Dr. Boyce Watkins, Scholarship in Action - 6/15/10

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Hey peeps,

Rev. Al Sharpton and I are going to be on MSNBC Thursday morning at 10 am - don't forget that you can also hear us on his radio show every Monday at 1:15 pm EST (SharptonTalk.net).  Also, to all the high school graduates out there, I want to encourage you to do the following:  1) Value education more than anything - it's probably the most important thing you'll ever have (so get as much of it as you can), 2) Pursue your goals relentless - working consistently toward something for 5 - 10 hours a day will always yield results, 3) Think like bosses, not laborers - get a great job, but eventually work to put yourself in a position to create jobs by owning your own business and financial assets,  4) Remember that life is a journey of love - money and career mean very little compared to how you treated the people you care about.  Life is too short to be mediocre - always do your best.

Dr. Boyce

 

Dr. Boyce Video -- What the Hayell? What Is Wrong With T-Pain?

• I don't dislike T-Pain, but I can say that I dislike his music. At that the same time, I can't ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 15th 2010 12:30PM | Comments (0)

Former NBA Star Antoine Walker Faces 12 Years in Prison

• A judge ruled that former NBA star Antoine Walker must stand trial over unpaid gambling debts. ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 14th 2010 11:55PM | Comments (3)

Dr. Boyce Video: Images of the Black Woman in Media and Business

• Today I had the opportunity to speak with four interesting and empowered black women: Michaela ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 14th 2010 6:46PM | Comments (3)

Black Male Sets Trends in Finance: Houston Has More than Rappers

• This week, we've heard plenty about Slim Thug, a rapper out of Houston who is making noise with his ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 14th 2010 4:16PM | Comments (2)

Why the Hip-Hop Industry Doesn't Support Female Artists

• I met spoken-word hip-hop artist Shanelle Walker when I went to give a speech at Kentucky State ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 14th 2010 2:19PM | Comments (5)

Financial Lovemaking: Diddy's Son Gets $360K Car -- Too Much?

• Some of us turned our heads to the side when it was reported that the rapper and businessman Diddy ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 14th 2010 10:34AM | Comments (3)

South African Horns Criticized During World Cup

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What do the Vuvuzelas sound like - are they really that bad?

Posted by Staffat 9:32 PM0 comments

Anita Baker Accused of Butchering the National Anthem

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What do you think? ;

Posted by Staffat 9:23 PM0 comments

Rapper Vigalantee Raps about Black Women

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Check out the new joint by Vigalantee, celebrating the black woman.

Posted by Staffat 9:15 PM0 comments

Did This Officer Just Punch this Black Woman in the Face?  Was this Police Brutality or Resisting Arrest?

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Slim Thug Attempts to Defend His Comments about Black Women

• Many of you may already know about the "interesting" comments made by the rapper Slim Thug, and ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 13th 2010 12:13PM | Comments (10)

NFL Player Reggie Wayne Sues Mistress for Charging Up Credit Card

• NFL star Reggie Wayne is finding out the hard way that giving your credit card number out to anyone ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 13th 2010 10:01AM | Comments (12)

Dr. Boyce: How the Lakers-Celtics Rivalry Saved the NBA Both 30 Years Ago and Today

The NBA finals are not what you think.  You see, you’re watching the finals hoping that either the Lakers or the Celtics win, and wondering whether Kobe Bryant can outscore Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and the army of tall brothers that Boston is flying across the country to conquer Los Angeles.  That is not, my friends, the first thing on the mind NBA Commissioner David Stern.

First of all, Stern is wondering why LeBron James isn’t here.  Most of us expected, to the disdain of every other talented player in the league, that this would be the year that LeBron would take his rightful place on the Post-Jordan throne.  The natural and inevitable coronation of King James was part of the NBA marketing strategy, thus allowing Stern and company to make even bigger money in the Chinese market, where the fans want to see their All Stars become champions.  As we all know, it didn’t happen.

The second thought on Stern’s very sharp mind is that the finals he got this year, a renewal of the historic rivalry between the LA Lakers and Boston Celtics, is just as good, or better than what he would have gotten had King James shown up to play.  You see, there’s history here, and most of the relevant history isn’t about wins and losses on the court.

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NJ Officer Taped Spraying Pepper Spray in Detained Black Man's Face

• I am not quite sure what to make of the ruffled YouTube video that is now scouring the web out of ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 12th 2010 8:40PM | Comments (63)

Brian McKnight Ruled to Have Fathered 14-Yr Old: Owes $341,640: All About Black Daddies

• It appears that the singer Brian McKnight is now a not-so-proud father. Well, the child isn't ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jun 12th 2010 12:53PM | Comments (14)

What does Barack Obama Have in Common with 50 Cent?

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Check out Barack & Curtis, a new documentary by Byron Hurt

Posted by Staffat 12:38 PM0 comments

SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 2010

Paterson NJ Cop Videotaped While Macing a Black Man

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This video is storming the web - a cop in Paterson, NJ is caught on tape macing a black man on the ground. ;

The Age of the Hoochie Mama is Over:  It's Time for Hip Hop to Grow Up

Lil Wayne disrespects women because he's allowed to.

In 2004, the women at Spelman College told the rapper Nelly to take a hike for sliding a credit card through a woman’s backside. The women told Nelly to take his music elsewhere, and his concert was cancelled. I thought that after this incident, women across America would slide their own credit card in the other direction, away from the record stores and websites used to purchase music from artists who make it their mission in life to disrespect black women. I have to admit that I was wrong.

What has always amazed me is the fact that we have trained young people to endure and embrace consistent disrespect from rappers like Slim Thug, who recently stated that white women are a far better choice for relationships, and Lil Wayne, who has done everything in his power to show just how little regard he has for African American females. Wayne even has a song called Alphabet B*tches, which isn’t exactly like the ABCs you learned in preschool. For some reason, we all keep dancing to the beat and showing up for concerts, reminding the artist that freedom of speech is in full effect, no matter how harmful that speech may be. 

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Dr. Boyce Watkins: Talib Kweli Weighs in on Slim Thug's Remarks about Black Women

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University

A note to Slim Thug: You probably just need to be quiet for a while. It's not to say thatyour comments about black women were outside your rights to freedom of speech, but if you keep dissing the audience most likely to go out and buy your records, you are probably going to end up in the same poorhouse as MC Hammer. Don't get me wrong, black men love your music (at least I do), but the bottom line is that brothers don't buy albums, books, or anything else put up for sale. But when black women turn on you, it's a wrap son. Settle down and go back to the studio; it's good for your financial health.
I wrote yesterday about the comments made by Slim Thug regarding how he perceives white women to be a better dating choice than black women, as well asColumbia Professor Marc Lamont Hill'sresponse to Slim Thug's words. It seems that the debate has taken a life of it's own, now that rapper Talib Kweli has joined the conversation. In a recent essay he wrote for Vibe Magazine, Talib Kweli was ever the diplomatic artist, as he showed respect for Slim Thug, but also expressed his own concerns for his colleague's remarks about black women:

Click to read.

To read more about the debate regarding Slim Thug’s comments about black women, click here.

Where Henry Louis Gates Has it Wrong about Slavery

by Dr. Boyce Watkins

Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. recently wrote an interesting piece for the New York Times called, "Ending the Slavery Blame Game." In the piece, Gates effectively argues that the fight for reparations is convoluted and somewhat mitigated by the fact that African elites participated in the slave trade. While describing complex business deals made between some African leadership and the Europeans who brought Africans to the New World, it almost appears as though Gates is saying that this disturbing relationship somehow undermines the right of African-Americans to hold our government accountable for its involvement in crimes committed against our people.

At very least, I am under the assumption that by "ending the slavery blame game," Gates is arguing that we should stop blaming the United States government and white America for the rape, murder, castration, lynching and beating of our ancestors.

Sorry Dr. Gates, but I must respectfully (or perhaps not so respectfully) disagree. If a young girl is sold into prostitution by her own parents, the pimp must still pay for the suffering he caused the young woman. He can't simply say, "Her parents made a deal with me, so you should stop the blame game."

In other words, the United States, as a broad and powerful industrial entity, benefited from slavery to the tune of several trillion dollars. Much of this wealth was passed down from one white man to another, and was always out of the grasp of the black men, women and children who gave their lives on American soil in order to earn it. As a result, the median net worth of the African-American family is roughly one-tenth that of white American families and we have consistently higher unemployment due to our inability to create jobs, since white Americans own most businesses. These facts hold true without regard to how the African-American holocaust started in the first place. They also hold true because wealth and power are commodities that are passed down inter-generationally, and we missed out on all of this because we were slaves. What occurred after we left Africa can and must be considered independently from what happened while our forefathers were in the mother land.

 

 

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Dr. Boyce: Nushawn Williams: Infected Women with HIV - Set to be Released from Prison

by Dr. Boyce Watkins

You may not know the name Nushawn Williams, but it's probably a name you need to know. You would especially want your daughter to know his name, as well as anyone else in the community who has reason to fear a more disturbing style of sexual predator for the new millenium.

Williams is in prison right now for knowingly infecting women with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. His victims were as young as 13 years old, and authorities believe he may have infected as many as 50 women prior to going to state prison in 1998. Police are working to keep Williams behind bars because they fear what might happen if he is released to the American public.
"He is prone to further sexual contact with underage individuals because of deficits in his emotional capacity to understand why this is wrong and attitudes that support these types of exploitive encounters. His emotional callousness, lack of remorse and impulsivity undermine important internal mechanisms for managing his sexual behavior," said examiner Jacob E. Hadden from the New York State Office of Mental Health. Authorities have determined that Williams suffers from a mental health abnormality that makes him incapable of understanding why his actions are wrong or harmful.

The possible release of Williams reminds us of the urgency of managing the public health alarm called HIV infection. African Americans are taking the lead in HIV infection rates, and what is also true is that the experience in our community is nothing less than a precursor to what is eventually going to happen all throughout America. What is most frightening about the case of Nushawn Williams is that he is probably not the only person deliberately spreading the disease: there are likely women and other men doing the same thing. To make matters worse, there are many in our community (and others) who are being incredibly irresponsible with their sexual behavior and infecting scores of people in the process.

As I felt empathy for celebrities like Magic Johnson and Eazy-E for their battles with HIV/AIDS, I wondered how many of us thought about the long list of partners they infected before finally getting their own positive test results. Did you ever think about the fact that many of those people are out in the community right now, quite a few of whom may have taken years to become aware of their HIV positive status? This is scary indeed, so the truth is that to protect yourself from the silent community killer, a general strategy of protection must be put into play.

 

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Dr. Boyce: The Financial Value of Rihanna’s Pain

by Dr. Boyce Watkins 

I hated what Chris Brown did to Rihanna. I was angered, disappointed and irritated by the fact that many are quick to forgive egregious behavior on the part of celebrities, and a hit song can forgive all sins. At the same time, celebs are just like the rest of us, full of complexities that the world may never come to understand. Rihanna has walked away from Chris and she is now telling the entire world how bad of a man he is, and we're all taking her side.

The problem for Rihanna, however, is that her actions aren't making much sense.

Rihanna's recent whirlwind media tour has included the likes of ABC News, MTV and other major media outlets. Throughout this tour, she has allowed the world to enter into her dark reflection on the relationship she had with Chris Brown, with that reflection seeming to have almost no productive purpose. I am not sure why the he-say/she-say between two 19-year old kids should be the concern of the nation. But then again, I am sitting here writing about it, so I am as guilty as everyone else.

 

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Boyce Watkins on The Wendy Williams Experience

Dr Boyce Watkins
www.BoyceWatkins.com

I had a relatively awkward experience this weekend during a trip to New York. I was invited to appear with my friend Wendy Williams, host of The Wendy Williams Experience. You never know where the conversation is going when it comes to Wendy, so you have to be prepared for anything. She is, however, one of the most professional hosts I work with, and her 11 million listeners give her the right to call herself the Queen of Urban Radio. She asked me why I parted ways with my ex-fiance (an amazing woman for whom I have tremendous respect), the election of Barack Obama, my feud with the socio-political terrorist known as Bill O'Reilly, the financial crisis and everything else.

Most interesting was that she asked me about DL Hughley's new CNN show, which I've been quite vocal about lately. I don't hate DL, but I feel strongly that the nature and structure of his new CNN show are quite problematic. My disappointment with DL began 2 years ago during the Don Imus scandal, during which he agreed (on Jay Leno) that the educated women on the Rutgers University Basketball team really WERE a "pack of nappy headed hoes."

Sorry DL, but that's not cool.

What made the situation on Wendy's show funniest, however, was the fact that DL was scheduled to be the next guest on the show after me! Wendy joked, "Dr Boyce, we have to get you out of here because if DL sees you, he might want to punch you in the face." But apparently DL doesn't realize that I am actually the second cousin of Muhammad Ali! I was hoping we would not have to take it to the street!

I thought I would see DL in the lobby, but he was not there yet. It was probably best that way, since I stand by every word. Cooning is cooning, and we don't need an Obama presidency reduced to a minstrel show. I encourage DL to be more responsible.

Respect to everyone reading. If you wish to listen to the show, the link is above and also at my personal blog: www.drboycespeaks.blogspot.com. Also, thousands of you are choosing to "get your money in line for 2009" by joining the Dr. Boyce Finance group for money advice. Please feel free to share this with your friends.

Boyce
www.BoyceWatkins.com