‘The day of us being silent is over’

By Richard B. Muhammad | Last updated: Jul 3, 2014 - 7:07:01 PM

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.

PORTLAND, Ore. - The Black Press of America has a new interim president and CEO but not a new leader in the struggle for justice and progress. And Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., who was chosen to lead the National Newspaper Publishers Association, not only wants to aggregate its content but to also consolidate its power.

The recent appointment followed a letter to NNPA from the former director of the Million Man March, Nation of Islam minister, former NAACP executive, activist with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and onetime political prisoner asking about the job. He has been a contributing columnist and knew NNPA was going through a transition.

“We talk about the price that we paid as a people to get the right to vote which was heavy but we also paid a price to get the right to express ourselves, the right for freedom of the press. We should not take for granted any privilege, any right that we have,” said the lifelong activist, who is known as Benjamin Muhammad in the Nation of Islam, during his first interview with a national publication June 29.

“There’s a tendency not only to suppress the voice of Black people but to even question the self-determination right of Blacks to even speak for themselves or to raise a question. They want us to be victimized in silence, they want us to be oppressed in silence. They want us to be repressed in silence. And, no, we’re going to shake this up. The day of us being silent is over,” said Dr. Chavis. The Black Press must be the voice of Black America and the Black world, he added.

While desires to have the digital world dovetail with printing operations, shore up revenue, create a Black Press app, pull together content, utilize his links to the hip hop community, have Black papers work across social media and various platforms, and have papers embrace and train youth are important, his overriding mission will be to make sure Black America’s voice is strong, coordinated— and taking care of business.

“We’re blessed with creativity, but sometimes we let others handle our business for us, when we need to start handling our own business,” he said. “And to me the Black Press in America, who are all independent business owners, needs to be strengthened. Because if we strengthen the business side of the Black Press then that opens the door to strengthen other economic sectors in the Black community. Nielsen with the help of NNPA published this study in 2012 and in 2013 to show our consumerism,” Dr. Chavis noted.

Within the last 12-months more than 44 million Black people in America spent over $1.2 trillion the study found.

“We are not as poor as we have been socialized to think we are. Anybody that spends $1.2 trillion over a 12-month period that’s more than the gross national product spending of most nations in the world,” Dr. Chavis said.

In addition to Black America’s financial resources, he is looking to connect with Black America’s cultural resources. NNPA will host the singer Fantasia at the annual Black Caucus legislative gathering in the fall, he said.

“And I see that the Black press is an excellent vehicle to transmit the message of self-empowerment, the message of self-improvement, the message of community development,” Dr. Chavis added.

The Final Call