CHICAGO — The National Association of Black Journalists’ (NABJ) invitation to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump caught many members off guard. His half-hour appearance at the convention on Wed., July 31, drew both protesters outside Hilton Chicago where he spoke, as well as Trump’s usual disrespect toward the media.
Trump falsely questioned Vice President Kamala Harris’ Blackness and said she misled voters: “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now, she wants to be known as Black. I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black,” he said in response to a question by ABC News’ Rachel Scott about whether he agreed with his surrogates who called Harris a “DEI” candidate. Trump also accused Scott of giving him a “very rude introduction.”
Trump’s history of demeaning Black females, attacking the media, and spurting out falsehoods, greatly concerned many NABJ rank and file, who expressed concerns on social media and elsewhere about why the organization’s leaders would extend an invitation to the former president, who is running against Harris, the presumptive Democratic candidate.
Harris’s father is Jamaican, and her mother is Indian. Both were immigrants to the U.S. Harris attended Howard University, a historically Black university, was a member of a Black sorority, and was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus during her time as a U.S. senator. She has never denied that she was Black.
Trump’s visit also sparked an intense internal debate among NABJ members—the convention’s co-chair resigned after it was announced late Monday. Social media strongly criticized NABJ leadership, among many things, inviting Trump and not letting the members know well ahead of time.
NABJ officials claim that Harris wanted to speak to the group but only virtually and/or in person later this year—the vice president’s schedule didn’t allow her to come to NABJ this week.
Inviting Trump was not an endorsement, NABJ President Ken Lemon pointed out after the press release on Sunday.
“I helped make this call,” NABJ Political Journalism Task Force chair Tia Mitchell of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution told the Hollywood Reporter. “I’ll continue to work to create opportunities for journalists to interview the potential next president.”
However, none of the Black journalists in the packed room at the Hilton Chicago were allowed to ask Trump questions, save for the three selected Black moderators. He later called Scott “nasty” for her questions and later drew boos from the packed room when he said, “I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln.”
The MSR did not attend Trump’s visit but talked to approximately 100 protesters who peacefully assembled across the street from the Hilton.
“I’m 32. I’m young. I go back [and researched] 50 years to Donald Trump in the ’70s and he was sued by the Nixon administration for not renting to Black people in New York City,” said Rickey Hendon, Jr. of Chicago. “I’m out here making sure that people are aware of” his rhetoric, Hendon added.
“It’s horribly demeaning” that Trump talks about the media and especially Black female journalists, said Janice Phares of Arlington Heights, a Chicago suburb. She said she came to downtown Chicago to protest his NABJ appearance once she learned about it a day ago. “This man is totally unfit for office,” she pointed out.
Kobi Guillory, who lives in Chicago but is originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, said, “We are an independent grassroots organization. We marched on the RNC a few weeks ago, and we will on the DNC a few weeks from now” when the Democratic convention is held in Chicago, he said.
“Trump and the Republicans, and their rhetoric and their actions have been anti-Black for decades. We need to stand up and advocate for our own interests outside of what either party is trying to tell us,” noted Guillory.
The MSR also talked to two NABJ members—both wanted their names withheld.
A male NABJ member attended the Trump visit and said he wished he hadn’t, but his curiosity as a journalist compelled him to. “But it is the first time in my life I wished I hadn’t,” he told us. “I think that NABJ leadership has a lot to answer for.”
A female NABJ member who didn’t attend the visit said, “I was really disappointed. I don’t think there is anything he can tell me … His actual presence would do too much for my spirit.” She added that she can’t totally blame the organization’s leaders for inviting the GOP presidential candidate. “I do see what NABJ wants to do to make sure Black journalists do have access to him, but it has to be unfiltered access,” she said.
“I think what really messed up here was the moderators, ” she added. “Not having someone from the Black Press on the panel to moderate and to ask questions, that I think, most concerned NABJ members.
“Most folks didn’t learn anything about Trump’s visit until the last minute,” the male NABJ member concluded. But “he was completely on brand” and did nothing Trump said surprised him, he noted.