National Urban League partners with NBC owned theGriot.com, calls campaign “I am empowered.”

Yikes.

It is great to see a new media campaign by an historic black organization, somehow I feel we are right back debating about the mythical “black agenda,” and how relevant it is in the 21st century United States.  While the National Urban League deserves credit for trying to stay relevant and promote actual policy-based solutions to improve the lives of Black Americans.  I’m not sure whether I should laugh or cry at the ineptitude of launching a campaign to empower Black men and Women on a GE and Comcast owned NBC property.   Now, the National Urban League could be receiving a significant amount of in-kind contributions from NBC/ General Electric / Comcast, it is hard to know unless the National Urban League decides to be completely transparent about the advertising campaign.

Fair enough.


However, the point is still valid regardless of the payment source, instead of allowing the remnant ad space most sites have to go to waste, the National Urban League could have persuaded a number of other more diverse sites to participate.  While theGriot.com is a great property run by NBC, and has a decent amount of feature content targeted to African-Americans, supporting General Electric and Comcast is far different than supporting smaller media outlets. I also want to be careful to state that it isn’t just a question of ownership, it is also a question of media diversity, and supporting the people you claim your organization is about.

If the National Urban League is supposed to be about supporting diversity and black owned businesses; yet, doesn’t do that in practice (even if it is harder to do), well what it is it all worth?

It is disheartening to see either the money or tax write-offs go to mega-corporations rather than smaller organizations that are poised to better serve our communities.  NewsOne.com, JackandJillPolitics.com, Ebonyjet.com (even Washington Post’s theroot.com seems to have equity participation by Skip Gates) and other sites are likely to make the same audience numbers that theGriot.com does in aggregate.

I’m not feeling very empowered by a campaign spending a whole lot of money (or allowing a huge tax write off ) with General Electric and Comcast.

Anyway, I’ll update when i find out if the National Urban League paid or got the ads free.

Related posts:

1. EbonyJet.com is Moving too Slowly to Save Ebony, Jet and Johnson Publications
2. Why is Al Sharpton considered a Civil Rights leader?
3. Dr. Boyce Watkins Continues the Tavis Smiley Pile-On and Manages to Promote Himself at the Same Time
4. Black Conservative at theRoot.com sides with Tavis Smiley Makes same mistake
5. Black Voters