Jesse Jackson, CBS, Dr. Boyce Watkins meet to discuss the financial exploitation of the black community. Topics for consideration include the NCAA's non-payment of athletes, and predatory lending. Dr. Watkins, Billy Packer, Clark Kellogg, and Mike Krzyzewski included in CBS special. Dr. Watkins and Marc Lamont Hill and others form coalition to explore these issues.
Syracuse, NY (PRWeb) April 5, 2007 -- Syracuse University Professor and regular ESPN and CNN commentator Dr. Boyce Watkins met this week with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Vh-1 host Wendy Williams and CBS Sports to discuss the financial state of Black America. Dr. Watkins also participated with Billy Packer, NCAA President Miles Brand, Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski, Clark Kellogg and others in the CBS Special "Pay for Play", in which the question of athletic compensation was explored by CBS. On "The Wendy Williams Experience", Dr. Watkins explained the need for African-Americans to stand together and stop their own financial exploitation by others. He includes the NCAA, predatory lenders and others as financial victimizers of African-Americans.
Dr. Watkins, a strong advocate for single parent black families, believes that the NCAA should share its revenue with the families of the players. "There is no way, with any degree of sanity, you can argue that the mothers of these players do not deserve some of this money," says Dr. Watkins, who is represented by the agency Great Black Speakers, LLC. "The NCAA has a $6 billion dollar TV rights deal, coaches are getting rich, but the players who make it all happen are getting nothing."
Dr. Watkins, who has taught at the college level for 14 years, has coordinated with Temple University Professor and regular CNN guest Marc Lamont Hill, The Black Athlete Sports Network, Great Black Speakers, LLC, Dr. Lee Jones (CEO of Inspire Magazine) and a web of African-American athletes, coaches, professors and journalists to form a coalition to shine light on the issue of athletic exploitation in college sports.
This weekend, Dr. Watkins and Dr. Hill met with the Reverend Jesse Jackson to discuss black athletes on "Keep Hope Alive" radio, and again with Santita Jackson, the daughter of Rev. Jackson on her show in Chicago. More meetings are planned in the future in order to assess the relationship that college athletics has with black men. "This amounts to a mass wealth extraction from the black community," says Watkins, a Finance Professor who is also the host of the nationally-syndicated radio show "Boiling Hot with Boyce Watkins." "Many of these universities that earn money from black athletes don't hire black coaches or black professors and they don't even admit black students."
Earlier this year, some Ohio State football players attempted to have a fundraiser so their mothers could attend the national championship. While the coach's family is provided for, there is no such provision for the athletes and their families. "The coach could not collect his half million dollar bonus for winning a bowl game without having 70 mothers willing to risk paralysis of their sons in order to make that happen," says Watkins, also the author of the book "What if George Bush were a Black Man?"
The coalition represents a mixture of African-American males in various disciplines: professors, former athletes, coaches, journalists, attorneys and professionals. Great Black Speakers has scheduled a campus tour for coalition leadership that is to take place during the 2007 - 2008 academic year. The goal is to guide public discussion on the proper treatment of college athletes and their families, as well as economic empowerment of the black community.
Dr. Boyce D. Watkins is a Finance Professor at Syracuse University and author of "Everything you ever wanted to know about college" and "What if George Bush were a Black man?" Dr. Watkins(
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