(ThyBlackMan.com) I was recently honored, along with several of my media colleagues, by the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association (MMCA) at the group’s annual awards dinner. The group was founded by Aaron Manaigo and David Morgan.
The expressed purpose of the MMCA is to bring together policymakers, political influencers, and media stakeholders to affirm, elucidate, and connect media diversity advocates and stakeholders, who are committed to moving the needle on media diversity.
Aaron and David are being nice and politically correct with the stated mission of the MMCA, so allow me to interpret for you what they are really saying.
In reality, the MMCA is a direct response to the lack of diversity and the overwhelming Whiteness of the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA).
The WHCA is an exclusive group of mostly White, liberal journalists who pretend to be “objective” journalists. In reality, the WHCA is an unofficial extension of the Democratic Party and the eyes and ears of liberal Hollywood on the East Coast.
The WHCA is notoriously known to be the hosting organization that allowed Black comedian Larry Wilmore in 2016 to call the first Black president, Barak Obama “my n–ga” while Obama was sitting on the dais. Wilmore and the WHCA called it a “term of endearment.”
At the WHCA’s annual dinner in late April, fake comedienne Michelle Wolf made jokes making light of abortion and ridiculing White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ physical appearance.
Since the founding of the WHCA in 1914, Black journalists have had little to no significant involvement in the organization or its leadership.
Thus, the need to create the MMCA.
I was awarded the “5th Estate’s New Media Print Award” for my writings as a syndicated columnist for the National Newspapers Publishers Association (NNPA) Newswire. The NNPA Newswire is like the Black version of the Associated Press (AP). The NNPA is a trade group that represents more than 200 Black newspaper publishers from across the country.
Cathy Hughes, the founder and chair of Urban One, former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien, and radio talk show host and former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain were also honored by the MMCA. For a complete list of awardees, go to http://mmcadc.org/.
Herman Cain and I will never be recognized by MMCA’s counterpart, the WHCA. Why?
The answer is very simple. The WHCA will never honor us, because we are Black, Republican, and conservative. So, we don’t fit the liberal media narrative. This, even though we both have a body of work that could easily justify receiving such recognition.
Isn’t it amazing that U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has never received an Image Award from the NAACP or has never been recognized by the National Urban League.
This, despite Scott being the first Black U.S. senator from the state of South Carolina, the first Black Republican elected to the U.S. Senate since the election of Ed Brooke (R-Mass.) in 1966, and the first, Black U.S. senator elected from the South since 1881. Surely, Sen. Scott’s political party could have absolutely nothing to do with him being overlooked for any recognition by these groups. After all, they claim that they are non-partisan. Right?
Isn’t it amazing that the National Association of “Liberal” Black Journalists (NABJ), has never, I mean never honored Dana White.
Who is Dana White?
Well, Ms. White just happens to be “the Pentagon Chief Spokesperson for both the Department of Defense and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis,” according to her biography on the Defense Department’s website. Ms. White serves as the “Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs. She is the principal staff assistant and advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense for communications, news media relations, public outreach, engagement, public affairs and visual information.”
So, why would the NABJ not recognize her? Could it have anything to do with her being Black and Republican, even though she is the first Black female to occupy such a position. During the eight years of the Obama presidency, a Black woman never held such a position.
So, as with most Black organizations, the MMCA was birthed out of necessity, not out of some fascination with “identity politics.” The group was created, because of mainstream media’s refusal to recognize the contributions of minority media professionals in any meaningful way.
Aaron Manaigo is a Republican; David Morgan is a Democrat. Both with party credentials at the highest levels from their respective parties.
The list of awardees during this year’s MMCA awards dinner cut across political parties, races, and backgrounds. Each honoree could and should have been recognized by the mainstream media, as well as the American society, as a whole.
I strongly urge you to support the efforts of the MMCA, not only because they were wise enough to recognize me (wink, wink), but also because its much needed.
MMCA looks like America and when groups look like America; then America starts to look like us.
Staff Writer; Raynard Jackson
Mr. Jackson is also founder of a political and industrial consultant firm which is based in Washington, DC; Raynard Jackson & Associates.
