In an appearance on "The Tom Joyner Morning Show," Smiley complained that "a chorus of black leaders have started singing a new song," saying that the president doesn't need a black agenda. Smiley said he wants these leaders to explain themselves (he announced plans, by the way, for an upcoming conference where they can do so). "I don't know the words to this new hymn," he said. "It's time for a choir rehearsal so that we all are singing from the same page."

Really? If I can carry the metaphor a bit further, who died and made Smiley the choir director? And never mind that it's debatable whether a choir does, or should, exist: Black voices singing from different pages is nothing new.

W.E.B. Dubois sang classical while Booker T. Washington sang folk music. Bill Cosby croons the blues while Michael Eric Dyson busts out in hip-hop. Malcolm X rapped while Martin Luther King, Jr. sang gospel. The idea of a monolithic, monotone black community has caused immeasurable damage -- both inside and outside the race, and that's nothing new, either.

In fact, there's only one thing new in this discussion about the existence, definition, execution and appropriateness of a black agenda: For the first time, the president is one of us. And that changes just about everything.