Author: Raynard Jackson

I don’t know why I have become the repository for the frustrations among Black Republicans across the country, but I have. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t get calls from Black Republicans

who feel totally and thoroughly ignored not only by you and your fledgling administration, but also by the national party, as well.

I am a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist published in over 200 newspapers every week. Last year, I wrote several columns supporting you, when it wasn’t cool to do so. Last December, I had to deconstruct the liberal attacks on Senator Jeff Sessions and your aide Steve Bannon.

I tell you this simply as a way of saying that because of the 25-plus years that I have served this party, I think I have earned the right to say what I am about to say to you in this column.

Let me be clear, Mr. President, I want absolutely nothing from you or your administration other than success.

Since the election, you have met with far more black Democrats than you have black Republicans— it’s not even close. In your defense, you have never been active in the Republican Party, thus you have no basis for knowing many black Republicans. You know many more black Democrats, simply because you hung out in liberal cities like New York and Los Angeles.

Even your top black staffer is a Democrat with absolutely no institutional knowledge of the Republican Party’s relationship with the black community— past, present or future. So, their

natural inclination is to reach out to all of their Democratic friends for invitations to meet with you and to participate with you in last week’s Black History Month’s event.

Your direct interactions with the black community, for the most part, have been unmitigated disasters, especially, your meeting last year at the black church in Detroit and last week’s event at the White House. There are several major black churches in Detroit, led by black Republican pastors, that you could have attended, but your staff chose a church led by a left-leaning minister. Last week, you held a listening session at the White House in honor of Black History Month and you invited more black Democrats than black Republicans.

Mr. President, do you realize that you had Blacks serving on your own transition team, who were not invited to attend your event last week? How in the hell is that even possible?

Speaker Paul Ryan has a black chief of staff in his speaker’s office; this is the first time in the history of the country this has happened, and he was not there. Your remarks, at a minimum, should have acknowledged this historic appointment by Ryan, after all, isn’t that the whole purpose behind Black History Month?

Mr. President, you have at least four blacks on the executive committee of the RNC who have little to no engagement with you or your staff. This is totally bewildering to me. They are in effect part of the board of directors of the national party and no one around you seems to value or seek their input. Don’t you think they should have been invited to the White House last week?

This is what happens when you surround yourself with black Democrats; they have no idea who any of these people are. The only thing that your senior staffer is doing is marking “their” territory, ostentatiously making it clear that they are the gatekeeper to all things relative to the black community. That staff is failing you, Mr. Trump.

This weekend at “The Black Republican Trailblazer Awards Luncheon” I will honor Maxine Blake and Gerald Boyd, Sr., two black Republicans that you should have on speed dial. You should

also get to know John Sibley Butler, who is a major serial entrepreneur. You can find out more about this event at: www.bafbf.org.

Oh, and by the way, Mr. President, the very party you now lead has tried to steal this event from me and has even filed a lawsuit against me to pressure me to walk away from the event I created. How is that for celebrating Black History Month? But I digress.

Far too often, Republicans hire blacks, who may be good, competent people, but are wrong for the job. Like you, I’m a scrapper and a counter puncher. I grew up around the Spinks family of boxing fame in St. Louis, Mo.

In all honesty, Mr. President, you have no blacks around you who are fighters— absolutely none.

I am a graduate of Oral Roberts University and one of the things Oral would always tell me was, “Go into every man’s world and meet them at the point of their need.”

When will you come into our world, Mr. President? A great place to start is by meeting with those I will be honoring this weekend.

Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org.

(NNPA) — On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a scathing report on the state of the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) as a part of its civil rights investigation following the death of Freddie Gray.

The report stated in part, “The Justice Department announced today that it found reasonable cause to believe that the Baltimore City Police Department (BPD) engages in a pattern or practice of conduct that violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution as well as federal anti-discrimination laws. BPD makes stops, searches and arrests without the required justification; searches and arrests; uses excessive force; and retaliates against individuals for their constitutionally-protected expression. The pattern or practice results from systemic deficiencies that have persisted within BPD for many years and has exacerbated community distrust of the police, particularly in the African-American community. The city and the department have also entered into an agreement in principle to work together, with community input, to create a federal court-enforceable consent decree addressing the deficiencies found during the investigation.”

I have been stunned by the muted reaction by both the Black community and the media.

Let me remind you that at the time of Gray’s death last year, Baltimore had a Black mayor, a Black police chief, a Black prosecutor, a Black president of the city council, a Black congressman and an almost fifty percent Black police force.

Juxtapose that with the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., a few years ago. The Justice Department, led by then-Attorney General Eric Holder, went to Ferguson and did a similar investigation and found identical results to Baltimore. The Ferguson reports are very similar to the report issued about the Baltimore Police Department.

The media narrative about Ferguson was that the police force was racist. White cop kills unarmed Black man. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Blacks make up roughly 70 percent of the population in Ferguson and more than 20 percent live in poverty. When Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, the mayor was White, there was only one Black on the six-member city council (.096 percent) and only three Blacks out of 53 policemen (5.6 percent) and was listed as the sixth most segregated city in the U.S.

The NAACP’s president and CEO, Cornell Brooks basically copied and pasted the statement he issued after the Ferguson reports and reused it for the Baltimore report.

The NAACP is “supposed” to be the nation’s premier civil rights organization, but time after time they have been shown to be huge hypocrites. Upon the Justice Department’s release of their damning report on Ferguson last year, Brooks said to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, “the mayor needs to resign.”

Strangely enough, Brooks never called for the resignation of the Mayor of Baltimore Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who is a Black Democrat.

I am really trying hard to understand what is going on here. Ferguson and Baltimore were both run from top to bottom by Democrats, both cities had an unarmed Black male killed at the hands of their police and both cities erupted in violence after the incidents. The Justice Department came to the same conclusion about both cities: that the cities and their police forces were incompetently run and employed policemen who violated a plethora of federal and civil rights laws.

The only difference between the two cities comes down to race. Ferguson was run by all Whites and Baltimore was run by all Blacks.

So, if Ferguson was a “racial” issue, what do you call Baltimore? Why have our Black civil rights leaders and activists reacted differently to the Justice Department’s report on Baltimore’s police department?

Where are the cries for Rawlings-Blake to resign? She also serves as the secretary of the Democratic National Committee and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Why is she not being asked to resign from those positions?

Most of the violations listed by the Justice Department happened during her time as mayor. Is she not also a racist? Americans, in general, and Blacks specifically must be consistent in their calls for justice and equality, whether the mayor of a city is Black or White.

If they preside over a law-breaking, corrupt police department and allow that type of culture to fester, shouldn’t that elected official be forced out of office?

We, as Blacks, lose the moral high ground when we are not consistent in our quest to make America a better nation. Whites lose the moral high ground when they constantly try to minimize the role that race plays in our society. Both approaches are equally as wrong, but we both must strive to be equally right.

Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org. You can follow Raynard on Twitter @Raynard1223.

(NNPA) — As I boarded my return flight to D.C. from last week’s Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio, I began to reflect on what I saw and I began to ponder how I could put to paper my experiences in this column.

Out of nowhere, the words of Charles Dickens from his novel “A Tale of Two Cities,” popped into my head:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

Once again the Republican Party should be thoroughly ashamed at having only about 18 and 50 Black and Hispanic delegates, respectively (less than five percent), at the convention; though the party has not released any official numbers.

This was by far the “Whitest” convention I have ever attended; but the party seems to care very little about this fact.

I attended several Latino sponsored breakfasts and luncheons with members of Congress or top aides from the Trump campaign as speakers. There were zero Black Republican hosted breakfasts or luncheons, but there was an evening party hosted by Black Republicans.

This again shows the weakness of Black Republicans within the party. This can’t be blamed on White folks in the party. This is an indictment of how little juice and foresight Blacks have within the party.

Under the current party leadership, I would prefer to have no Blacks on staff because the few they have are totally incapable of producing any results. So why waste the money to hire people who are totally incompetent?

But, then again, this is exactly the result the party wants. So they hire Blacks who have no connection to the Black community, or any interest in the Black community, or any understanding of strategic communications. Thus, they get the results they wanted all along—nothing. But since they hired a few Blacks, in the party’s mind, they can’t be called racist. I call this buying “race insurance.”

I had several well-known Blacks from sports, entertainment, Hollywood, and business interested in attending the convention,; but I decided not to bring them because the party had no interest in receiving them properly.

The last time I checked, I was not an employee of the RNC, but yet I had tons of media outlets calling me because they couldn’t get Black staffers to return their calls or help them resolve logistical issues they encountered at the convention, but yet they had time to hang out at several parties until the wee hours of the morning.

I arranged for many of the Black delegates to be interviewed by major media outlets, because the RNC staff proved yet again to be non-responsive to media inquiries. Black surrogates during the convention were almost non-existent and Republican party leaders continue to wonder why they get no traction in the Black community.

I challenge the RNC to produce clippings of all interviews of Black surrogates from last week. There was absolutely no media strategy leading into the convention, during the convention or post-convention. This is media relations 101 and the party failed the course miserably.

The Black staffers at the RNC are so incompetent that last month they sent out an e-mail to reporters bragging about the diversity of the delegates at this year’s convention, highlighting the whopping 18 total Black delegates out of a total of 2,472. I am not joking. This actually happened.

Do Black Republicans have no pride at all? I would be ashamed to be paid for a job and deliver nothing of any substance.

If there is to be a shift in Black loyalties within the body politic, it won’t be because of the RNC. The RNC has no interest and to be honest, no capacity to substantively engage with the Black community.

Any meaningful change in the participation rate of Blacks within the party will be forced upon the RNC from the outside.

If the RNC were run like a business, the whole staff would be summarily fired for total incompetence. The astonishing thing is that none of our party leadership even publically acknowledged the “Whiteness” of our convention.

Out of an arena capacity of approximately 20,000 people, you probably had fewer than 200 Blacks and Latinos, that includes delegates and spectators.

Trump has a window of about 30 days to address the issue of the Black voter. If he doesn’t, he will definitely have a more difficult path to victory come November.

It is truly the best of times and the worst of times for Black Republicans.

Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org. You can follow Raynard on Twitter @Raynard1223.

(NNPA) — I am quite fond of saying about Republicans when it comes to Blacks, “Even when they try to do the right thing, they do it the wrong way.”

In a similar manner, ESPN has become the Republican Party of TV and sports.

Last week they had their annual ESPYs awards show. This is their annual celebration of achievement in the world of sports.

They opened the show trying to do the right thing, but definitely did it the wrong way.

The event opened with four of the top NBA players speaking out against police brutality and gun violence. This was very moving to the extent that you had four of the biggest names in sports taking a public stance on a relevant, social issue, which is very rare for today’s athletes. The players were LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony.

If this was such a good thing, you might be asking, then why am I criticizing the event?

All four of the above players are Black. This issue of police brutality and gun violence is not a “Black” issue, it is an American issue. Whites are subjected to these issues as well. Good and bad cuts across race and class.

In 2015, the NBA was 74.4 percent Black, 23.3 percent White, 1.8 percent Latino, and .2 percent Asian, this was based on a survey by Richard Lapchick.

It would have made more sense for the ESPN to have players from each of these groups on stage talking about these issues, sending the unmistakable message that this is not just a Black issue, but rather a societal issue.

The optics of the display were odd and quite offensive to me.

ESPN is owned by The Walt Disney Company, one of the top pro-homosexual companies in the world. When they were aggressively promoting former player Jason Collins for coming out of the closet, they used the full panoply of races in their promotion of their homosexual agenda.

But when it came to police brutality and gun violence, they made it into a “Black” issue, not a societal issue like homosexuality.

A few days before the event, LeBron James reached out to the ESPY’s producer, Maura Mandt, with the idea, thus the plan was agreed to by all the suits at ESPN’s corporate office.

From my research, ESPN and the ESPYs seem to have no diversity in leadership in terms of decision-makers, the decision-makers all seem to be White liberals.

Maybe, just maybe, if they had people from diverse backgrounds in the decision-making loop someone would have pointed out the optics of LeBron’s idea and encouraged him to have a diverse group of players on stage with him.

Diversity is not just about race or gender, it’s also about worldview.

To their credit, ESPN has a very diverse workforce as far as race goes, but it is without question that an overwhelming amount of that diversity is racial, not ideological.

Most of their decision-makers and on-air talent are extremely liberal, which is totally in line with their corporate view. My friends who work for ESPN never dispute my conservative views in my private conversations with them, but they would never admit that they hold such views in public.

For some, expressing those views would be career suicide at worst or at best lead to a very public excoriation from peers and fair-weather friends alike.

Exhibit “A” in my argument is Chris Broussard. He is an analyst for ESPN who focuses on the NBA. He has been profiled in many media outlets about his Christian faith and his positive family life. He is another version of Steph Curry.

When Jason Collins came out as homosexual, Broussard responded, “If you’re openly living in unrepentant sin, whatever it may be, not just homosexuality, (but) adultery, fornication, premarital sex between heterosexuals…I believe that’s walking in open rebellion to God and to Jesus Christ,” Broussard said. “I would not characterize that person as a Christian, because I don’t think the Bible would characterize them as a Christian.”

His simple expression of his faith caused a backlash like I have never seen before. So, as long as you are for homosexuality, your thoughts are welcomed on ESPN, but if you don’t agree with it, you are silenced.

I applaud these athletes for trying to take a principled stand at the ESPYs, but I fault ESPN for not having the foresight to fully understand and appreciate the optics of having all Black athletes on stage.

Now, mind you, ESPN is supposed to be experts in optics, after all, they are the world leader in sports and entertainment. But, because they are surrounded by people who all look and think like each other, there was no one to point out the obvious racial connotation of these optics.

Like the Republican Party, they tried to do the right thing, but did it the wrong way.

Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org. You can follow Raynard on Twitter @Raynard1223.

(NNPA) — As long as the Republican Party continues to be dominated by the same ol’, same ol’ White male staffers, consultants, and aides, they will continue to alienate the Black community. As long as the Republican Party continues to “showcase” Blacks that have absolutely no connection to the Black community, have no understanding of communications, or no understanding of political strategy, i.e. Stacey Dash, they will continue to be rejected.

I discussed these issues in my column two weeks ago.

So, needless to say I was totally mortified at the comments of Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, as reported by Buzzfeed last week (one day after his removal from the campaign).

According to Buzzfeed, “Lewandowski was asked about the campaign’s failure to return phone calls from prospective volunteers, and also about Trump’s plans to win over minority voters. On the second point, Lewandowski said he made the decision that the campaign would not launch outreach initiatives “pandering” to specific ethnic groups, because Trump’s message was aimed broadly at the entire country, he argued.

If I hear one more Republican claim the Republican Party should not engage in “identity politics” or what they wrongly refer to as “pandering,” I am going to scream. This is one of the most idiotic notions I have ever heard and is a major reason the party has such a difficult time attracting Blacks and other minorities.

Let me first start by defining “identity politics.” IP is simply recognizing that various constituent or demographic groups exist and that they should be identified as such, and that a relevant strategy to target them based on their group profile should also be created.

Many Republicans think the world should be colorblind, that we are all Americans, and that all of our issues are the same. Well, adhering to this view, there should be no males or females, no Blacks or Whites, no unions or non-unions and no Christians or Muslims. We’re all just humans.

The Democrats go way overboard in the other direction where everything is separated into various groups. This totally dilutes what being American is all about.

But to simply recognize the differences within our country is just plain common sense, not un-American.

So, while Corey was denouncing “pandering,” the very next day Trump met with over nine hundred evangelicals. Is that not pandering? Oh, my bad, it’s only pandering when it involves Blacks or Hispanics. If it involves evangelicals, veterans, or the border patrol union, it’s called campaigning.

Memo to Republicans: if you don’t or can’t see that you have no Blacks on your staff and very few engaged with the party, then there is a problem. Either you are colorblind or simply blind to people of color. In either scenario, there is a huge problem.

What’s even more idiotic is to see many Black Republicans subscribe to this foolish colorblind notion, i.e., the aforementioned Stacey Dash. These are the type of Blacks that Republicans want to highlight all over the media, because they reinforce the party’s preconceived ignorance and apathy towards the Black community.

As one who makes his living from understanding the art of strategic communications and public relations, I have tried ad nauseam to enlighten Republicans on this issue, to no avail.

McDonalds’ and Cadillac advertise to Whites differently than they do to Blacks or Latinos, though they are selling the same product to everyone.

They will now use Hip-Hop music in their ads when trying to reach certain demographics versus classical music or use certain athletes/entertainers that resonate with a particular group.

Legendary singer, Barry Manilow, a 72 year-old, White Jew, is not used to sell Ciroc premium vodka for a reason; he is the wrong demographic. Diageo, the owner, has made rapper Sean “P. Diddy” Combs their brand ambassador because they are targeting the urban market, i.e., Black people.

In my world, this is called smart business. Combs has helped to increase Ciroc’s sales 50 fold; they went from 40,000 cases sold per year pre-Combs to over 2.1 million cases per year with Combs. This is what IP gets you in the private sector–profit! This would equate to winning national elections in the political arena.

The Republican’s approach to Ciroc would be to advertise to the whole country, despite the fact that urban Blacks and nightclubs buy most of this product.

Yes, we are all Americans, but we all have our own splash of uniqueness; which is good.

To take my Ciroc example a step further, Republicans would have hired a White brand ambassador (not Combs) to promote the product to the urban market because they don’t believe in “identity politics;” they are colorblind.

This is not a joke. Within the Republican Party, you have many Whites who think they know more about the Black community than someone from within the community.

Solomon said in Proverbs 4:7, “Wisdom is the principle thing, therefore get wisdom; and with all thy getting, get understanding.”

How do you gain understanding of the Black community unless you first recognize and appreciate their uniqueness?

So to my Republicans who have this perverted notion of identity politics when it comes to Blacks, please learn to appreciate market segmentation and market demographics and how to exploit them to sell your message to those who have of late been totally repulsed by your foolish notion of colorblindness. Colorblindness has left the Republican Party in a color-bind.

Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org. Follow Raynard on Twitter @raynard1223.

(NNPA) — While there is no denying that Donald Trump has had a terrible past couple of weeks with his dogged focus on some obscure federal judge in San Diego, I think Trump can right the ship, but he has an extremely narrow window to do so.

I will deal with that in a future column.

This controversy with Trump and the judge has revealed yet again how unprepared the Republican Party is, in the 21st century, in dealing with the issue of race, especially, relative to the Black community.

I have advised some of the biggest names in politics, business, sports, and entertainment on racial and other career threatening crises.

The first thing I have noticed with Republicans dealing with the issue of race is that they deny that whatever happened was racist. Why does this happen? Well, that’s an easy question to answer. Republicans are surrounded by White staffers, who think they know more about the Black community than Black people do. And I’m speaking from personal experience, as recently as last month.

Memo to Republicans # 1: Never, I mean never say to the media, “I am not a racist.” That means you are losing the argument. Remember former President Nixon’s famous rejoinder, “I am not a crook?”

Again, for purposes of this column, I am not specifically talking about Trump and the judge, but rather the Republican Party in general when it comes to issues that have a racial component.

There are absolutely no Blacks in positions of power or influence anywhere within the Republican Party. There are none within the Republican National Committee (RNC), National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), nor any of the presidential campaigns.

Republicans have all White advisors and consultants trying to advise them on racial matters impacting the Black community, and they can’t understand why things keep blowing up in their faces. Duhhhhh!

Memo to Republicans # 2: Don’t just go out and grab the first Black person you see and come back to me and say, “Now we have a Black, so please shut up.”

Many Black Republicans are whiter than their White counterparts, and this is by design. Many Black Republicans have absolutely no connection to the Black community; nor any skill set to put them in a position of advising the party on racial matters.

The Republican Party wants Blacks around them who they are “comfortable” with, not Blacks who will speak their mind and who know what the hell they are talking about.

You have Black Republicans being pimped by the media to constantly denounce Donald Trump, because they are media whores who are looking for the proverbial pat on the head from “massa,” but these same Black Republicans have laryngitis when it comes to the lack of “real” Black staffers, consultants, and advisors within the party.

I have no record of these same Blacks speaking about how White our upcoming national convention is going to be, how there has been little, if any, opportunities for Black Republicans to do business with the upcoming convention. Seems like you have more opportunity to do business with the convention if you are a Black Democrat—go figure.

How can you have a White twenty-something writing a speech about civil rights or voting rights for a Republican leader to give? I am not exaggerating, this is actually happening.

The party needs a plethora of “real” Blacks who have a connection to the Black community, who understand messaging in terms of communications; and who have personal relationships with the media, and understand how to connect all of these into a coherent strategy.

The party has virtually no Black surrogates who can push back in the media against all the Black liberals on MSNBC and CNN, so a lie that is repeated enough, becomes the truth.

So, while many in the party are speaking out against Trump (some of it is well deserved and warranted), I wish these same people would be just as vehement in fighting against the radical liberal agenda that President Obama and Hillary Clinton have been promoting.

And to my Black Republican friends, I don’t think all of your denunciations of some of Trump’s comments are not legitimate, but where are your voices on other issues that impact the Black community relative to the party?

What have you done to get more Black students internships with our congressional members? What have you done to promote legislative solutions to address issues of particular concern to Blacks (access to capital for Black entrepreneurs, aide to HBCUs, promotion of school choice, etc.)?

And finally, Memo # 3: To my Black Republicans, always remember, when all is said and done, there is more said than done.

Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org. Follow Raynard on Twitter @raynard1223.

(NNPA) — Last week rapper Snoop Dogg put up an epic video rant on his Instagram. In the verbiage that only Snoop can conjugate, he said in no uncertain terms that people should not watch the 21st century remake of the epic TV miniseries Roots that aired on The History Channel last week.

I must say that I thoroughly agree with Snoop Dogg’s position one hundred percent, though I can do without the raw language.

Roots: The Saga of an American Family was a book written by famed author Alex Haley in 1976. In the book, Haley traced his ancestral roots back to The Gambia in West Africa. He was able to trace his family lineage all the way back Kunta Kinte.

Kinte was captured as a teenager in The Gambia and ultimately sold into slavery and brought to the U.S. The book was turned into a blockbuster TV miniseries back in 1977.

The remaking is what led Snoop to do his now viral video on Instagram. His position was that he didn’t want to see any more movies about slavery. “Where are all the movies about Black success?” Snoop asked.

I totally agree with Snoop. I refused to watch the remake of Roots. I was watching my N.B.A. basketball playoffs.

Following Snoop’s rant, TV personality Roland Martin addressed the subject on his news program on TV ONE. The one point that I do agree with Roland is that more Blacks need to step up and be willing to help finance the production of some of these movies about successful Blacks. That’s a legitimate challenge that Snoop should address.

Martin launched into this tirade about Jews “never” getting tired of movies about the Holocaust. He is way off base with his analysis.

Martin and those who agree with him are missing a few, very germane points. I mean can any one name a Black person who has financed, executive produced, produced, directed, or distributed a major movie or TV program about the Holocaust? You can’t, because it hasn’t happened.

But most movies about slavery have non-Blacks in major positions of control or power; even though there may be a Black producer or director attached to the project.

I am not aware of one movie about slavery where Blacks have had total control of the process from beginning to end.

The movie “Amistad” (1997) was written by David Franzoni, directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Debbi Allen (Black), Steven Spielberg and Colin Wilson. John Williams composed the musical score.

“12 Years a Slave” (2013) was based on the life of former slave Solomon Northup and it was directed by Steve McQueen (Black) and produced by Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen (Black), Arnon Milchan, and Anthony Katagas. John Ridley (Black) wrote the screenplay and Fox Searchlight Pictures distributed the movie.

The 2016 version of “Roots” was written by Lawrence Konner, Mark Rosenthal, Alison McDonald (Black), and Charles Murray (Black). The four-part miniseries was directed by Bruce Beresford, Phillip Noyce, Thomas Carter (Black), and Mario Van Peebles (Black).

Now, let’s look at a few of the top Holocaust movies.

“The Diary of Anne Frank” (1959) was based on the writings of Anne Frank and directed by George Stevens and written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and distributed by Twentieth Century Fox.

“Schindler’s List” (1993) was written by Steven Zaillian and produced by Steven Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, and Branko Lustig. Steven Spielberg also directed the movie and “Schindler’s List” was distributed by Universal Pictures.

“The Pianist” (2002) was based on the book by Wladyslaw Szpilman and directed by Roman Polanski, who also earned production credits. Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde were also producers on the movie and it was distributed by Focus Features.

Do you notice anything that stands out to you here? There are no Blacks in any position of control or authority in any of these movies. The Jewish community tells their history through their own eyes and from their own perspective.

Remember, the Chinese sculptor of the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King on the National Mall in Washington, DC, Lei Yixin, was “forced” to redo the statute because some felt that the original rendering made King seem too “confrontational.”

Confrontational to whom? To this day, I have refused to visit King’s statue on the Mall.

Yixin was chosen at the expense of very capable American sculptors, both Black and White. The U.S. government also allowed Yixin to bring Chinese workers into the country to assemble the sculpture. They were literally paid slave wages, but I digress.

The U.S. government spent over $120 million on the King sculptor and the money went to China and Chinese workers.

The Jewish community would never allow something like this to happen to anything dealing with their own community.

So, to Roland Martin and his supporters, let’s stop being a slave to slavery.

Raynard Jackson is founder and chairman of Black Americans for a Better Future (BAFBF), a federally registered 527 Super PAC established to get more Blacks involved in the Republican Party. BAFBF focuses on the Black entrepreneur. For more information about BAFBF, visit www.bafbf.org. Follow Raynard on Twitter @raynard1223.