Black Press International
Business/Economic Feature
Week of
February 20, 2011
BUSINESS EXCHANGE
By William Reed
The Awards season is going
strong. While no Blacks are nominated in any coveted Oscar categories
this year, the one thing Black Americans can count on is that a bevy of
beautiful performers will be on the NAACP Image Awards show that airs March 4th
on Fox TV.
An NAACP Image Award is an accolade
by the 100-year-old National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
to honor outstanding people of color in film, television, music, and
literature. At the 42nd Image Awards, NAACP CEO Ben Jealous
will present the 2011 President’s Award to “in recognition of special achievements and
distinguished public service”
Established in 1967 at the height
of the civil rights movement, the NAACP Image Awards is the nation's premier
event celebrating the outstanding achievements and performances of people of
color in the arts, as well as those individuals or groups who promote social
justice through their creative endeavors. The 35 categories of Image
Awards are voted on by members of the NAACP; however the tribute to General
Powell, the President’s Award, is honorary.
But, what would Du Bois
say? In 1909, W.E.B. Du Bois helped form America's oldest, largest and most
widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization, the NAACP.
In 1910, Du Bois was made director of publications and research and established
the official journal of the NAACP, The Crisis. Du Bois’ life and work of
scholarship and protest activity is instructive regarding ongoing ways that the legacy of slavery touches the
way Blacks think, talk and treat each other. So, what would Du Bois, and
other Blacks of distinction, say about holding Powell out as “a person of
distinction”? Whether Powell’s body of work is deserving of The
President’s Award is based on how people nowadays deem the “quality of his
work”. Is Powell a nominee just because he was “a first” White man’s
stooge?
Powell’s will not be the NAACP’s
first controversial award. For example, in 1994, Tupac Shakur was a
nominee for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for the film Poetic
Justice although he had been charged with sexual abuse in December 1993.
In 2004, R. Kelly's Chocolate Factory was nominated for
Outstanding Album although he was under indictment at the time for
charges related to child pornography.
The celebration of Powell for
“distinguished public service” causes great concern as to whether he deserves
to be honored by the NAACP or held in high esteem by people of color.
Whether he was a fool or just “a solider following orders,” Colin Powell allowed himself to be “lied to” and
“manipulated” into supporting the costly invasion of Iraq. As US Secretary of State, Powell was used to
present a bogus case for war against Iraq to the UN Security Council on
February 5, 2003. The United
States used the “threat” posed by Iraqi
biological weapons to justify invading the country, and causing years of
political unrest and sectarian bloodshed, resulting in 100,000 civilian deaths.
No biological weapons were ever found and in an interview with Barbara Walters on ABC, Powell admitted
that his speech on Iraq
at the UN was “a blot” on his reputation.
Instead of the label “war criminal”, NAACP CEO Jealous
has gone to the other extreme to give Powell “icon” status, saying:
"General Colin Powell has led an extraordinary life of public
service. As the first African American to serve as Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, and later first to serve as Secretary of State, General Powell
holds a unique place in American history. He is a man of conscience and
conviction...Although his position on the Iraq War was controversial he was
often the voice of reason in prosecution of that war. He rose from humble
roots as the son of Jamaican immigrants to become an inspiration to us all.”
The only thing Powell is an
inspiration toward is servitude, and he darn sure ain’t “extraordinary”.
What Jealous needs to do is investigate what the good general knew, and
what he is telling the world.
(William Reed is available for speaking/seminar
projects via BaileyGroup.org)
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