NABJ Invites White Supremacist Leader to Speak at Conference

Wednesday, July 31st, was essentially the kick-off of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention. It is a yearly event, attended by members and non-members, held in a different metropolitan city each year, and this year it is taking place in Chicago. It, like many conventions, is for a niche market and, therefore, not really discussed outside of NABJ members or convention attendees, some of who are nationally recognized broadcast journalists.

This week the event was thrust into the national spotlight when it hosted a racist rapist and former president, Donald Trump.

The attendance invitation, which is not unheard of for presidential hopefuls in the past, was met with a firestorm of pushback from some of the most notable members of NABJ, especially surrounding the lack of accommodations made for Vice President Kamala Harris, who was unable to make it because she was had prior engagements, including the funeral of recently deceased senator, Sheila Jackson Lee. Harris’ team wanted her to be able to attend virtually, but it was reported that NABJ would not accommodate her request to appear virtually while accommodating Trump’s request to have Harris Faulkner, from Fox News, on the panel. 

Karen Attiah, who was the co-chair of the NABJ convention this year, stepped down amid the debacle, and stated that she was not consulted in the decision, and expressed her dismay for his attendance on Xitter. NABJ’s national convention is not just workshops, job opportunities and networking, but it is also a place where Black journalists, bloggers and pulse keepers who are friends but live on other ends of the country come and convene for shared interests and fellowship. Having a high-profile guest is not new for the convention but having a guest who has stoked the idea of Black people being in high-profile positions is only due to DEI programs, is an affront to the very mission of organizations formed to empower Black people in corporate America, like NABJ.

NABJ is a respectable organization that did a disrespectful thing. In an effort to get the latest scoop, it allowed itself to be the scoop. It exposed three Black women, Rachel Scott from ABC News, Kadia Goba from Simafor, and Harris Faulkner from Fox News to varying degrees of misogynoir, spectrumed only by the amount of pushback each woman gave the former Commander-in-Cheeto, with Scott receiving the worst, and Fox New’s Faulkner receiving the least.  

Out the gate, and with time limited due to technical difficulties, whether that was Trump’s tardiness, technical difficulties, or both, which both have been reported, is unknown, Scott asks Trump about some of his past comments about Black senators, his interactions with white supremacists groups, his birther claims against Nikki Haley and Barack Obama and his attacks on Black journalists. Finishing her first question with why should Black voters trust him, led to a continuously contentious interview, where he felt disrespected by being reminded of his own views, far too early in the interview for his liking, and took that out on Scott throughout the interview. As some predicted, Trump used the platform to continue spewing racism, most specifically against Vice President Harris and HBCU graduate Harris, whom he claimed was not Black.

Racism is not only present when someone is called the “N-word” (even though his supporters would still find a way to justify him calling someone that if he were ever caught on camera doing so), but it is also marked by an extreme amount of gaslighting, plausible deniability, and simply thinking that your victim is not intelligent enough to see it happening. 

Racism is the inside joke shared amongst clowns, and NABJ invited a new Bozo to Chicago. 

There is something to be said for the fact that Trump was asked hard-hitting and direct questions concerning his interactions with Black people that other entities have not asked, but what was the expectation to make him look bad? Donald nor his followers care if he says something awful because that’s legitimately why they like him. There is nothing new to see about Donald’s behavior.

He is an evil person, and this is not news for his supporters or newscasters. 

What it did do, though, was expose those Black women on stage, as well as some of the people who pushed back against the event on social media, to a barrage of racist attacks. Trump has made insulting Black female journalists his tradition. Speaking of traditions, it has been a tradition for several decades to invite presidential hopefuls to NABJ, including George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, but NABJ is also about empowering and protecting journalists in a world that marginalizes them and diminishes their work.

NABJ was neglectful in protecting its constituents from someone who sees them as less, especially when that is part of the reason organizations like this exist in the first place.