed or actively seeking work.
September 2026 participation rate for Blacks was 62.3%. September 2026 unemployment rate for Blacks was 6.8%.
These two measures describe different aspects of labor?market engagement: participation shows how many people are in the labor force, while unemployment shows how many of those in the labor force are not currently employed.
Smith went on to question Trump about DEI and the myth of the disappearing Black woman and again showed how he was unprepared and unqualified for the moment that could have been his finest hour.
At the 13:18 timestamp Smith stated, “…that in concert with DEI, even though that should have never been associated with black people because white women are the biggest beneficiaries of DEI.”
What Smith failed to mention is that affirmative action was meant only for Blacks in the late sixties. But over the past fifty years members of the CBC continued to expand the list of those eligible for affirmative action and DEI—white women, Africans, Hispanics, homosexuals, etc.
Blacks and Black organizations continue to vote for legislation that is counter to their own stated goals and to the benefit of other groups.
Again, Blacks do not understand how to play the game of power.
For someone who “claims” to be an independent, he sure recites a lot of radical liberal Democrat talking points.
He accused Trump of firing 300,000 Black women from the federal government which is factually not true. This made-up number does not take into account the number of people who quit, took a voluntary buy-out, or retired.
This is what I call the myth of the disappearing Black woman. Click on the link to read that column.
Black women are vastly overrepresented in local, state and federal government jobs.
Furthermore, of all Blacks with college degrees, 60% work for local, state or federal government; of the remaining 40%, 25% percent work for corporate America, leaving 15% for entrepreneurship.
We have a massive brain drain in the Black community that no one is addressing.
Government at every level has become much too large and fiscal responsibility mandates that we reduce the size and scope of local, state, and federal government.
So, when governments issues reduction in force orders, the decisions will not be based on race; but rather the sheer size of bloated government.
The final reason Smith needs to stick to sports is because of this statement from him at the 18:23 timestamp, “but there’s additional funding that comes from the private sector that’s been compromised to some degree because of your administration’s fixation on making sure that there are no racial preferences. So as a result, corporations in the private sector believing that the government may come after them if they were to be as charitable as they once were are hesitant to do so. Now, Mr. President, what you going to do about that? To his credit, he says, “I got to look into that. That’s a good point. I’m going to talk to my team next week and I’m going to get your number two because I might call you. Now, I’m not trying to get involved on that level. I want him to do it. I don’t want to create the kind of noise where we get distracted from the ultimate goal because the ultimate goal is to help one another as much as we possibly can.”
I have no idea what Smith is talking about. No Fortune 500 company has shied away from giving money to HBCUs because of Trump’s DEI policies. I talk with these CEOs on a regular basis and I know this not true.
The problem is most HBCUs have little to no relations with CEOs of major companies because they do not understand power.
If Smith understood power he would have said to Trump, if I organized ten presidents of HBCUs would you convene a meeting in the White House with a few of your corporate friends to discuss long term support for HBCUs?
Trump would have quickly said yes and the rest would be history.
That is how you play at the power level. You present the problem and then you offer a solution.
So, Stephen, I have identified the problems as I see it with your dinner with Trump and am prepared to offer you some solutions on a way forward if you are so interested.
Staff Writer; Raynard Jackson
This talented brother is a Pulitzer Award nominated columnist and founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org. You can follow Raynard on Twitter; RealRaynardJ; on Gettr: RaynardJackson.
Can also drop him an email at; RaynardJ@ThyBlackMan.com.
