The con games continue

Wish I'd said that!

[Reprinted from Issues & Views October 22, 2001]

In "The NAACP in Wonderland," a New Visions Commentary for Project 21, writer Kimberley Wilson hits more than a few nails on the head. She takes issue with the NAACP's Hollywood crusade to coerce more jobs for black actors in film and television. Once again, the organization threatens a boycott of network TV, if television executives fail to comply with a demand for the employment of more blacks. According to the Screen Actors Guild, last year black actors were cast in over 20% of the roles for movies and prime time television. Apparently, this is not enough.

Wilson asks, "In light of all the serious issues facing black people, isn't hustling up acting jobs for Hollywood millionaires just a tiny bit trivial?" She then informs that NAACP president Kweisi Mfume recently completed a pilot episode for a weekly NBC talk show (Oprah style) that he plans to host. (Conflict of interest, anyone? Give me a talk show or I'll boycott you!) States Wilson:

The unsettling thing about this new show is it's timing. The NAACP has been nagging the networks for years about getting more blacks in front of and behind the camera, and they're even talking about launching a boycott of network TV. Now, it looks like Mfume may be on the road to getting his own syndicated talk show deal. He says that his pilot has nothing to do with the boycott threat, and that working--indirectly--for NBC shows no conflict of interest on his part. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Obviously, if things in black America are so great that the NAACP, the organization that is supposed to be looking out for our advancement, can take the time to worry about stars like Eriq LaSalle and Vivica A. Fox, then I guess I should laugh.

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