Negative images of Black athletes stem from societal issues, not something inherent to the athletes, per an A-list panel on the Black athlete at Morehouse College.
“We have not stood up and taken ownership of ourselves,” said National Football League Hall of Fame running back, actor and activist Jim Brown. “We have a Willie Lynch concept. Whose responsibility is it to change that? It’s ours.”
Brown was part of a star-studded group on a panel about the Black athlete, a forum put together by filmmaker and Morehouse alum Spike Lee. The panel included Rutgers University women’s basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer, Miami Heat center Alonzo Mourning, and Kansas City Star and AOL Black Voices sports columnist Jason Whitlock.
The discussion was part of the introduction of journalist Ron Thomas as head of Morehouse’s new sports journalism program — a program Thomas said will focus on research, writing and interviewing techniques with the goal of increasing the number of minority sports journalists.
The most highly charged 15 minutes of the spicy forum came when Stringer questioned Whitlock about a column he wrote in the wake of former talk radio host Don Imus’ labeling of Rutgers players as “nappy headed ‘hos.”
In his April 11 column, Whitlock labeled Stringer an opportunist for holding a “nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference” and questioned the motives of Reverend's Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Monday at Morehouse, Stringer’s anger at Whitlock’s column was on full display.
“I just want to understand your mindset. I want to understand people like you" she said. “I’ll be doggoned if I sit back and let that man speak of them as he did,” Stringer went on. “The truth of the matter is [Jackson and Sharpton] were the only people who spoke up. I didn’t care if they fired Imus or not. But I know this — I was going to defend those young ladies."
Source
President Leaves Quite A Legacy At The Historically Black, All-Male College. Read Here