Media & women's basketball writer for Fanhouse.com
NFL finally comes to on impact of head trauma
9:36 AM on 12/23/2009
OPINION - On October 28, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was slammed about a House Judiciary Committee hearing room like a quarterback facing a blitz....
Freelance filmmaker, writer, blogger and Political Consultant.
Obama and Dems weak-kneed on health care
7:40 AM on 12/22/2009
OPINION - Is the health care bill, as it is, worth the political capital that it has cost the President and the Democratic congress? ...
Co-Director of the Political Participation Group at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Slideshow: 12 key civil rights moments of the decade
10:26 AM on 12/21/2009
OPINION - The first decade of the new century has been marked by incredible triumphs, ongoing challenges, and a number of historic moments......
Author and Finance Professor at Syracuse University
NCAA's educational mission is great scam of 21st century
9:41 AM on 12/21/2009
OPINION - For the NCAA, the educational mission of their professional sports league is one of the great scams of the 20th and 21st centuries, no different from the Ponzi schemes of Bernie Madoff......
Writer for VIBE, Newsday, The Source, Publishers Weekly, and Giant Magazine.
Avatar: A timely message of respect for native people and environment
6:31 AM on 12/21/2009
REVIEW - Avatar is a reminder of the lessons to be learned from indigenous cultures and the respect and honor that must be paid to the environment....
Sports contributor
Chris Henry's missteps don't outshine memories of a good heart
9:01 AM on 12/18/2009
OPINION - In the ego-driven world of professional sports, it says a lot about a player, about man when all of his teammates seem to genuinely share an affinity for him....
Writer
Bankers' bonuses benefit Main Street
7:11 AM on 12/18/2009
OPINION - Amid all the sound and fury generated by banking bonuses, left unspoken are the external benefits that those amounts provide to large states....
Editor of BookerRising.net
China's 'One-Child' laws won't translate for African-American women
8:25 AM on 12/17/2009
OPINION - The adoption of China's one-child policy in the US would have a disproportionately negative impact on women of color....
National Public Education Director for Queers for Economic Justice
Conspiracy theories about HIV do real harm
10:00 AM on 12/16/2009
OPINION - HIV/AIDS conspiracy theories circulate in homes, barber shops, churches, and among activists in the African-American community....
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Black Commentators Speak – 12/23/09
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Dr. Boyce Watkins: Where Eric Holder Needs to Do His Homework
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University
Elliot Millner brought it to my attention that Attorney General Eric Holder has been apparently spending a lot of time with Bill Cosby these days. In a recent speech at a black church in Queens, NY, Holder took a page out of the Barack Obama Campaign Catalog and chose to win favors with the black middle class by recklessly bashing away at absentee fathers and returning to the whole "ya'll just need to grow up and be more responsible" argument that allows any politician to explain away a blatant disregard for meaningful public policy. Rather than talking about things that we can do as a society to take our collective foot off the necks of black men, he chose to say that black men are choosing to put the foot on their own necks.
Elliot Millner, who is also in the legal profession, intelligently said the things that I am sure Eric Holder wanted to say. But unlike Holder, Millner is not constrained by the political shackles that come with being an appointed leader in a society that makes a habit of oppressing, destroying and marginalizing black men.
In his speech, Holder said that, "It should simply be unacceptable for a man to have a child and then not play an integral part in the raising and nurturing of the child."
That quote is a nice way of reflecting on the obvious. It's sort of like saying, "It should be unacceptable for a black man to become the Attorney General of the United States and not play an integral part in helping other black men overcome the blatantly racist and destructive justice system over which you preside."
Monday, December 14, 2009
Has Tiger Been “OJ Simpsonized”
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University, Your Black World
Tiger Woods is a black athlete. He isn't "Caublinasian," mixed or any other ethnicity. He is, officially, a black man - especially after being reduced to being an adulterer who sleeps with porn stars. At least that's what guests on the Joy Behar Show seem to think.
During a recent episode, a guest on the show, Karith Foster, was asked what she thought about Tiger's recent indiscretions. In response to the question, the comedian said (without cracking a smile) that Tiger is "acting like a black athlete now."
I was shocked to hear these words come out of the mouth of any person, let alone an African-American woman. Dr. Deborah Stroman of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was the first person to bring the comments to my attention. She and I both agreed that the statement was an outrageous, irresponsible choice of words, and the host should have challenged her immediately. But Foster's comments might be telling, given that she once relegated herself to being the token black sidekick of a man (Don Imus) famous for referring to black women as "nappy headed hoes." Foster was fired not too long after being hired, which reminds us of the complications that come from making deals with the devil just to keep a job in media.
Needless to say, I was disappointed with Ms. Foster's remarks. I also found it quite ironic that no one went out of their way to compare Woods with other black men when he was the clean cut soldier boy with the billion dollar smile. At that time, he was considered the exception to the rule, something that all of America could easily embrace. Some have decided to associate the "black male" side of Tiger with the seedy character who has emerged over the past two weeks. Such comparisons are insulting to good black men everywhere. At the same time, it should be acknowledged that not every American shares the opinion of Karith Foster.
Let's be clear, Tiger Woods is not seedy, nor is he perfect. In reality, he is simply human. The problem is that we were all led to believe that he was super human, so the Tiger we are seeing today appears sub-human. Tiger Woods was the original Barack Obama, a man who injected hope into the psyches of sports fans everywhere, as we were all inspired to see a man with a brown face whipping the greatest golfers in history. Even to this day, Tiger is usually the only man of color on the golf course, and he is almost always the most dominant.
It will be interesting to see how the world processes Tiger's recent mistakes. It is not inconceivable that Tiger could be "OJ Simpsonized" by this incident, especially if additional dirt is leaked to the public. If you recall, OJ was also an athlete who'd been given permission to spend a significant amount of time with white women before the murder took place. After his trial, however, he was considered to be the most morally depleted man in America.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Students Speak up About Dr. Boyce’s Controversy with Syracuse University
Watkins, a finance professor at SU, is ignored by the administration.
By Naresh Vissa
In January 2007, college student Heather Ellis and her cousin stood in two lines at Wal-Mart. They agreed that the first to reach a register would combine the items for purchase. When the African-American Ellis gave her cousin the groceries, bystanders behind complained that she had cut. After some verbal exchanges, Ellis walked to her car and found the police waiting to arrest her. She tried her best to resist and suffered numerous cuts and bruises in the process.
Today, Ellis should be in medical school. Instead, she has pled guilty to charges of disturbing the peace and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors.
The case was covered by CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, Good Morning America, The Today Show and every major black media outlet in America. Even more importantly, Syracuse University is connected to it, but hasn’t issued any statements. As a producer of two radio shows, I myself find it embarrassing that I discovered Ellis through a press release pitch e-mail I received.
At the forefront of all the outrage is Whitman School of Management Finance Professor Dr. Boyce Watkins, but it’s not getting any attention from SU administrators.
“I’ve come to accept the fact that the University is not appreciative of my work,” Watkins said. “It’s part of their tradition when it comes to progressive black scholars. If I’d learned to sit down and shut up, I might be treated better. Quiet Negroes do quite well in academia.”
Click to read.
