Actor/Producer Tim Reid told Jackson State University students on Tuesday that they must produce their own “propaganda” if they want to be successful journalists.
He recalled playing the character “Venus Flytrap” on the sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati” and being called into the office of CBS President William S. Paley. He was stunned when Paley asked him: “What’s your propaganda?”
By that, Paley meant, what is your vision, your drive, your message that you seek to show, Reid said. For too long, African Americans have let others define their message and their image.
The “image propaganda” on African Americans is “mediocre at best,” he said, and on the Internet, it’s destroying what little cultural identity remains.
As an example, he asked who were the major cultural icons of black America? He listed Beyonce’ and P. Diddy, other rappers and musicians, and showed photographs from popular culture that give stereotypes of black people.
For many white Americans, he said, the first literate black people they saw were Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas during the 1991 Supreme Court nomination fight.
“We must be able to tell our own stories,” he said.
He challenged journalism students to “be radical,” quoting W.E.B. DuBois that “all art is propaganda” and Malcolm X that media “control the minds of the masses.” As an example, he noted that three corporations own 1,500 newspapers, 9,000 radio stations, 1,500 TV stations and 2,400 publications.
Quoting an African proverb, he said: “Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall glorify the hunter.”
“You’ve got to be able to speak for the lion,” Reid said.
Reid was speaking to Mass Communications and College of Liberal Arts students faculty and staff while visiting with The Trotter Group, an organization of distinguished black journalists from around the country. He was leading a session titled “The Entertainment Industry Needs You: How Journalists Can Become TV Writers and Screenwriters.”
He was followed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former Newsday editor Les Payne, who spoke on his upcoming (as yet unnamed) book out next fall on the life of Malcolm X.
Comprised of top columnists and opinion makers, the Trotter Group gathers once a year to discuss current events and ensure important local, regional and national black stories are told.
“To host and have these luminaries in their field to meet at Jackson State University is a coup for the university,” said Dr. James C. Renick, provost and senior vice president for academic and student affairs.
“Students and faculty can benefit greatly from their presence,” Renick said.
Reid has directed television programs and documentary films and owns his own production studio.
Payne is a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists.
The Trotter Group is named after William Monroe Trotter, publisher of the black-owned Boston Guardian newspaper, who challenged President Woodrow Wilson in the last century.
According to The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, Trotter had supported Wilson’s election, but segregation and lynching were worse than ever. Trotter asked Wilson where he stood.
“Wilson replied: ‘Segregation is not humiliating, but a benefit. … Your manner offends me.’ A 45-minute argument ensued during which Trotter said: ‘Two years ago, you were regarded as a second Abraham Lincoln. … Now we colored leaders [who supported Wilson] are denounced in the colored churches as traitors to our race.
“The argument made the front page of The New York Times.”
The group arrived Sunday and has attended a number of presentations by JSU faculty. They included “What You Don’t Know or Understand about Racial Politics in Mississippi” by Dr. Robert Luckett, director of JSU’s Margaret Walker Center for the Study of the African-American Experience.
The group toured historic sites such as the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) building, the Smith-Robertson Museum, the Medgar Evers home, Farish Street, and the Greyhound Bus Station where Freedom Riders were arrested during the civil rights struggle.
The group is scheduled to leave Wednesday.