In light of the recent Lowe’s controversy, Benjamin Jealous, current President and Chief Executive Officer for the NAACP, spoke with GlobalGrind to discuss the home improvement retail giant’s decision to pull advertising from TLC’s All-American Muslim.
STORY: Top Rabbi Condemns Lowe’s For Dropping “All-American Muslim”
Lowe’s made an egregious error, callously caving into the Florida Family Association’s (FFA) threats to boycott the company if they didn’t pull advertisement from the popular reality show.
As a result, Lowe’s actions caused a massive uproar in both the Muslim community and throughout the entire nation.
STORY: GlobalGrind Supports the Growing Boycott Against Lowe’s!
Jealous spoke with us on the matter and expressed what role the NAACP will play in righting this controversial wrong.
GlobalGrind: What is the NAACP’s stance on Lowe’s pulling advertising from All American Muslim?
Ben Jealous: People are concerned by reports that Lowe’s and Kayak.com may have been influenced by the actions of this extremist organization and we are in the process of seeking out a meeting to discuss what happened and to better gather the facts.
We are deeply concerned that the media reports that (Lowe’s) admitted this was a part of their decision making process will just encourage some more of this kind of Islamophobic behavior from more extremist groups. For us, this is part of a line of work that goes back to our first engagement of Hollywood in 1915 after the release of the movie Birth of a Nation.
We have been concerned for almost a century that positive images should be shown and they should be supported. Television serves our country best is when it helps to debunk stereotypes and reveal the truth about communities and this show, All American Muslim, I think it may be part of the best tradition of television.
What role will the NAACP play in pursuing an apology from Lowe’s?
Right now we are seeking for media to get to the bottom of things. We are in the middle of trying to gather the facts.
But if the media reports are true then not only should they apologize, but they should get back to advertising on the show. If indeed they bowed to pressure from such an extremist organization, then they have made a great mistake and they need to reverse course.
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Considering all the facts, do you think CEO Robert Niblock should step down or be fired?
It is too early to tell.
Do you think this is a First Amendment issue? Do you think Lowe’s infringed on All-American Muslim’s right to express their freedom of religion?
I think that this is really just a bigger issue than that. What’s at stake here is ultimately the ability of our media to be confidant that if they tell the truth, they will continue to be supported.
There is a certain chilling effect that the media reports that Lowe’s was influenced by this extremist organization if they are true, so that is why we are seeking to investigate and get to the bottom of things.
We have too many companies that are comfortable supporting negative stereotypes on television through their advertisement. We need to have more companies that are principled enough to also invest in positive depictions of diverse communities.
Why do you think companies like Lowe’s are caving to extremist organizations like the Florida Family Association?
That is the type of question that we are seeking to get answered.
The NAACP has a long history of fighting against discrimination, from the Jim Crow Laws to Civil Rights Movement, is the new fight against Islamophobia?
Over a decade ago I was in Hollywood to fight to ensure that on the big screen and on the small screen, in the movies as well as on television, people of color and ethnic minorities are depicted truthfully.
We have supported a range of communities in their struggles to ensure that their communities are depicted truthfully and positively and lead this the way we did with the black community.
There are a lot of Muslims in the black community but beyond the black community the entire Muslim community deserves to be depicted truthfully and respectfully on television.
Representative Keith Ellison, probably one of the only Muslims in congress, said “Corporate America needs to take a stand against these anti-Muslim fringe groups and stand up for what is right because this is what it means to be an American.” Is corporate America at fault when it comes to this?
The corporations need to be courageous and support the right thing. It is just too easy to support the wrong thing.
Whether it is advertising on shows that harden stereotypes about black people or black women, corporations have no problem and I think that is why it raises so many concerns when you see reports that a corporation may have been influenced by an extremist organization to pull ads from a television show that provides a positive depiction.
GlobalGrind started a campaign advocating to tell people if you bought stuff from Lowe’s, go back in and return it and video tape it as long as it is non-violent. Would you advocate customers doing that to Lowe’s?
It is too early for us to call for any specific actions, but we are extremely concerned and are pleased that GlobalGrind and Russell Simmons and the world takes notice of this controversy.
Our contribution is to do what we have been doing for 100 years and that is to get to the bottom of the facts. Once those facts are done we will take the appropriate steps.
With Facebook pages and protests planned all around the country, how do you see this controversy ending?
What history has taught us is that ultimately extremist organizations cannot have influence for long over media and over advertisers.
Their band of supporters is just too small and when other citizens take notice, the tide of public opinion tends to move in the opposite direction. I think what you are seeing right now is that people are taking notice, they’re asking important questions and the balance of power is beginning to shift again in a positive direction.
