Yesterday, the National Association of Black Journalists launched its annual convention and career fair in Chicago, Illinois. The multi-day event – viewed by Black journalists as an invaluable safe space – brings together thousands of members from across the nation to train, network and socialize.
The conference’s opening day, however, was overshadowed by an unexpected guest: Donald J Trump. The former president was invited by the NABJ board to participate in a panel interview and his attendance was announced just two days before the event. The interview was fraught, hostile and brief. And it confirmed many NABJ members’ fears that Trump’s interaction with three Black women moderators – Rachel Scott from ABC News, Harris Faulkner of Fox News, and Semafor’s Kadia Goba – would be a farce. The discussion ran afoul of any attempt to use journalism to speak truth to power.
Presidential candidates attending NABJ to meet with journalists is not new, and Trump had previously turned down offers to participate in the 2016 and 2020 conferences. Still, many people balked at the idea of extending an invite in 2024 to a candidate with a history of targeting Black journalists, such as Yamiche Alcindor of NBC News and The Grio’s April Ryan.
NABJ, for its part, had previously condemned Trump for these very attacks on the press. “The most powerful man in the free world is verbally abusing journalists,” said Sarah Glover, the former NABJ president, in 2018. “His dismissive comments toward journalists April Ryan, Abby Phillip and Yamiche Alcindor are appalling, irresponsible, and should be denounced.” But this year, the organization’s leadership defended the choice to host Trump, despite significant criticism by its members. With that invitation, NABJ abandoned its own mission of protecting Black journalists.
The first day of the conference was usurped and turned into spectacle. Trump’s interview started over an hour late, in part due to an alleged standoff between Trump’s team and NABJ over live fact-checking. Once the event got under way, the 35-minute conversation was immediately combative, with Trump calling Scott, “disgraceful”, “rude”, and “hostile”, and labeling ABC a “fake news network”.
Trump continued to promote his typical racist conspiracies and narratives – notably questioning the heritage of Vice-President Kamala Harris by inquiring, “Is she Indian or is she Black?” The attack was similar to the false allegations Trump had espoused against the former president Barack Obama as part of his birther campaign.
Trump also made dangerous claims about abortion and went after undocumented immigrants, labeling them as “coming in from mental institutions, from prisons, from jails” while taking away “Black jobs” and being granted the right to vote. Scott attempted to interject with fact checks during the conversation, but Trump, true to form, steamrolled any rebuttals.
During questioning about the recent killing of Sonya Massey by Illinois police, Trump meandered while explaining his campaign platform of police immunity, and failed to answer the question of how cops should be held accountable. Ultimately, the concerns of Black journalists who protested his attendance were proven right: Trump was given the NABJ stage to advance racist vitriol.
At a time when NABJ members should have been engaging in fellowship with their peers and mentors, they were instead forced to extend professionalism to a hostile guest who peddled racist ideas. For many journalists in attendance, the display dampened the once ebullient mood about the convention.
The most unfortunate result of this fiasco is that Trump’s antics brought intense scrutiny on to the NABJ convention – a professional conference that provides information and resources to a marginalized group. CNN, CSPAN and PBS livestreamed the panel, and after 10 days of the Harris campaign successfully dominating the news, the conversation has now shamefully pivoted into rightwing talking points about Harris’s racial background. Instead of talking about her platform and policies, we are now in a media circus litigating racial purity. The talk was a victory for a Trump campaign that seeks to conquer via constant confusion and deflection.
Toni Morrison once said, “the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.” While some may still argue that NABJ inviting Trump was a necessary professional ritual, the result – nationwide dissemination of racist conspiracies against Harris – suggests the need for serious contemplation on how the media handles undemocratic leaders.