It’s always good news, but obviously much more so during a recession, to see a big convention hit town. This week Tampa is hosting the 3,200-member National Association of Black Journalists. About half of the membership will be in attendance, which will pump an estimated $2.3 million into the local economy.
But it’s not your conventional economic storyline when it’s the NABJ. By its very nature the NABJ attracts media attention. While the role of the media, per se, in America’s 24-7, politically polarized, bloggers-without-borders society is always fair game, we continue to be reminded that America hasn’t transcended race yet. Not nearly. Hence the NABJ — with its inherent issues of diversity and advocacy in the context of a racially protean culture — is also a newsmaker.
I’ll skip the trite, benignly adversarial quips and queries the NABJ still attracts – such as why isn’t there a NAWJ? – but I won’t avoid this. I would have hoped that the NABJ had by now passed the point where it no longer felt the need to bring in racial opportunists and grievance-agenda hucksters, such as the Rev. Al Sharpton, or even NBA headliners, such as LeBron James, as speakers. Unless you intend to reinforce a stereotype. Frankly, Jayson Blair would be much more relevant.
But, indeed, both Sharpton and James are part of the agenda. As well as a screening of the first animated Disney Film to feature a black princess, “The Princess and the Frog.” As well as D.C. Wright.
D.C. Wright? He’s Michelle Obama’s hairdresser. Ironically, he’ll be speaking on image improvement.