The Apprentice: A Discussion of Race
by Marquis Parker

By now, I’m sure that everyone reading this article knows about the outcome of the first installment of NBC’s ground-breaking series, “The Apprentice”. Bill Rancic, an entrepreneur and proprietor of a success online cigar business, won the coveted position as Donald Trump’s apprentice over Kwame Jackson, a Harvard Business School graduate working as an investment manager at Goldman Sachs. Since the beginning, race has been a polarizing factor for many discussions between viewers of the show usually centered on the two African-American cast members.

Kwame Jackson's selection has been under speculation because of his race and Harvard pedigree, and Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth, for her use of race as a crutch and perceived poor representation of African-American women. In the wake of Jackson’s loss to Rancic, I’ve had several discussions about the show and how race may or may not have played a role in several instances this season, such as Jackson’s casting as a contestant and his loss in the final episode. These discussions motivated me to write this article in hopes of spurring on further exploration of the topic.

One of the most heavily debated issues surrounding “The Apprentice” involves Kwame Jackson being a Black man with an MBA from Harvard and whether he was set up to fail by the creators of the show for this fact. The argument for this stance is basically that Mark Burnett (the show’s creator) and the production staff selected Jackson because his HBS pedigree would portray him as one of the “most qualified” African-Americans for this sort of position. It is argued that, if Jackson lost the competition, the HBS brand and reputation would be unharmed because it could be claimed that, as an African-American, he wasn’t the best of the best that Harvard produces and is an example of affirmative action gone wrong. Also, if Jackson lost, it would be a “black eye” for the African-American community because, as one of “the best that the Black community can offer”, it would give the impression that African-Americans are inherently unqualified for upper-level business positions if he weren’t able to come out on top.

I’ve thought long and hard about this theory and I don’t buy it…it just doesn’t make good sense to me. What would Burnett, his staff, Trump, or NBC have to gain by using Jackson to make African-American’s look bad? It would have taken an immense amount of coordination and collusion to make this sort of thing happen and I can’t believe that this could go down without someone finding out about it. Plus, Burnett’s other major show, “Survivor”, has had an African-American contestant win a million dollars in the past, so why would he switch gears regarding race now? The biggest issue that I have with this conspiracy theory is that there is no evidence to support it. It takes more than suspicion to support an idea like this and, without proof, it is nothing more than an unfounded accusation that is good for nothing more than serving as a conversation piece. While I do believe that Jackson’s Harvard MBA had a big role in him being selected for the show, the idea that his race had anything to do with it seems too far-fetched for me to believe. As an African-American man myself, part of me wants to believe that “The Man” rigged the game for Jackson to lose, but the logical side of me just can’t support that line of thought.

Despite Jackson’s loss, I still think he will end up better off in the end for not having won “The Apprentice”. It’s true that Rancic will get a cushy $250,000 job managing a major construction project, but I doubt he’ll have a chance to exhibit his true leadership skills. With all of the money that Trump has tied up into this building project, he will likely micromanage Rancic and treat him as a glorified Executive Assistant for the project. On the other hand, the sky is the limit for Jackson. In the short time since losing to Rancic, Jackson had fielded many fantastic job offers, including an offer to manage investments for billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban which could come with a salary much higher than Rancic’s. In addition to the employment opportunities presented to him, Jackson is planning on venturing into film production and, with the connections that he has made, this should prove to be a very profitable initiative for him. Also, Jackson is planning to create a firm with some of his college friends that invests in Black-owned businesses, so he’ll be able to use his new-found popularity to help people in his own community, as well. Kwame Jackson is on the verge of becoming a superstar in business as a result of the exposure he gained by being a finalist on “The Apprentice”…now, if “The Man” was really trying to hold him down, would he have ever been given this chance to shine in the first place??? I think not.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, the above is intended to spark conversation among readers and is not meant to be the definitive analysis of race in “The Apprentice”. It is purely my own view of things. If what I’ve said has drawn you to comment about the topic at hand, I invite you to leave a comment here or go over to the MBADiversity.com Forum and engage in a discussion with other readers/users. We welcome and encourage all commentary on this matter as a means of expression and learning for all.

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