Saturday, February 27, 2010

Dr. Boyce on AOL – 2/27/10

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Tea Party Leader Calls Obama a "Half White Racist"

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Rep. Charles Rangel of CBC to Be Admonished for Ethics Violations

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Biggie Smalls Estate Sued for Not Releasing Video Footage

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White Sorority Wins Step Competition, Then Told "Not Quite"

Dr. Boyce Watkins Discusses Health Care On CNN's Anderson Cooper 360

Dr. Boyce Watkins Discusses Health Care On CNN's Anderson Cooper 360

Friday, February 26, 2010

Sharpton-Smiley fight reveals rift in black leadership over Obama

Sharpton-Smiley fight reveals rift in black leadership over Obama on MSNBC

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Dr. Boyce on AOL Black Voices – 2/25/10

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Cornel West Goes Questions Barack Obama's Commitment to Black People

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Man Who Allegedly Threw Baby From Bridge Charged With Murder

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Judge Mathis Calls Prison System Modern-Day Slavery

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'Twilight Star' Robert Pattinson a Racist?

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Woman Lied about Gang Rape, Gets Three Years in Prison

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Three Officers Acquitted in New York Sodomy Case

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Teaching Your Kids about Money: Dr. Boyce

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FBI Believes Kwame Kilpatrick Ran a Criminal Enterprise

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Old White Man Beats Young Black Man on Bus: Video Storms the Web

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Wesley Snipes Talks on Man who Crashed Plane into IRS Building

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Rapper Shyne Signs $1 Million Dollar Deal with Def Jam

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Judge Tells Chris Brown That He's Doing a Great Job on Probation

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Woman Faces $555,000 Dollars in Student Loan Debt: Dr. Boyce Money

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Man Allegedly Throws Baby Off a Bridge in New Jersey

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Sean Bell's Shooters Are Not Going to be Charged with a Crime

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Dr. Boyce on NewsOne.com – 2/24/10

Dr. Boyce Watkins

Dr. Boyce Watkins

The Bottom Line

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Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and author of the book, "Black American Money." For more information, please visit www.YourBlackWorld.com.

 

DR. BOYCE: Al Sharpton, Tavis Smiley Fight Is Post-Obama America

By Dr. Boyce Watkins February 24, 2010 12:17 pm

DR. BOYCE: Al Sharpton, Tavis Smiley Fight Is Post-Obama America

Read more about DR. BOYCE: Al Sharpton, Tavis Smiley Fight Is Post-Obama America

TAGS: Al Sharpton, Barack Obama, Tavis Smiley

 

 

DR. BOYCE: Do Young Leaders Now Make the NAACP Relevant?

By Dr. Boyce Watkins February 22, 2010 2:59 pm

DR. BOYCE: Do Young Leaders Now Make the NAACP Relevant?

Read more about DR. BOYCE: Do Young Leaders Now Make the NAACP Relevant?

TAGS: NAACP

 

 

DR. BOYCE: The Guts Behind Tiger Woods’ Press Conference

By Dr. Boyce Watkins February 19, 2010 12:47 pm

DR. BOYCE: The Guts Behind Tiger Woods’ Press Conference

Read more about DR. BOYCE: The Guts Behind Tiger Woods’ Press Conference

TAGS: sex scandals, Tiger Woods

Dr. Boyce on MSNBC’s TheGrio – 2/24/10

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Dr. Boyce Watkins analyzes the fight between Tavis Smiley and Al Sharpton

Tavis Smiley and Al Sharpton got into it, and in this video, Dr. Boyce analyzes.

Tavis Smiley and Al Sharpton fight about Barack Obama

Tavis Smiley and Al Sharpton fight about Barack Obama

Monday, February 22, 2010

Dr. Boyce Watkins and Rev. Jesse Jackson Discuss The Black Agenda

Dr. Boyce Watkins and Rev. Jesse Jackson Discuss The Black Agenda

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Dr. Boyce Watkins Analyzes Tiger Woods Press Conference Outcome

Black scholar Dr. Boyce Watkins analyzes the press conference of Golf super star Tiger Woods.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Tiger Woods Speaks to the Press – Well, Sort of

by Dr. Boyce Watkins 

Today, Tiger Woods finally did what everyone expected him to do: He spoke out on his own behalf. The world waited for months to hear a peep from the man who has decided to do one of the greatest disappearing acts the sports world has ever seen. When there was no Tiger, there was no professional golf.


The press conference was starting on the wrong foot, as there was buzz of a boycott from golf writers, who felt that Tiger was not giving proper respect to media by refusing to allow them to ask questions. There was also the ire communicated from his fellow golfers, such as Ernie Els, who called Tiger "selfish" for giving his press conference on a Friday, during a tournament sponsored by Accenture.


What Ernie Els failed to remember is that Accenture is the company that dropped Tiger when he was being embarrassed by the media. There is no reason that Tiger should be the least bit hesitant about stealing the headlines away from their golf tournament. Perhaps had Accenture not decided to abandon Tiger, he might not have abandoned them.


His mother was there, the PGA Commissioner was there, and one of Tiger's roommates from college was in attendance. What was missing from the press conference? Well, the press. I'm not sure if you can actually call this a press conference when you've chosen to exclude the media. The other glaring absence from the room was Tiger's wife, Elin.

Click to read.

Ernie Els Says Tiger Woods is “Selfish” For Holding Press Conference on Friday

by Dr. Boyce Watkins 

Tiger Woods is planning to have the press conference of the year tomorrow, during which he will talk about his past, present and future. He will be in the TPC Sawgrass clubhouse in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He is not going to answer questions and the world will be watching. All three major networks are planning to tune in and for just 30 minutes, you may as well call him Tiger Obama, given that his speech is getting the same attention at the State of the Union Address.
Ernie Els, one of Tiger's arch rivals on the golf course (if Tiger has any rivals), is lining himself up to be one of the first men to attack Woods for his choices.
"It's selfish," Els told Golfweek. "You can write that. I feel sorry for the sponsor. Mondays are a good day to make statements, not Friday. This takes a lot away from the golf tournament."

Click to read.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Felon Disenfranchisement is UnAmerican

by Dr. Michael Fauntroy, The Shirley Chrisholm Commission

“I don’t want everybody to vote.  Elections are not won by a majority of the people.  They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now.  As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
– Conservative activist Paul Weyrich, at a 1980 training session for Christian conservatives
    While there are a number of very worthy issues that need to be addressed in this area, I propose that we include the issue of felon disenfranchisement in our deliberations.  Felon disenfranchisement is critical as it impacts the outcomes of elections throughout the country.  Too often, conservative, anti-minority candidates are elected because of the disproportionate removal of African Americans and other minorities from the election rolls.  As the policies that disenfranchise felons disproportionately impacts African Americans (both those caught up in the criminal justice system AND the larger Black public which does not get the policies that it could because supportive people are not elected to office), we must understand it undermines the policies that we believe to be helpful to our community.

Click to read.

Woman Has Half Million in Student Loan Debt

by Dr. Boyce Watkins 

Michelle Bisutti is a 41-year old family practitioner in Columbus, Oh. She finished medical school in 2003, when her student loan debt was set at a "manageable" $250,000. Since that time, she has watched her debt grow to $555,000.

Dr. Bisutti claims that her debt grew after she deferred her payments while completing her residency. She also defaulted on the loans, leading to additional charges and compound interest. For example, she was charged $53,870 dollars when her loan was turned over to a collection agency.
"Maybe half of it was my fault because I didn't look at the fine print," Dr. Bisutti says. "But this is just outrageous now."
According to FinAid.org, an organization that tracks financial aid across America, there is an estimated $730 billion in outstanding student loan debt. Only 40% of that debt is being actively repaid at this time. The rest is either in default, deferment or forbearance. Deferment and forbearance halt loan payments for a period of time until the borrower is ready to resume paying the loan.

Click to read.

Black Scholar Boyce Watkins Talks With The TakeAway - Does Forgetting Race Make Us (or Chris Matthews) Post-Racial?

Black Scholar Boyce Watkins Talks With The TakeAway -

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Russell Simmons Rants on Banks

russell_simmons

by Dr. Boyce Watkins 

Hip hop mogul Russell Simmons seems to feel that banks are not treating the poor in a proper fashion. This week, in a rant on his site, “The Global Grind,” Simmons had this to say:
“They trick customers into doing things that are not good for them through lack of transparency, and surprise them with new fees when they can least afford it. I’m learning an important lesson about ethics or lack of ethics in this industry. In fact, I’m fighting with a bank right now that doesn’t know what kind of ass whipping they are going to get when I expose them for the abusive practices and exuberant fees they are charging the poor. What they are doing is trying to double their already outrageously high fees in exchange for providing absolutely nothing to my customers.”
Simmons went on to try to create a “movement” by adding a call to action:

“Let’s start the biggest public discussion ever about how banks treat us and expose these banks for their unequal treatment and unconscionable conduct. The time is now.”

 

Click to read.

Obama Stimulus Anniversary: What does it mean?

The stimulus one year later: A bold move that began a jobless recovery

by Dr. Boyce Watkins 

One year ago, President Obama was trying to scare us. He told us that if we didn't sign off on his massive $787 billion dollar stimulus package, we could be stuck in the greatest depression the nation has ever seen. The economic world would come to an end and the fire of hell would rain down on the American consumer. We listened to our new president and allowed the culture of fear to paralyze our collective psyche. While economic caution was an appropriate tool for the president to use, that caution should have been accompanied by a commitment to prudent courage. Instead, it turned into all-out fear and halts on investment, lending and consumer spending, creating even greater problems than he'd had before.

By passing the stimulus in high democratic fashion, the Obama administration was able to spend money the Obama way. He was allowed to ride the popularity of an historic election all the way to a trillion dollar after-party, leaving our country with a shocking deficit that shows no signs of declining anytime in the near future. But Obama had good training from the Republicans, who decided to start spending half a trillion dollars per year on meaningless wars. Massive military spending and unrestrained entitlements are going to lead to the end of U.S.economic dominance and prosperity.

Obama's economic policy team, which leaves much to be desired, was right about how to respond to the downturn. Spending and borrowing was the way to hit the crisis head on, with enough momentum to help our nation avoid a financial tsunami unlike anything we'd seen in 80 years. Most interesting was that the downturn was driven in large part by corporate and political irresponsibility during the 2001 - 2007 time period. During this era of deregulation and tax cuts, corporate profits rose dramatically, while worker wages remained stagnant. In fact, the United States has not created one net new job in our economy since 1999.

Click to read.

Dr. Boyce Watkins and Rev. Al Sharpton Speak About the State of Black America

Dr. Boyce Watkins and Rev. Al Sharpton Speak About the State of Black America

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Dr. Boyce Watkins Talks The State of Black America with Rev. Al Sharpton

Dr. Boyce Watkins Talks The State of Black America with Rev. Al Sharpton

Monday, February 15, 2010

Congressional Black Caucus Needs Some Fixing

Corruption in the Congressional Black Caucus threatens African-Americans

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From left are, Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y. and Rep. Charles Rangel D-NY. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Does anyone think that the Congressional Black Caucus works for the interests of the African-American community? Well, think again. It appears that, according to a scathing report in The New York Times, African-Americans don't have the money to buy the CBC's loyalty. At the very least, they do not appear to be the top priority for a legislative group that has allowed dollar signs to complicate its priorities.

The New York Times article details a highly suspicious network of foundations and charities that seem to funnel money to CBC members in exchange for influence in Washington. The political and charitable wings of the CBCtook in $55 million dollars between 2004 and 2008, with only $1 million of that coming through their political action committee; the rest came through their unregulated network of foundations, which are allowed to escape campaign finance laws designed to keep legislators from being bought by corporate America.

While the CBC argues that the funds are used to support charitable causes in the African-American community, it seems that the foundation spends more time "big balling" with elaborate corporate events than it spends actually doing work for the community. Federal tax records show that the CBC Foundation spent more money on the caterer for its annual dinner, $700,000 dollars, than it spent giving out scholarships. As my mama used to say, "That's just trifling."
Even more disturbing are the relationships that the Congressional Black Caucus has formed with industries that clearly do not have the interests of the black community at heart, including the Internet poker industry, cigarette manufacturers, alcoholic beverage producers and rent-to-own companies. Many rent-to-own companies operate in predominantly black neighborhoods and are effectively electronic drug dealers: They give consumers a quick high today in exchange for unethically high fees and massive amounts of debt. Well guess what? The CBC is one of the reasons that the rent-to-own industry has been allowed to expand its operations in urban communities where CBC members don't even live.

Click to read.

Dr. Boyce Watkins Discusses The State of Black America With Rev. Jesse Jackson

Dr. Boyce Watkins Discusses The State of Black America With Rev. Jesse Jackson

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Dr. Boyce on MSNBC’s TheGrio.com – 2/11/10