Change Sought in NAACP Awards Procedure
Prompted by a protest by advocacy groups over the nomination of indicted Jive Records recording artist R. Kelly for an NAACP Image award, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume has proposed placing the nomination process for the 35-year-old awards completely under the control of the civil rights organization.
Nominees for the Image Awards, which honor works in film, television, music and literature by or for minorities, are currently chosen by a 300-member committee, divided evenly between NAACP members and representatives from the television, recording, movie and publishing industries. Under Mfume’s proposal, only NAACP members would be able to make nominations.
Only NAACP members vote on the awards.
Kelly, a multimillion-selling R&B; artist, was arrested in 2002 on child pornography charges, stemming from a video purportedly showing him having sex with an underage girl.
Kelly’s “Chocolate City” is up for outstanding album. Such African American groups as National Alliance for Positive Action and Project Islamic Hope have complained to Mfume about Kelly’s nomination.
“It continues to concern me that every now and then an Image Award nomination is put forth that fails to meet the high standards for positive, constructive images on which the program was originally created,” Mfume said in a statement. “Part of the reason for this is that the NAACP does not totally control the nominating process but is held totally responsible for all of the nominations.”
Najee Ali, head of Project Islamic Hope, has asked that Kelly’s nomination be rescinded, an action that NAACP executives have said is unlikely.
“We would humbly suggest to the NAACP that future artists who are facing serious felony criminal charges be banned from the nomination process until their court proceedings are completed,” Ali said in a statement. “For the record, if Michael Jackson was nominated, our position would be the same.”
In 2003, civil rights groups objected to the Image Award nomination for the MGM film “Barbershop,” in which a character made disparaging comments about Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Mfume is scheduled to present his plan to the NAACP’s board of directors Feb. 21.
The awards are March 6 at the Universal Amphitheatre.
