(Akiit.com) Imagine what she’d say about being sold at half the price of white Barbie.

To Whom It May Concern,

After all of the recent controversy over a silly photo that was taken of my friend Barbie and me, I’ve decided it’s time to speak up. We were hanging at Walmart last week when somebody decided to snap our picture. I’m not sure if it was paparazzi or a soccer mom or what–but that photo ended up all over the Internet.

Apparently, a lot of people were angry at the fact that I was being sold for almost half the price of Barbie. People wondered if it was some type of statement about the way African-American women are valued in this country as compared to white women. Especially white women with huge breasts, tiny waists and blonde hair.

I have to say, it does hurt a little–realizing that instead of gracing the shelves of FAO Schwarz or something, I’ve ended up half price at a Louisiana Walmart, of all places. I wanted to smack that disgruntled employee who came by and slapped a red discount sticker on my box. I’m worth just as much as the chick hanging next to me. Some might even say more.

But what hurts me the most is being carted down the aisle, hung up for display, and passed over time and time again by little black girls who would rather have a doll with blonde hair and blue eyes than one who looks more like them.

Just the other day, AKA Centennial Barbie and 50th Anniversary Alvin Ailey Barbie were telling me there might be a reason why “certain” dolls stay on the shelves longer than others. Ailey Barbie said that more than 40 years ago, a sociological experiment was conducted to determine if black children would rather have a doll like me, than one with pink skin, blue eyes and blonde hair. Sadly, two-thirds chose the white doll.
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(Akiit.com) Michael Jordan’s takeover of the Bobcats makes him the only black majority owner of a major U.S. sports franchise…

Michael Jordan, pro basketball’s greatest player, and a lackluster executive for two franchises, once said in a Nike commercial, “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

He got another chance when his bid for the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats was accepted. Although, how much he paid is in dispute. Forbes magazine set the Bobcats’ value at $175 million: a steep plunge from the $300 million Robert L. Johnson paid for the team in 2003.

The NBA won’t provide details, but a spokesman’s e-mail to The Root stated, “we expect the transaction will value the Bobcats at between $275-$290 million and that Michael Jordan is acquiring an 80 percent stake.”

The deal between Johnson, the first black majority owner of a major U.S. pro sports team, and NBA legend Michael Jordan, who earned hundreds of millions highlights why no other blacks own controlling shares in pro basketball, football or baseball teams.

During segregation, when fan interest was high, start-up costs were low, and there was scant competition, blacks started, bought and sold leagues and teams. Today’s pro sports owners–often billionaires–have access to enormous capital, influential associates and can manage the timing of a deal.

Since the 1980s, African Americans have controlled one or two of those ingredients, but the trio needed to be a majority owner eluded everyone except Johnson and Jordan. Blacks are, and have been, pro team limited partners. This is a look at some of those would-be owners, as well as individuals who decided to invest in teams in less expensive pro sports.

Taking and Making Their Shots Against the NBA

The first blacks to become managing general partners of a major pro sports franchise, if briefly, were Bertram Lee and Peter Bynoe. In 1989, the pair, with partners tennis pro Arthur Ashe and then-Democratic National Chairman Ron Brown, signed a deal to buy the Denver Nuggets for $65 million. After the financing became a problem, the duo’s investment partner, Comsat Corp., bought the team.

Between 1999 and 2002, Bob Johnson made three offers for the Bobcats’ predecessor, the Charlotte Hornets and was rebuffed by the owner, George Shinn. In 1999, Shinn also rejected Michael Jordan’s bid for a controlling interest in the Hornets.

In 2000, Jordan paid between $20 million and $30 million for a 10 percent stake in the Washington Wizards and became president of basketball operations. The deal also gave him a share of the National Hockey League Washington Capitals.

But Bob Johnson, the man who sold Black Entertainment Television to Viacom for $3 billion, is persistent. In 2003, after Shinn decamped to New Orleans with the Hornets, Johnson became the majority owner of the expansion NBA Charlotte Bobcats, and later the Charlotte Sting of the WNBA. African-American members of the multi-ethnic investment team included former Boston Celtic, ML Carr, rapper Nelly, as well as two prominent African Americans from the area.

In 2006, Jordan purchased equity in the Bobcats. As the Bobcats’ owner, he may recruit black limited partners.

In the 1980s, Edward Gardner and his wife, Bettian, co-founder of Soft Sheen, the black hair company, became part owners of the Chicago Bulls. Magic Johnson purchased part of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1994, and the next year Isiah Thomas bought 10 percent of the Toronto Raptors. Jay-Z and Bill Cosby have made investments in the New Jersey Nets. David Robinson has a piece of the San Antonio Spurs, and singer Usher owsn part of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Other teams that have had or have black co-owners include the Memphis Grizzlies and the Atlanta Hawks.

Since 2005, Sheila Johnson, the co-founder of BET and ex-wife of Robert Johnson, has owned interests in several teams. She is the team president, managing partner and governor of the WNBA Washington Mystics, and she co-owns the NHL Washington Capitals and the NBA’s Washington Wizards. In 2009, Forbes reported the average value (equity plus debt) of an NBA team to be $367 million.
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(Akiit.com) Tavis Smiley’s summit will talk the talk, but where’s the grassroots follow-up?

Tavis Smiley’s summit will talk the talk, but where’s the grassroots follow-up?

I’ve never been much of a fan of Tavis Smiley’s annual State of Black America confab, which struck me as an extravaganza of excessive Negro bloviation. And I’m not planning to watch the really big show he is putting on C-SPAN on Saturday, the “We Count! The Black Agenda is the American Agenda” conference, which I fear will be more of the same.

But just because Smiley and his posse of activists, public intellectuals and wannabe and has-been leaders are self-regarding, totally predictable loudmouths doesn’t mean they are wrong about the issue he is raising.

It’s self-evident, as Smiley contends, that African Americans should continue to have an agenda that makes clear what they want from the government, especially when blacks are buried in the rubble of the economic earthquake and its continuing aftershocks.

Of course, he is right that blacks should pressure Barack Obama, or whoever happens to be president, to address the special needs of their group.

And he’s right that Obama, or whoever happens to be president, should respond to blacks’ specific complaints, just as his administration has responded to the special needs of the banking sector, small businesses and troubled homeowners.

And he’s correct that the retort from Rev. Al Sharpton and others, that Obama can’t “ballyhoo” a specific response to the specific problems of blacks because he is trying to be president of all the people, is nonsense.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with focusing special attention on the plight of the worst-off segments of society.

Divvying up the pie is, after all, the time-tested American way. Beyond that, the problems blacks want to address are not different than those facing many other Americans. You can’t fix our catastrophic jobless rate without reviving the entire economy or extending health care coverage to our uninsured without extending it to everybody.

The big problem here is not the issue that Smiley is raising. It’s the fact that he and his cohort of publicity hounds are the ones raising it. The only reason Smiley and his crew are able to get so much attention is because of a leadership vacuum in black and progressive America. Instead of a gaggle of high-profile speechifiers shrieking on cable, we could use a well-organized progressive mass movement, like the one led by Martin Luther King Jr.-or, dare I say it, the Tea Party.

Hillary Clinton was right when she argued, during her battle against Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, that true changes in social policy occur when there is both a mass social movement making demands and a president willing to respond. It takes both to make leaps ahead.
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(Akiit.com) Diddy (aka, Sean Combs) is in talks to purchase Crystal Palace, a struggling soccer team based in South London. It has been reported that Diddy is offering the equivalent of approximately $550 million to purchase the team, which filed for bankruptcy in January of this year. If the deal is allowed to proceed as expected, it will make Diddy the first U.S. rap star to become owner of a team in the prestigious English soccer league.

From the standpoint of “breaking barriers,” I respect Diddy for attempting to become the first “urban entrepreneur” from the U.S. to become a team owner in this very popular and lucrative soccer market, in addition to being the first black man of American citizenship to do the same.

Although soccer still takes a backseat to other sports in the U.S. like football, basketball and baseball, it is rapidly increasing in popularity among all facets of the population, including urban youth. Diddy could be demonstrating excellent timing in deciding to purchase a team at this time. However, this is no guaranteed moneymaker for Diddy. The previous two owners of Crystal Palace both left the team in bankruptcy after being unable to generate enough money to keep the team profitable. Also, the team has not participated in the Premier League (the highest level of English football) since the 2004-2005 season.
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(Akiit.com) Weekend has arrived and I’m ready to just relax… Shall watch some NBA basketball and may decide to work in the yard… Need to plant some flowers, etc… Also need to search for some tv stands as we shall be having company in a week or so… I do need to clean up this desk, and also delete some files from the pc… Let me recharge my Blackberry before I head out the door…

Written By CTA