When Robert Johnson purchased the Charlotte Bobcats last year, he became the first black owner of a team in the National Basketball Association (NBA). In so doing, he pierced one of the few remaining bubbles of racial segregation in America: team owners of the NBA.
Johnson is an entrepreneur who amassed a fortune as the Founder and CEO of Black Entertainment Television (BET). His interest in the NBA, however, will generate social and cultural benefits that cannot be accounted for on the bottom line.
Reggie Fowler continued this pioneering trend last week when purchased a minority stake in the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). In so doing, he pinched at the racial barrier in another of those remaining bastions: team owners of the NFL. Fowler too is a very successful entrepreneur with holdings in manufacturing, aviation and property development.
Many assume that black players – like Randy Moss and Michael Jordan – are the masters of their respective sports. But they are merely (highly paid) indentured servants which makes their relationship to their white team owners seem rather antebellum. (OK: if Michael Jordan’s a slave, who needs freedom – right? But I’m sure you get my point.) Nevertheless, with only 2 blacks now in the exclusive club of the 122, integrating the ownership of major sports teams in America still remains a daunting challenge.
Johnson and Fowler, however, are trailblazers in the significantly evolved struggle for black empowerment in America. We are no longer marching in the streets – protesting for civil rights. Instead, we are climbing the ladders of corporate success – seeking control of our economic destiny.
But we cannot mark this occasion without paying homage to our entrepreneurial forefather – Booker T. Washington. Because, as early as the 1880s, he advocated business enterprise and the acquisition of property as the most assured path to empowerment in America. Johnson and Fowler represent the all too belated vindication of his counsel.
News and Politics
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