37th Annual NAACP Image Awards

By Kam Williams

When the NAACP Image Awards were held at Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles last Saturday, it appeared, superficially at least, that the big winners were The Bernie Mac Show (3), Alicia Keys (3) and Crash (2) since they took home a total of eight trophies among them. But the more discerning observer might notice that the evening primarily belonged to Fox, the network which hosted the program.

For not only does the mega-media giant own the Bernie Mac series, but it has acquired the rights to run a spin-off of Crash on its FX Network. Just as curiously, recording artist Keys released all three of her CDs with J-Records, the same record label which signed Fox’s American Idol winners Fantasia and Ruben Studdard to lucrative contracts. J-records is a division of Sony/BMG, the music conglomerate which has enjoyed a cozy, cross-promoting relationship with Fox since one of its executives, Simon Cowell became a judge on AI.

This might help explain why Carlos Santana was picked as this year’s inductee into the NAACP Hall of Fame, even though he isn’t black. Afterall, he is with Arista, another division of Sony/BMG, and the honor afforded him a chance to perform on the program.

Suspiciously, the questionable corporate ethics even extended to another presumably prestigious honor, namely, the NAACP’s President’s Award, which went to Susan L. Taylor. Taylor, the long-time editor of Essence Magazine, also just happens to be an author who has written two books for HarperCollins, a wholly-owned subsidiary of, you guessed it, 20th Century Fox.   

Jada Pinkett-Smith prevailed in the Outstanding Children’s Literary Work  category for her book, Girls Hold Up the World, but one can’t wonder whether the accolade is tainted, too, since its publisher, Scholastic/Cartwheel, is a division of Harper Collins. In the field of music, other Sony/BMG winners included Jamie Foxx (Outstanding Male Artist), Destiny’s Child (Outstanding Group), Chris Brown (Outstanding New Artist). In total, Fox artists took about a third of the 44 awards handed out that night.

Although the show aired on Fox, a co-sponsor was Blockbuster Video, which is a division of Viacom, the parent company of BET, Paramount, Nickelodeon, CBS, Showtime and Simon & Schuster Publishing. So, it comes as no surprise that Viacom did just as well, prevailing in 14 categories.

Maybe the letter ‘C’ in NAACP should stand for ‘Corporate.’  Afterall, its new President, Bruce Gordon, has a background in business, not civil rights. His resume’ reveals an impressive, 35-year career in the telecommunication industry with Verizon, Bell Atlantic and Tyco, on top of credentials which include a master’s degree from MIT.

Don’t blame Bruce entirely in this regard, since he just assumed the reigns of power last summer, and this is not the first year that the NAACP stamp of approval has seemed to be up for sale. Nor is it fair to denigrate any of the recipients, as they are all extremely talented in their own right. But are we to believe that almost all of the gifted African-Americans work for one of two companies?

The problem, here, is that the NAACP appears to be drifting far afield from its legacy of lobbying on behalf of an oppressed people, when it lets corporate interests play such a significant role in determining which African-Americans are to be commended for presenting positive images. By design, profits will always be more important than humanistic concerns to a multi-national enterprise. Thus, if they haven’t already, business execs can’t help but turn the NAACP Image Awards into a shallow platform to sell consumer products rather than as a program to promote those exhibiting a continuing commitment to the betterment of black people.

Note: The show aired Friday, March 3 at 8 PM on Fox.

Complete List of Winners:

posted 12 March 2006