STATEMENT FROM JOURNALIST AND ACTIVIST RAQUEL WILLIS ON NABJ AND TRUMP

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 31, 2024

Monday night, I learned with the rest of the world that the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) was hosting former president Donald Trump in a “special conversation” at their annual conference. The kicker was that Trump’s scheduled event would overlap with my time on the Author Stage. I learned about this less than 12 hours before my flight to Chicago.

I was confused. I was disgusted. And I was enraged.

Moments before, I’d been excited to join the organization’s Author Stage in conversation with a dear friend and former colleague, Tre’vell Anderson. I’d previously spoken on panels at the conference, primarily led by the NABJ LGBTQ+ Task Force. But this was slated to be a more substantial moment to discuss my memoir, The Risk It Takes to Bloom: On Life and Liberation. And, of course, it’s rare to have a moment of candid queer and trans brilliance at an organization that tends to lean more socially conservative, respectable, and cisheterocentric.

I tried to bargain with the news of Trump’s appearance. I thought, “Maybe it’ll be fine,” and “Maybe folks will attend anyway.” But ever since that moment, the decision of NABJ executive leadership to platform one of the most dangerous and despicable political figures in modern history hasn’t sat well with me.

Until Tuesday evening, my team and I thought the scheduled time slot was still on the books. However, NABJ event organizers urgently requested that we reschedule my discussion. First, they suggested moving it an hour earlier, then decided to move it later in the day. These changes have impacted numerous Black journalists and their sessions; some even canceled. 

After much deliberation and discussion with my team and close contacts, I’ve decided I can’t, in good conscience, move forward with this event or attend the 2024 NABJ Conference. I will be boycotting the organization until there is true accountability from NABJ executive leadership on this decision.

Donald Trump is a known quantity, as a former President who has wreaked particular havoc on communities on the margins and our democracy for years. There is no vetting him. He is a fraudster. He is a white supremacist. He is a misogynist. He is an insurrectionist. He is a sexual abuser. He is a bigot. And he has been especially anti-truth and anti-journalism since his political ascendance.

The old guard of the journalism industry can not continue to act like we live in “business as usual” times. Trump has banked on “bothsideism” and “neutrality” for far too long, and it’s disappointing that a Black-led and Black-serving organization is legitimizing him and rehabilitating his image under these guises. We have to wonder if NABJ’s leadership has learned nothing from the last eight years of Trump media coverage.

Without moral clarity, all journalists fail. “This is just my job” is an insufficient response to the growing threat of fascism and existing systems of oppression. When we don’t forcefully expose and rebuke white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy, capitalism, and careerism, we feed them. The power and access NABJ leadership seeks by platforming Trump has already come back to bite, but it’ll undoubtedly do so even more in the future.

I extend grace to all of the NABJ members deciding how they will engage with the organization moving forward. And, of course, I stand in solidarity with all of the Chicago activists and organizers on-the-ground protesting Trump’s presence on their turf and in politics.

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For further comment or other inquiries contact mgmt@raquelwillis.com.

A Georgia Peach in the Big Apple

Hi there,

A few weeks ago I announced that I’d be moving to NYC after two years in Oakland. I couldn’t share the reason then, but I am thrilled to do so now. I am the new Executive Editor at OUT Magazine.

As many of you know, my background is in media and journalism and a significant portion of my early career I worked as a news reporter at The Walton Tribune, a small newspaper in rural Georgia. It was there that I had my first professional opportunity to tap into my love of storytelling and amplifying voices. I covered everything from a 9-year-old girl who overcame leukemia to a person living with HIV who had to remain anonymous for fear of stigma in a rural town to thrill and fear of a conservative county hosting its first drag show. During that time, I also had to learn what it felt like to be stealth and not share my truth and identity for the first time since I was a child.

After leaving that job and finding community and a truer calling in Atlanta, I began to live more authentically than ever before. I traded in my notepad for a laptop and began work as a digital publisher for the nerdy online platform, HowStuffWorks. Though there was little that excited me about that particular job, it’s disconnection from identity and what was happening in the world deeply uncovered some major priorities for me. I had found nourishment for my social justice heart in Atlanta’s Black LGBTQ community I worked alongside Black trans sex workers boldly demanding the police to stop profiling them, young organizers calling for an end to police brutality and queer and trans folks of color building cultural events to celebrate that specific intersection of being a Southern iced-tea sippin’, fried food-eating queer. This was also the time that I began to be more vocal online. Starting with Tumblr and then later discovering a deeper affinity for Twitter.

As the murders of my Black trans sisters began to increase, public discourse began to fire up around trans and gender nonconforming folks and bigoted threats became fiercer for the many communities I’m a part of, I felt called to working in a new capacity in the larger Movement for Liberation. This is where my last two powerful and impactful years at Transgender Law Center comes in. I came in doing communications and left with a deeper grasp of the power of community organizing. I feel forever indebted to the TGNC folks fighting in every corner of the country and the Black organizers drafting a new dream for our people and the powerful women of color who are experiencing a surge of power and confidence like never before. It is with such a heavy heart that I say goodbye to my comrades in that particular space.

Don’t fret, my organizing work doesn’t end with leaving my official capacity at Transgender Law Center. In fact, I will continue on leading a project that I developed in collaboration with Black trans women in the South and Midwest. Black Trans Circles will continue to create spaces for healing and redemption for Black trans women in New Orleans, Houston and Columbus, OH. As well, I feel forever committed to the work on-the-ground and I’m excited to have a chance to elevate the people, experiences and stories that I have encountered over the years and discover many more. I see my continued work in media as cultural organizing and I’m committed to continue elevating marginalized voices. Thanks for supporting me on this journey so far. There’s so much more to come!

Much love,

Raquel