It's Time for Hip Hop to Grow Up - Dr. Boyce

The age of the Hoochie Mama is over

by Dr. Boyce Watkins | TheLoop21 in Culture & Society

It's time for hip hop, and its audience, to grow up.

read more

Myron Rolle Told He's Too Smart for the NFL

by Dr. Boyce Watkins

 

You would think that Myron Rolle, the NFL super-stud who also happens to be a Rhodes Scholar, would be the kind of man who makes us proud. You would expect that his status as being the man who represents the future of the black athlete in America would make the NFL happy to have him on the roster of one of their teams. Not only is Rolle brilliant, but he is also tough as nails and fast as lightning. The man has the whole package.
But at least according to some NFL coaches, Rolle may not be committed enough to be a part of their league.
"We'll have to find out how committed he is," an NFC assistant coach said, repeating the sentiment of five other NFL officials who said the same thing.

Click to read

The FAMU Sex Tape May be a Big Ol Lie

Read more about DR. BOYCE: The FAMU Sex Tape May Be A Big Ol’ Lie

TAGS: FAMU, HBCUs, sex scandals

 

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Brought to you by The Great Black Speakers Bureau, the top black speakers bureau in the world andYour Black World where you can get black news and black social commentary from Dr. Boyce Watkinsand other leading black scholars.

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Dr. Boyce on AOL - 1/23/10

The Latest

Beyonce and Jay-Z Dominate The Richest Couples List

• Jay-Z and Beyonce go beyond the definition of a power couple. They might as well be called "Super ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 22nd 2010 12:21PM | Comments (3)

Haitian Earthquake Kills Two Leaders of Women's Movement

• The Haitian earthquake has killed thousands, and we have spent the week mourning loss with the ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 22nd 2010 7:44AM | Comments (2)

Beyonce, Madonna Added to Haiti Relief in Big Concert

• Beyonce and Madonna have been added to a long list of performers for the "Hope for Haiti Now" ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 21st 2010 3:16PM | Comments (1)

Wyclef Jean Did Not Misuse Yele Haiti Funds, Experts Say

• Wyclef Jean has been backpedaling faster than an NFL defensive back lately, defending allegations ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 21st 2010 2:05PM | Comments (11)

Clark Atlanta University Accused of Fraudulently Violating Rights of Faculty Members

• The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has written a scathing report about ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 21st 2010 10:41AM | Comments (3)

NAACP Embezzlement Case Leads to Charges Being Filed

• A former executive for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 21st 2010 9:04AM | Comments (8)

Report: Economically, Men Benefit More from Marriage Than Women

• A new report says that men are now benefiting from marriage more than women. According to the Pew ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 20th 2010 10:12AM | Comments (10)

Barack Obama is No Martin Luther King: Let's Figure Out the Difference

• President Barack Obama ran one of the most amazing presidential campaigns in the history of the ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 19th 2010 6:02AM | Comments (33)

Haitian Violence Slows Aid Process: Death Toll Higher than Expected

• Relief workers are stating that pockets of violence in Haiti are making it difficult for aid to be ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 19th 2010 5:44AM | Comments (1)

Wyclef Jean Gets Questioned on Use of Yele Haiti Funds

• Millions across America have seen the attacks on Wyclef Jean's "Yele Haiti" fund, designed to help ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 18th 2010 8:49AM | Comments (21)

Kelis Holds Nas in Contempt for Non-Payment of Child Support

• The rapper Nas is having some trouble in child support court, as his ex-wife Kelis has held him in ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 17th 2010 12:52PM | Comments (9)

US Insurers Have Very Little Exposure to Haitian Earthquake

• The devastation of the recent earthquake in Haiti is not only an emotional challenge for those ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 14th 2010 9:05AM | Comments (1)

Rush Limbaugh says Negroes Served Ted Kennedy Booze

• Radio show host Rush Limbaugh is at it again. The other day, in response to the recent flap over ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 14th 2010 12:50AM | Comments (145)

Morehouse Whiz Kid is Causing a Stir: 13-Year-Old Dominates College

• At thirteen years of age, Stephen Stafford is causing quite a stir at Morehouse College. Stafford ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 13th 2010 7:45PM | Comments (442)

Michael Eric Dyson: Obama 'Runs from Race Like a Black Man Runs from a Cop'

• Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson criticized President Barack Obama for avoiding ... Read More
• By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Jan 13th 2010 1:02PM | Comments (197)

The Campus Accountability Project (CAP)

To sign up for the Your Black World Coalition, please visit www.YourBlackWorld.com.

Dr. Boyce Watkins

www.BoyceWatkins.com

Hello to the Your Black World Family,

Think for one second and ask yourself:  How many Black professors did you have in college outside of those who taught African American studies?  Have you ever wondered why other students get to have professors who look like them, but Black people don't expect to have that same right?  Imagine how much more comfortable your college experience would have been if you'd had a few more professors who looked like you.  That is what I am here to discuss.

I am working in conjunction with the National Action Network on "The Campus Accountability Project."  The goal of this initiative (which is going to last for no less than 10 years) is to directly confront the fact that most American campuses (HBCUs included) have a horrifically low representation of African American faculty, especially at the tenure level.  As we know, America has a very twisted history when it comes to diversity and treatment of people of color, and this history shows itself in the present every single day.  I remember being personally frustrated during my collegiate experience, given that I attended 4 years of college and another 7 years of graduate school without having ONE SINGLE AFRICAN AMERICAN PROFESSOR in any department, in any class, at any time.

This is WRONG and our students should not be forced to attend college within the confines of such an uncomfortable reality.  Personally, the experience can be traumatizing for our children and obviously leads to high drop out rates of Black college students. The acceptance of this way of life relegates Black people to second class citizenship status in many of America's colleges and universities. Our children deserve better than this.

So, rather than just complaining about it, we are going to do something about it.  We are engaging in a national campaign for campus accountability, to encourage campuses to become more diverse.  We plan to conduct a series of meetings with university leadership, state legislators, legal counsel and community activists to ensure that our voices are heard.

The ideology is very simple: Diversity matters and campuses are ignoring it.  Additionally, diversity should not be laced with cosmetic tokenism, athletic scholarships and polite little King Day Celebrations.  It should be about respecting diverse ideas and ending the academic imperialism which disrespects Black scholarship and Black students, putting the needs of the African American community solely on the back burner.  Black athletes give nearly a billion dollars a year to the NCAA on the football fields and basketball courts; well, it's about time we start to get a return on our investment.

If you believe in this cause, I hope you will forward this email to as many people as you can.  This affects any American wishing to go to college (even if you didn't graduate), those who went to college and those who have children that they expect to send to college (which should be all of us, since education is crucial for success in this economy).  I personally plan to push this initiative at least until the year 2020, and I believe that by engaging in firm, direct and aggressive action, we can make a tremendous difference on this issue. 

There is a role for everyone here, since we are all hurt and affected by this problem.  So, I encourage you to call your own campuses and alma maters and hold them accountable.  IT IS NOT NORMAL for you to never be allowed to learn from a Black Professor.  We deserve the same privileges received by the White students, and universities must be pressed to explain why there are tens of thousands of qualified Black professors that they reject for hire or promotion every year.  Some will try to tell you that they can't find qualified minorities to hire, but that's simply a lie.  The problem is that the powers that be tend to believe that those who are different are inferior, which is reflective of the White Supremacist foundation of the decision-making infrastructure of most American campuses (notice there were no Black people on most of these campuses for the first 80 - 100 years of operation.  When Black people arrived, they certainly had no decision-making rights).  There's no point in tap dancing around the issues and change will only be made if we are willing to fight for it. 

Below, there is a very short survey to help us collect data on your college experience.  It will only take 1 minute to fill out (it's very short) and it sorts you into HBCU and non-HBCU categories for the 4 questions provided.  We also ask that you join the Campus Accountability Project to help us make America's campuses into trust worthy incubators of Black intellectual development.  We know that a mind is a terrible thing to waste, but brilliant Black minds will always be wasted without the presence of high quality Black mentorship.  Had I not met Dr. Tommy Whittler (the only Black professor in the entire Business School at The University of Kentucky), I never would have become a professor.

To fill out the survey, please click here.  To sign up to join the Campus Accountability Project, please click here.

Be blessed, be strong and be intelligent.  DO NOT spend one second being afraid.  Life is too short for that.

Sincerely,

Dr Boyce Watkins

Syracuse University, Your Black World

The Latest from Dr Boyce Watkins on AOL Black Voices

Pregnant 12-Year-Old Found: Father Accused of Incest

• A few weeks ago, we reported on the story of two sisters, one of them a pregnant 12-year-old, who ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in BV Black Spin | Comments (21)

Eddie Griffin: Going for Broke - and Getting There

• I had a lot of fun watching the new Vh-1 show, "Going for Broke," starring comedian Eddie Griffin. ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in BV on Money | Comments (21)

Dr. Boyce and Keith Murphy Discuss Economic Empowerment

• In this interview below with the great radio legend Keith Murphy, we discuss the power of high ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in BV on Money | Comments (0)

What Do Obama's Death Threats Say About America?

• What do you make of the chaotic environment surrounding President Barack Obama? In the CNN ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in BV Black Spin | Comments (8)

Dr. Boyce Money: Lost Your Job? Senators Might Help You

• The Senate has been mingling with the idea of extending jobless benefits for those who've lost ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in BV on Money | Comments (1)

Is the Swine Flu Scare Nothing But Hype?

• Swine flu season is coming and the world is ducking for cover. Media coverage of this phenomenon ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in Black Voices Insurance | Comments (0)

Dr Boyce Money: Five Ways to Know You are a Credit Card Crackhead

• Sometimes your finances can get so out of whack that you can only laugh in order to keep from ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in BV on Money | Comments (0)

DC Budget Cuts Can't Overcome a Mother's Love

• My mother gave birth to me when she was 17-years old. As a teen mother who didn't have a lot of ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in BV on Money | Comments (1)

Judge on Trial for Allegedly Sodomizing, Spanking Inmates

• Alabama Judge Herman Thomas has a problem. The Mobile County Circuit Judge was accused of checking ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in BV Black Spin | Comments (30)

Dr. Boyce Money: Is a Lack of Sex Grounds for Divorce?

• I live in New York, so I get the chance to meet a lot of interesting cab drivers. I love listening ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in BV on Money | Comments (14)

Think Nike's Done With Michael Vick? Think Again

• I was excited to hear that Nike signed Michael Vick again after his dogfighting ordeal. You can ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in BV Black Spin | Comments (7)

Are Prescription Drugs America's New Addiction?

• Most of us think that drugs which come out of a legal manufacturer are going to be safer than those ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in Black Voices Insurance | Comments (6)

Financial Lovemaking: Managing "Baby Mama Drama"

• Most of us know about "baby mama drama," since some of that drama may occur within your own home. ... Read More
• Posted by Boyce Watkins, PhD in BV on Money | Comments (2)

College News: Is College Worth the Cost?

from the Daily Orange – Syracuse University

No Easy Decision: Higher Education Requires High Contemplation
With the economy just now taking steps to recover from a recession that caused millions of jobs to be lost, the four words, "was it worth it?" have likely been uttered by thousands of debt-ridden college graduates.

According to collegeboard.com, the average yearly cost of tuition and fees at a four-year public college for the 2008-09 year was $6,585, while private schools cost an average of $25,143. The Syracuse University Web site lists its tuition for 2009-10 as $33,630, with its total cost of attendance reaching an estimated $50,100.

Four years later, does this $200,000 expense, whether the financial resources come from family, 40-hour workweeks or loans, guarantee a high-paying job?
As a student with hopes of getting a job whose success I can parlay into a long and happy career, I find college to be extremely important and value the opportunities it has given me. However, I strongly disagree with the notion that college is right for everyone.

 

Click to read.

U. Michigan and the “Optional” Practices

by Dr. Boyce Watkins 

The University of Michigan football team has a storied tradition when it comes to winning. The program is equally storied when it comes to making money by putting athletes on the field no matter what. This football factory rivals the other bastion of athletic exploitation down the road: my alma mater, The Ohio State University.

It was recently unearthed that The University of Michigan has been using "optional" practices as a way to push athletes against their will. Players and their families have reported that any athlete who doesn't attend the "optional" practices has a strong likelihood of being punished by the team.

I have just one question: why is anyone surprised? The only thing surprising to me about the University of Michigan case is that someone is actually willing to testify against the university. I am simply stunned that the players are bold enough to stand up for their rights in light of the fact that there are extreme penalties for athletes who have the audacity to think for themselves.

For college athletes, loyalty to the NCAA is not a choice. The officials who run college sports serve as the judge, jury and executioner in all cases related to athletic conduct. Like Michael Vick's pit bulls, athletes within the NCAAsystem are domesticated, indoctrinated and brainwashed from the minute they set foot on a college campus.

The same way that many major retailers look the other way when five year olds are employed in third-world factories, the NCAA doesn't do a very good job of enforcing the standards within its very own rulebooks. The only standards that seem to be applied strictly are those that keep the athletes and their families away from the multi-billion dollar revenue-generating machine that pays for the massive salaries of college football coaches. This is nothing less than a slap in the face to the players and their families, who give so much on the field.

 

Click to read.

Howard University Responds to Student Demands

In an effort to address the student demands raised during the Sept. 4 protest , President Sidney A. Ribeau and Interim Provost and Chief Academic Officer Alvin Thornton sat down  with The Hilltop to go through each presented demand.

Howard University President Sidney A. Ribeau

Demand:  Hours of the  Financial Aid office should be immediately extended until 7 p.m. until the set purge date with staff (i.e. certified financial aid officers and managers) in place to render quality customer service and to serve the unusually large number of students who have yet to be validated.

Response: “That’s something that I agree with and will, in fact, do,” Ribeau said.

Thornton said even before students raised the concern, this issue was a priority. He said that the office will be open from 8:30 a.m. until 7 p.m. until the set purge date. He said additional staff people will be needed, but they have agreed to move a substantial part of the operation back to the Amour J. Blackburn Center. Ribeau said this move will be completed by Friday. “It’s not easy, but that’s what we’re going to do.”

Demand: 24-hour, 7-day a week access to the Undergraduate Library and Founders Library, as well as significant capital improvements and renovations to Founders Library and Undergraduate Library.

Click to read more.

Dr Boyce in the New York Times

What kind of returns do you expect on your educational investment?

A National Public Radio segment on Tuesday, titled “Is a College Education Worth the Debt?” questioned the necessity of a college degree in an economic downturn.

Korva Coleman asked her guests, two college professors and one graduate student, “If college education doesn’t always get you a job, but it almost always gets you in debt, is it worth going to college?”

Update | 2:06 p.m. (My colleague, David Leonhardt, offers his own answer to this question in his blog, Economix. In fact, he points out, “the gap between the pay of college graduates and everyone else has reached an all-time high, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.”)

Richard Vedder, a professor of economics at Ohio University, took the view that college isn’t necessarily worth the cost. “I think some kids are going to college that probably shouldn’t go to college,” he said. He spoke with a scientific concern for the oversupply of college graduates, which, he said, currently outstrips demand.

“We are starting to graduate, I don’t want to say too many students, but it’s becoming more and more difficult for new college graduates to get jobs, independent of the recession.”

Click to read.

Dr Boyce supports Howard Student Protests

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University

Howard University has a problem. Apparently, the school's students have taken lessons on freedom of speech to heart and actually believe they have a voice in running the campus. That problem is magnified by the fact that they are finally speaking up on issues of mismanagement and incompetence that plague many universities around the nation, particularly Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

We all know that HBCUs can be amazing places to get an education. But we also know that many HBCUs are as slow as molasses when it comes to adopting the necessary administrative adjustments to keep up with the demands of college students. We also know that many HBCUs are not even hiring very many black professors, particularly in business and the sciences (Howard University is one of them). Not having the funds to engage in sound administrative policy is almost understandable. But ignoring calls for appropriate change because it undermines your quest to maintain power....well, that just makes you a black version of the Bush Administration.

Click to read.

Diddy Weighs in to Support Howard University Student Protests

Diddy has tweeted his way into the fold of the protests going on with students at Howard University regarding problems in delayed financial aid.  Here is a sample of what he has released:

 "NO JUSTICE! NO PEACE!!! Let me know if yall need me to come down there yall! I got yall BACK! Let's go!!!"
And just to be clear he's not encouraging violence, Diddy then wrote, "Do what we did and take IT OVER!!!! Let's go! And do it in a peaceful way but DO IT!! ... If your at HU go to the A building now and make sure they feel you!!! And send me updates!!! Let's go!"

The President Declares National HBCU Week

by DANIELLE CANADA September 3, 2009, 10:36am

HBCU Alumni will be thrilled to learn that the week of August 30 through September 5, 2009 is officially National HBCU Week. The White House released a proclamation from the President officiating the week and praising HBCUS for spawning some of America's most notorious Black leaders.

“For more than 140 years, HBCUs have released the power of knowledge to countless Americans. Graduates of HBCUs have gone on to shape the course of American history-from W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, to Langston Hughes and Thurgood Marshall. Today, in twenty States, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin_Islands, these colleges and universities are serving hundreds of thousands of students from every background and have contributed to the expansion of the African American middle class, to the growth of local communities, and to our Nation's overall economy…”

Click to read.

Dr Boyce to Keynote the National Black Graduate Student Conference

Dr Boyce Watkins will be the keynote speaker at the 2009 National Black Graduate Student Association Conference, to be held in Houston Texas March 11 - 15. The theme for this year's conference is “Engaged. Empowered. Expect It.”
NBGSA is a non-profit, student-run organization dedicated to encouraging the high-quality achievement of African-American students through academic, professional, and social programs.

Technorati Tags: black scholars,african american scholars

Chris Brown and Rihanna Back Together: What We Need to Understand

 

By Dr. Boyce Watkins

www.BoyceWatkins.com

Forgive me for diving into the crazy world of pop culture, but the fact that Chris Brown and Rihanna are a couple again is something on which I had to comment. I am not speaking on the issue because I love Chris Brown or Rihanna’s music (they are ok). I am commenting because young people need to have a serious conversation about relationships and domestic violence.

Here’s the deal: I don’t know exactly what Chris Brown did and did not do. From the picture I saw and police reports, it appears that he may have done some serious damage to Rihanna’s face. Again, I am not convicting Chris Brown and I am not pretending to know if he is a bad human being. In fact, Chris Brown could very easily be a good man who did a very bad thing. But if he did do this damage to Rihanna, then he should pay a price for his actions.

But it appears that Chris won’t be paying a price, since Rihanna does not seem to be interested in pressing charges. Rihanna’s actions are nothing new: Every day, across America, women are beaten to a pulp by their boyfriends (roughly 13,000 incidents per day are reported to police), and then choose to excuse their inexcusable behavior. The prosecutor prepares a solid case that will send the guy packing for years, and the case falls through because the woman chooses not to press charges. So, as extraordinary as Rihanna might be as a performer, her behavior is actually quite ordinary.

Chris Brown, if he was the cause of the facial damage shown on pictures released to the media, needs serious counseling. He needs to learn that growing up watching your father beat your mother (as Chris admitted on the Tyra Banks show) may establish a destructive social norm, thus making you believe that violence is appropriate in male/female relationships. He also needs to learn about the serious consequences for brothers who choose to beat up on their partners. Even if Rihanna is crazy, provocative or evil, you have no business laying your hands on a woman. Not only is violence wrong, but it will land you in a criminal justice system that destroys the lives of young black men every day. I understand young people making mistakes (I’ve made far too many to count), but you must learn from those mistakes, and we are not doing young people any favors by pretending that this didn’t happen.

Rihanna needs her own counselor. She needs one that will give her and other young women the self-esteem to realize that there are few genuine excuses for a man to put his hands on you. She needs to have someone who truly understands where all this is going, to make her realize that no matter how cute he is, how popular, how rich, or how charming, a man like this can eventually kill you. You don’t know domestic violence until you’ve seen DEATH. It starts innocently enough, and eventually escalates to the point that someone is in the morgue. Any self-respecting adult should, in my humble opinion, refuse to sit idly to the side and allow your teenager to ponder reasons that Chris Brown should have hit Rihanna. No, he should not have done this, and I encourage Chris to make sure he sends the same message.

Old people can be obnoxious. We pee on the parades of young love by writing articles like the one I am writing right now. I hate doing this, but I have my reasons. My friend, a professor in Florida, died at the hands of her husband, who then killed himself and left her two young children without parents. This happens every day, and most of these cases start out like the situation between Chris Brown and Rihanna. In fact, your daughter, friend, sister, mother or cousin may have that lovable boyfriend who only shows peeks and hints of violent behavior, but just enough that your gut is telling you that something isn’t quite right. Listen to your instincts, for they’re trying to tell you something. Love should not end with anybody getting punched. Domestic violence is not a silent killer…..it usually warns you all along the way. Whether you choose to listen is up to you.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Finance Professor at Syracuse University and author of “What if George Bush were a Black Man?” For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com.

More commentary from Dr. Boyce: Why Chris Brown was Dead Wrong in the Rihanna Situation.

Technorati Tags: chris brown,chris brown and rihanna,rihanna,black news,african american news,black social commentary

Boyce Watkins, Donnie Deutsch, and badsports.com

Friends, These Are the Reasons I Am Boycotting NCAA

By Dr. Boyce Watkins
http://www.boycewatkins.com/

Last year, I engaged in a short campaign on CNN, CBS Sports, ESPN and the LA Times to highlight major problems with “big time” college athletics. It is not my goal to anger anyone, but rather, to share what I have seen in my 15 years teaching at universities with major athletics programs. As a finance professor, I find the financial problems of the NCAA to be borderline criminal. As an educator, I find the educational mission of the NCAA to be fraudulent. As a black man who has seen what the NCAA does to the black community, I find myself simply offended.

The NCAA is in possession of an 11-year, $6 Billion Dollar contract for the rights to air March Madness. This does not include hundreds of millions of dollars earned each year from bowl games, regular season games, merchandizing agreements and concessions. Coaches earn as much as $4 Million dollars per year, while the players and their families, many of whom come from poverty, earn almost nothing. Coaches are allowed to jump from job to job, going to the highest bidder, while players who transfer lose a year of eligibility. Coaches and administrators earn millions from excessive commercialization of player images, while a player is not allowed to earn a penny from his/her own image. This does not include the fact that many institutions will praise and promote a winning coach with low graduation rates and quickly fire coaches with low winning percentages and high graduation rates.

I have witnessed students being taken out of class for an entire week to play in a nationally-televised football or basketball game, with academics (and the fact that the student’s grade has been jeopardized) becoming an afterthought. Players are treated like professional athletes, not students, and a weak performance on the field will cause them to lose their scholarship. Any institution operating as a government-sanctioned cartel, riddled with hypocrisy, disproportionate and exploitative compensation schemes, and glaring disregard for educational values should be scrutinized more carefully. Earning money is a wonderful thing, but I am not sure why coaches and administrators are allowed to earn billions each year from the labor of players with mothers who can’t pay the rent. I know how much tuition costs, and it is miniscule compared to the amount of money players generate for their coaches and universities. I say pay the players a fair salary, let them negotiate their own contracts and shoe deals, and then allow them to pay their own tuition.

If you believe in fairness for these young men and women, I hope you will consider joining our coalition to boycott the NCAA and March Madness.

I am not trying to "shake the ground" with these statements. I am simply asking for fairness. One star player (whose coach received millions in bonuses) saw his brother shot and killed in a housing project because his mother was too poor to move to a better neighborhood. Another player took money from a booster to help his family pay the rent, and then saw his scholarship taken away. I saw a player’s mother forced to beg her church to help her get to the Final Four to see her son play, while the coach’s family received first class accommodations. Another player was paralyzed from the neck down in a college football game and subsequently denied health and life insurance benefits from the NCAA. I feel this is wrong.

If you don’t agree with me, I understand. But as a professor, financial expert and a human being, I cannot remain silent on such an injustice. Some don’t feel the athletes deserve anything better than what they already get. We all must agree that basketball games don’t happen without basketball players, so if a game earns millions in revenue, then the basketball player is more deserving of this revenue than the coach. If that doesn’t make sense, then I’m sorry.
I hope you’ll join me in this effort.

With complete respect and sincerity,

Dr. Boyce Watkins

Syracuse University
http://www.boycewatkins.com/

ps.

Q&A On the NCAA:

1) If the athletes don’t like the system, then why don’t they just do something else?

The problem is that the NCAA is allowed to operate as a Cartel. Effectively, this implies that all of the schools exist under the same umbrella and make price-fixing agreements that keep players from having any other options. North Carolina, Duke, The University of Kentucky and other NCAA schools all agree that none of them are allowed to pay the players for their services (other than the scholarship). This sort of operating behavior is illegal in nearly every other industry, because the source of labor then has no bargaining power. Going to the NBA is not an option for most of the players, so there isn’t much else they can do.

2) What are you asking for in all this? Some sort of special treatment for athletes?

No. I am simply asking that they have a free market. Many rules are put in place alleging to “protect” the athletes. The problem is that many exploitative regimes throughout history have used protection as a cover for self-interest (i.e. The War on Terror and the Patriot Act). The truth is that many restrictions placed on players exist to simply control the athlete and to ensure that the administrators don’t have to share the revenue. Schools should never be “forced” to pay the players. I am saying that we should not force schools to allow multi-million dollar players’ families to remain in poverty. Just let the market work, the same way it does in the rest of America. If a player has no value, then he/she will not be paid. But if the school can earn $15 million dollars from a player’s ability, then his family should get some of that money, not just the coach and the administrators. Remember: When money comes in the door…..SOMEONE IS ALWAYS GETTING PAID. I believe that the person doing the work should get a substantial percentage of the revenue generated from that work. It’s really that simple.

3) Are you against the NCAA making money?

Absolutely not! I am a Finance Professor and a Capitalist. I appreciate good business when I see it. I think that the NCAA should simply make a choice: either go completely professional or completely amateur. You can’t operate as a professional organization while signing billion dollar TV deals and then become a non-profit amateur organization when it comes time to reward the players who are actually doing the work. I am in favor of the NCAA either paying everyone according to the fair market value they can negotiate, or NOT PAYING ANYONE. Non-payment, a more socialist model that the NCAA claims to promote, would imply that no coach earns more than (say) $70,000 per year. Every coach with low graduation rates would be fired, and players would not be allowed to miss class to play in a game. In other words, the players would come to college to actually get an education, not to simply play sports.

4) Isn’t a scholarship fair compensation?

Quite simply, the answer is no. I say this as both a financial expert and an educator who places a high value on learning. Many universities earn more money from one nationally-televised basketball game than it costs to pay tuition for every player on the team for an entire year. I would personally rather see the players allowed to negotiate their own contracts and then pay their tuition afterward. If one were to offer a coach and his family free tuition rather than their seven figure salary, they would be outraged.

5) It’s too complicated to find a way to pay college athletes, it just won’t work.

This argument was put forth by NCAA President Myles Brand, who I was on a CBS sports special with last year (along with “Coach K” from Duke, Billy Packer and others who earn millions of dollars from the labor of college athletes). My problem with this argument is that things work when we want them to work. Schools always find a way around the technicalities when it comes time to pay a coach $4 million dollars per year. They find ways to make sure that the tournaments occur, that vendors are paid, complicated TV deals are signed and merchandizing agreements are worked out. If it were a priority, they could surely find a way to be fair to the athletes. If they can’t, then simply drop all the restrictions on compensation and let the market do its work.

Some argue that paying athletes would destroy the purity and integrity of college sports. Actually, it is this glaring hypocrisy that continues to destroy the integrity of collegiate athletics. Allowing coaches and players to have the same rights to negotiation would allow the system to make more sense.

6) Which athletes should be paid anyway?

Athletes should be paid like the rest of us: If what you do earns money, then you have the right to negotiate (without oppressive restrictions) for your share. When Tom Cruise makes a film, he gets paid quite well. He doesn’t get the money because he’s a nice guy, he gets paid because he is generating revenue for someone else. That’s how capitalism works. So, any athlete in a revenue-generating sport should be allowed to negotiate with his/her school. If the athlete is not worth the money he/she is asking for, then the school won’t pay it. The same occurs when you try to get a job: if they offer you $45,000 and you are worth $70,000, you negotiate with the company across the street. It would be illegal for all firms in your industry to come together and agree to only pay you $25,000 per year. But that is what happens in the NCAA, where all the schools agree to non-payment of athletes. This should be outlawed.

7) What are the possible solutions to this problem?

This is a big problem and a big system, it’s going to take work. But I have some thoughts on possible solutions to the NCAA puzzle:

- The IRS and Congress must get involved: The Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives began proceedings last year that questioned the non-profit status of the NCAA and argued that they should not be considered an amateur organization. In their letter, it was stated that “Corporate sponsorships, multimillion dollar television deals, highly paid coaches with no academic duties, and the dedication of inordinate amounts of time by athletes to training lead many to believe that major college football and men's basketball more closely resemble professional sports than amateur sports.”

I argue that challenging the NCAA’s financial situation might get their attention and inject some fairness into the system.

- Teach athletes and former athletes to work together: Most of the people exploited by the system don’t realize they’ve been cheated until after it’s over. I argue that former athletes and others who are aware of how the system works should explain this to young athletes, who are sometimes so blinded by their own “shine” that they can’t see what’s going on. Athletes coming together and considering a boycott of the NCAA tournament would send a strong message to the league. That is my dream, but the reign of terror the NCAA has over the athletes makes a boycott situation difficult to imagine. Any player thinking of rebelling is likely to be punished quite heavily.

8) There are other problems in the world, why are you spending your time on this one?

I agree that it’s hard to get someone to feel sorry for a player on national television. But I’ve witnessed many horror stories about players who are punished for doing the right thing. For example, there have been cases of players not having enough food and losing their scholarship because someone gave them a bag of groceries. If a player takes money from a booster to help a homeless relative, they are then punished. When a player like Reggie Bush used his fame to help his family get a home, he was demonized and penalized. Simultaneously, his coach and university earned millions from the fact that Reggie was the most highly recognized professional athlete in America. This doesn’t make much sense, given that coaches can take money from nearly anyone who offers it to them. I fight for many issues of injustice, and this happens to be the one that we are attacking right now. We must fight one battle at a time, and I hope that my passion for this effort is understood.

If you don’t agree with me, I respect that. But if you do, please join me in this effort.

Dr. Boyce Thought of the Day: What it means to be educated

I recently gave a speech at Stanford University for the Black Student Union. We were going to talk about educational empowerment and “black people stuff”. The Stanford University campus possesses, as expected, some of the more brilliant minds in America. It also has its share of stuffiness and elitism, as many such campuses do. I have personally been a believer that education is what you make of it. A person at a community college who studies for 10 hours a day is, in my opinion, far more capable than a student at Harvard who studies for 4 hours a day. The key to your greatness lies inside your heart, not in the walls of the institution you attend.

Duke Lacrosse: Heroes or Thugs?

by Dr. Boyce Watkins
www.BoyceWatkins.com

I recently noticed that the Duke Lacrosse team, the same guys caught in the middle of the rape fiasco that occurred a couple of years ago, were knocked out of the NCAA tournament. The upset by Johns Hopkins ended a season that will surely allow these young men to be remembered as heroes. Granted, their comeback from the depths of despair after the rape scandal in 2006 is quite remarkable. Also, Duke is a great school, a place that my little brother was planning to attend. However, we might want to put the “heroism” of Duke University athletes into perspective, for we don’t want to get carried away.

I was quite vocal about the Duke lacrosse situation in 2006, and I don’t regret one word of my commentary. When a young black student at another university accused the athletes of rape at a party, there was quite a bit of legitimate racial tension in the Raleigh-Durham area, as well as across the nation. I did not stand up in defense of the young black woman’s story, nor did I accuse the athletes of anything that was not yet proven in the court of law. I wasn’t there when the event allegedly took place, since I don’t hang out at drunken stripper parties.


What concerned me about the situation was not the lies that may have been told by the victim. I assume she was lying, since she disappeared and her story fell apart like a Sean Hannity argument. Perhaps she was paid or threatened to remain quiet, but we will never know what happened. I also had no problem with the punishment of Mike Nifong, the District Attorney who seemed to presume guilt before actually proving it.

What I had a problem with is that everyone continues to miss an important piece of this picture. The athletes on the Duke Lacrosse team are NOT great American heroes. At best, their behavior was that of drunken thugs who were fortunate enough to be able to hire good attorneys to get them out of trouble. I have friends in “the hood” who behave this way, some of whom are still in prison for things they didn’t do. There is a Bill Cosby argument to be made which states that staying out of trouble means avoiding situations most likely to get you into trouble.

Heroes don’t drink till they puke every weekend. Heroes don’t hold parties with booze and strippers till all hours of the night. After all was said and done, I hope that these men were not given the green light to continue the same egregious behavior that got them into trouble in the first place. That would be sending the wrong message to these young men.

But the kids on the Duke Lacrosse team are not alone. I find myself consistently shocked at some of the behavior I see on many college campuses. While we consider college campuses to be havens of the elite, I can simply say that I know men who’ve gone to prison who don’t behave in such a deplorable fashion. The fact that individuals like George Bush are products of this tradition explains a lot about the brilliant policies of our great nation. It also explains why Bill O’Reilly has a loyal audience. I can’t use this culture to explain the drug abuse and illegal behavior of the caricature known as Rush Limbaugh, since he never graduated from college. In fact, according to Rush’s own mother, “he flunked everything, even a modern ballroom dancing class”. I’m honestly not surprised.



After spending my life on major college campuses for the last 18 years, I can only ask this question: Who IN THE HELL decided that it was normal to drink every weekend until you pass out? Who decided that this behavior is simply a “part of college life”, with kids not being taught the first thing about personal responsibility? I’m sorry, but in the real world, people who engage in excessive alcohol consumption destroy their livers, are far more likely to get raped, are more likely to be caught in violence, are at risk of driving and killing their best friends and put the rest of us in jeopardy. I’m not cool with that.

The U.S. Surgeon General has identified binge drinking on college campuses as a major health problem. I have middle aged alcoholic friends who took their first drink on a college campus. What concerns me the most is that the parents of these students and administrators around them are not stepping up to the plate and forcing these kids to chill out. Even well-intended administrators are ham strung by overzealous parents who believe their children can do no wrong. Perhaps they should call Bill Cosby in on this one, since there is a lot of bad parenting going on.
I know cops and prosecutors who claim that parents are one of the primary reasons that arrested college students don’t usually learn lessons from their audacious behavior. The next time I hear someone criticizing parenting in the black community, I am going to tell them to look to our elite campuses as the greatest examples of irresponsible parenting. I’m no bible thumper and I’m surely not a conservative, but I grew up with good role models who taught me the importance of common sense.

When I read about the Duke Lacrosse party, that is what I saw: another episode of college campus culture teaching young men and women to be comfortable behaving as menaces to society. Over 1,700 college students die each year from unintentional alcohol-related accidents. Roughly half of all college women are sexually assaulted during college, with at least half of these incidents involving alcohol. Individuals who consistently promote this kind of behavior on campus are no heroes of mine. But I don’t blame the students, I blame their parents and the adults who refuse to tell them the truth. If my son were at that party engaging in this kind of embarrassing behavior, I would (keeping it honest, in the words of my grandmother) “whoop his black ass”. Only men who host drunken stripper parties have to worry about strippers accusing them of rape.

I grow weary of appearing on shows in which I am asked to defend the behavior of black males, when I see students on college campuses behaving in ways that should make their families ashamed. I long for the day that a man like Bill O’Reilly takes a break from judging the values of the black community and turns that same self-righteous eye toward the Ivy League and private university thugs-in-training who think it’s ok to begin the quest toward alcoholism right after freshman orientation. But of course, the racism and elitism of America lead us to only see flaws in the oppressed. That is what my book, “What if George Bush were a Black Man?” was all about.


So, my tough love for the lacrosse players at Duke University is this: Congratulations on coming back from your setback. You were lucky, because prisons are full of men who never got a second chance. I’m sorry the stripper you hired lied to the police after your liquor and stripper-fest was over. But you shouldn’t be hiring strippers at the age of 19, and you should never have been in that situation. Now that we’ve had this conversation, you are free to go out in the world and truly become heroes.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Finance Professor at Syracuse University and author of “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About College”. For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com.