This is why Stephen A. Smith should stick to sports

Inclusive language

Stephen, King Solomon and I had dinner last week and discussed your recent dinner with President Donald Trump at the White House. He asked me to pass along a message from Proverbs 17:28: “Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.”

Let me explain.

A few months ago, I wrote that social media has pushed high-profile Black men like Smith to respond to everything said about them online, making them more emotional and too verbose. We need to get back to the old-school notion of letting the truth speak for itself. As my boy Denzel Washington once told me, “The loudest one in the room is the weakest one in the room.”

At 58, Smith still has not learned that sometimes the best response is silence.

My latest evidence is his private dinner with Trump, comedian Bill Maher and musician Kid Rock. Smith attended as Maher’s guest. After heavy criticism from liberal voices like Jemele Hill, Cari Champion, Charlamagne tha God and D.L. Hughley, Smith ran to his YouTube channel to justify himself, which only made matters worse.

One of my biggest criticisms of the Black community is that too many of our leaders do not understand how to operate at the power level. The Congressional Black Caucus is a sizable voting bloc in Congress, and African nations make up the largest bloc in the United Nations, yet both have little to show for it. They have the power and the position, but not the understanding.

The same applies to Smith.

In the video, he said his mission is “to look out for my community.” He then told the president that Black unemployment is about 7%, compared with roughly 3.7% for white Americans. Even if that is true, what was his ask?

A better indicator of Black economic health is labor force participation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Black labor force participation was 62.3% in September 2026, exceeding the white rate and near pre-pandemic levels. Black unemployment, at 6.8%, remains near record lows, though still higher than for white workers.

Smith also raised DEI, saying white women are its biggest beneficiaries. What he failed to mention is that affirmative action was meant for Black Americans in the late 1960s, but over 50 years the list of eligible groups grew to include white women, immigrants, Hispanics and others. Black leaders keep backing policies that benefit other groups at our expense.

He accused Trump of firing 300,000 Black women from the federal government. That number ignores those who quit, took buyouts or retired. Government at every level has grown too large, and reductions in force are about size, not race.

Finally, Smith claimed corporations have pulled back on giving, including to HBCUs, out of fear of the administration. I talk with Fortune 500 CEOs regularly, and that is not true. The real problem is that most HBCUs have little relationship with major CEOs.

If Smith understood power, he would have said: Mr. President, if I bring 10 HBCU presidents to the table, will you convene a White House meeting with some of your corporate friends to discuss long-term support? Trump would have said yes.

That is how you play at the power level. You present the problem, then offer a solution.

As Solomon put it in Proverbs 4:7, “Wisdom is the principal thing … and with all thy getting get understanding.”

Stephen, I have identified the problems with your dinner. If you are interested, I am prepared to offer solutions.

Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future, a federally registered 527 super PAC working to get more Black Americans involved in the Republican Party.