Tavis Smiley Admits Consensual Relationships w/ Co-Workers: I’m not an angry black man.

Tavis Smiley Admits Consensual Relationships w/ Co-Workers: I'm not an angry black man.

Tavis Smiley Admits Consensual Relationships w/ Co-Workers: I’m not an angry black man.

Tavis Smiley is calling out PBS and denying claims of sexual harassment that led the network to suspend his nightly talk show. The 53-year-old journalist admits to having consensual relationships with coworkers over the years. However, he insists that he has ever used his power as an employer to coerce those relationships. In ’30 years over six different networks’, he says,

[He’s] never groped and never coerced these women.

He says,

I want to make sure we don’t lose all sense of nuance and proportionality in this conversation because if we do, people end up being guilty simply by accusation. I’m not an angry black man and this notion of a hostile environment just doesn’t fit.

Smiley continues about his past relationships,

I’m human. I’m not perfect but this doesn’t rise to the level. PBS made a huge mistake here and they need to fix it.

He says that PBS has not given him specifics about the accusations. Smiley said that there is one woman with whom he had a sexual relationship who remains on his staff.

See the clips from his interview below.

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Authored by: TJB Writer