Academic

Black Love, Black Women and Black Families: What Essence Magazine Doesn?t Tell You

Posted on May 20, 2008
By Dr. Boyce Watkins www.BoyceWatkins.com People fall in love every day. Some fall in love forever, and some just love the idea of falling in love. We are all familiar with the bliss and agony of love, and our mating, dating and procreating choices define much of the quality of our earthly existence...

Keith Olbermann, Bill O?Reilly and Black People - The Power of Black Enterprise

Posted on May 15, 2008
www.BoyceWatkins.com I learned something about the power of money last night. I received an email from one of our readers on Your Black World, who simply said, ?Bill O?Reilly is coming after you again.? I took it in and got back to what I was doing...

Hip Hop vs. America: Oprah Winfrey, Money, Power, Respect

Posted on May 12, 2008
www.BoyceWatkins.com Some people think I hate Oprah Winfrey. I don?t. Actually, I love Oprah. Not the way my grandmother loves her, for that would be technically defined as cult worship. I love her the way I love Black Enterprise Magazine or really good Chinese food...

Hillary?s Rocky Routine

Posted on May 12, 2008
A few weeks ago, when Hillary Clinton was campaigning in Philadelphia, she began to compare herself to Rocky, our city?s patron saint. At first, I dismissed it as yet another ridiculous attempt to paint herself as a working class underdog rather than the delusional underachiever that she?s been this election season...

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Bill O?Reilly? OK Fine, I?ll Talk about it

Posted on May 12, 2008
www.BoyceWatkins.com Yes, I was the “crazy black professor” featured as the lead story on The O’Reilly Factor last night.  My sister, who studies at The Mayo Clinic, called to tell me about it. Yes, O’Reilly did the whole “That black man is crazy” routine...

Response to Professor Guy Uriel Charles: I Hear You, But . . . .

Posted on May 08, 2008
    Dear Guy:   I understand exactly what you are saying.  But, at this point, Senator Obama is just the presumptive (and eventual) nominee of the Democratic Party.  He is not THE President of the United States?yet.  Let?s make sure that Obama makes it into the White House first...

Conversations with Professor Guy Uriel Charles (Minnesota): What Can We Expect From Obama?

Posted on May 08, 2008
    Dear Angela: Now that black people have made Barack Obama the presumptive and (and soon to be eventual) nominee of the Democratic Party, what should we expect as our public policy benefits?  Though some might dare dispute this, the fact of the matter is that black voters are the primary voting bloc responsible for Senator Obama?s [...

Black Enterprise, Black Finance, Black Power

Posted on May 05, 2008
  I spoke this weekend at an Entrepreneurship boot camp for The Urban Philly Professional Network. The head of the organization created something I consider to be profound and promising. He regularly gathers the black entrepreneurs of Philadelphia for networking events, training and motivation for their endeavors...

Bittergate Response from Professor Guy Charles: No High-Tech Lynching

Posted on May 05, 2008
    Dear Angela:   I understand your frustration with bittergate.  However, I don?t think the criticism of Senator Obama is an attempted high-tech lynching for being uppity.  The ultimate in being uppity is a black man thinking that he can be President of these United States...

Conversations with Professor Guy Uriel Charles (Minnesota): A High-Tech Lynching?

Posted on May 05, 2008
    As May 6 approaches, I am becoming more and more bitter about all the bitterness over Senator Obama?s comments in San Francisco.  First, the Senator?s words were completely taken out of context.  Clearly, he did not say that people turned to religion ONLY because of bitterness...

Gaseous Pandering

Posted on May 02, 2008
First they pander to working-class white voters by making them believe that their electoral judgments are beyond apprehension, particularly when a black candidate calls them into question. Now Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Senator Barack Obama?s rivals for the presidency, are proposing a gas tax holiday for the so-called summer driving season, which would [...

Take a Chance to see The REAL Jeremiah Wright

Posted on May 01, 2008
I was concerned about the recent attacks on Jeremiah Wright, mainly because I understand what he went through. Last fall, Bill O’Reilly spent 5 days calling for me to be fired from Syracuse University. They claimed I was a racist because I criticized O’Reilly and his condescending views toward people of color...

Barack Obama: The Kunta Kinte of 2008

Posted on April 30, 2008
  I woke up today thinking about the movie ?Roots?. The first scene that jumps out at me is the image of Kunta Kinte being beaten because he wants to keep his real name. With each welt of the whip, he got a little weaker, until he finally changed his name to Toby...

THE NATIONAL BLACK POLICE ASSOCIATION: THE SEAN BELL VERDICT EMBOLDENS LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN JUDGES

Posted on April 27, 2008
  www.BoyceWatkins.com   While I have  a slightly more mixed opinion on the Sean Bell Shooting, I received this interesting statement on behalf of the National Black Police Association.  I thought it was worth hearing, whether you agree with it or not...

Juanita Bynum: Do Blinged Out Pastors go to Heaven?

Posted on April 25, 2008
  People have asked me what I think about Juanita Bynum and her post, pre and intra-marital drama.  In case you haven?t heard, Juanita Bynum is a well-known black evangelist who was allegedly beaten by her husband Bishop Thomas Weeks.  The alleged incident took place in an Atlanta Hotel Parking lot, and received a great deal [...

Dog the Bounty Hunter and Neo-Nazi Relatives

Posted on April 14, 2008
I talked to Jesse Jackson yesterday with my homeboy Marc Lamont Hill. Talking to Jesse is always interesting, since I really don?t know what to say. I am not as conservative as Jesse, so I am never sure if we are in lockstep on many issues. In this particular case we were talking about black [...

In Touch with Our Frustrations

Posted on April 13, 2008
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Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama and Bob Johnson: Making Financial Lemonade with Few Demographic Lemons

Posted on April 11, 2008
www.BoyceWatkins.com Oprah Winfrey?s support for Senator Barack Obama, while certainly admirable, has cost her some support among fans. According to a recent poll, Winfrey?s approval rating was 74% before the election, dropping to 61% after turning her support toward Obama...

The Gangsta Lifestyle on Trial

Posted on April 10, 2008
  Reuter?s reports that a New York mom and her 14-year-old son have sued, among others,  Rap artists 50 Cent and Tony Yayo, Violator Management and the Universal Music Group-owned Interscope, G-Unit and Shady Records for allegedly promoting a “gangsta lifestyle” that resulted in the young man being assaulted on a Manhattan sidewalk...

Judgmental Judges and The Art of Fear: Come On People, Let?s Stop Being So Damn Scared

Posted on April 06, 2008
?‘White America needs to understand that it is poisoned to its soul by racism’, and that ‘all too many White Americans are horrified not with the conditions of (Black) life but with the product of these conditions-the (Black person) himself’...

In Memoriam

Posted on April 04, 2008
Food for thought, as we mark the 40th anniversary of the King assassination.     *   *   *   *   *   (Caption:  Your tax dollars at work.  Declassified letter to Martin Luther King, Jr. from FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), 1964, urging him to commit suicide, sent just before he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize...

Vogue Seems to Think Black Men Make Good Monkeys

Posted on March 28, 2008
I was speaking to a friend at ABC News about the Lebron James situation.  She asked me if I thought there was a direct comparison to King Kong being made in the Vogue cover featuring James.  I stated that there was some probability that there might be a word play on the fact that Lebron is [...

Why the World Hates Kwame Kilpatrick

Posted on March 26, 2008
Kwame Kilpatrick is feeling more heat than Michael Jackson when he burned his Jerry Curl in that Pepsi commercial. Detroit Chickens are coming home to roost and the Mayor of this great city, the shining Kilpatrick star of yesterday is getting just a little bit dimmer every time we look...

Jeremiah Wright ? In Context

Posted on March 24, 2008
Barack Obama?s Speech on Race has proven a remarkable achievement in American political history.  It represents one of the few times that a presidential candidate has spoken candidly on matters of race, with intelligence and compassion.  And while I applaud the fact that Obama successfully initiated a public conversation on race, I remain disturbed by [...

Why I Won?t Be Watching March Madness

Posted on March 24, 2008
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...

DEAR MOM

Posted on March 23, 2008
?The Undying Brotherhood of People of Color?   Robyn Gonzales Washington, IV asked Mom the other day how she would reply to a letter Professor Washington received from a student who had been admitted to her school.   The student identified herself as a person of color who was interested in pursuing a career of public-interest law and said [...

The Recession isn?t coming, it?s already here. How to make 2008 a Great Year Anyway

Posted on March 22, 2008
You may have heard from the ?financial experts? on TV that the recession is coming. For lack of a better phrase, many of us might be tempted to say ?no duh?. Hearing a rich person on TV tell you that hard times are on the way is like being knee deep in water and getting [...

BREAKING NEWS: OBAMA FIRST BLACK LEADER WHO IS NOT A ?VICTIM?

Posted on March 22, 2008
Senator Clair McCaskill of Missouri, an Obama supporter, recently made a statement defending Obama against Wright-Gate.  During the statement she said a number of things, including that Wright’s comments were taken out of context.  But she also left the audience with the following gem: “[Obama], for the first time, I think, as a black leader in America, has come to [...

All the Men Are Black, All the Women Are White, and Some of Us Vote: A Remix

Posted on March 20, 2008
I spent the better half of Tuesday afternoon, listening to and reading the transcript of Barack Obama?s speech on ?race.? Obama?s address was thoughtful, progressive, eloquent, brilliant, moving, and insightful. He did all the things I wanted him to do, acknowledged the founding ?sin? of American slavery, shifted the burden of racial reconciliation [...

The Speech

Posted on March 18, 2008
You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The Speech", url: "http://www.blackprof.com/?p=2004" });

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