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I recall giving a speech at a university in Upstate New York. We were talking about wealth building for the Black community and how Black folks can remove themselves from the underbelly of American capitalism. I'd heard this school had a reputation for strong liberalism and I was looking forward to addressing the audience. A young white female in the back of the room raised her hand to ask me a question. She said "How can you support a system that enslaves people?"
The woman was clearly offended by my mere presence as a financial expert and apparent supporter of capitalism. I could immediately tell, that no matter what my answer was, she was going to hate me and wish death upon my children. She didn't realize that I am not just a Finance Professor, but also a closet socialist in many contexts. While I am not one who wants to live in a socialist society, I do understand that capitalism and socialism must balance one another in any society that alleges to embrace human compassion.
Hollywood U: Celebs and Higher Ed
They have fame, fortune and are blessed with ability to entertain. Acting and singing are part of their repertoires and they make outrageous sums of money... but how many of them have higher education?
BV has taken the liberty to highlight just a few celebrities who have hit the books at one point or another and some who even obtained college degrees. Welcome to Hollywood U!
Alicia Keys - Accepted to Columbia University
After graduating valedictorian of the Professional Performing Arts School in Manhattan, a 16-year-old Keys was accepted to Columbia University in New York. However, the talented songstress decided to drop-out and forgo a college ed to pursue her musical career.
Sean Combs - Attended Howard University
Hip-hop music mogul Sean Combs briefly attended Howard University in 1987 with a major in business administration. Combs honed his chops promoting parties and meeting many of the producers who would go on to help him found Bad Boy Records. Combs dropped out of Howard in his second year to become of of the most successful and powerful individuals in music and fashion with an estimated net worth of $400 million.
David Banner - Attended Southern University and the University of Maryland (grad school)
No stranger to contradiction, southern rapper David Banner is as well-read as they come. He is one of the few rappers that can boast a college degree as well as an MS in business! His music can often be as polarized as his life as he integrates raunchy and violent themes with conscious fare on his albums.
Denzel Washington - Graduated from Fordham University
Dr. Washington? Believe it or not, everyone's favorite actor once aspired to be a doctor. But while at Fordham he caught the acting bug and switched his major to journalism. By the time he graduated with a B.A. in Journalism and Drama in 1977, Washington already had his sights set on acting. Nearly two decades later most would agree that that was a pretty smart decision.
Boris Kodjoe - Graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University
Before he was a film and television heartthrob, actor Boris Kodjoe was well on his way to being a tennis superstar. Kodjoe went to school at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he played for the Rams. After a back injury halted his sprorting aspirations, the poor guy had to settle for being a model... what a sad life.
Nicole Ari Parker - Graduated from New York University
Born in Baltimore Maryland, Nicole used to pretend that she was Willona from the TV show 'Good Times.' After being named the best actress in Maryland at a high school competition, it further solidified her desire to act. Parker was accepted New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and graduated with an acting degree in 1993.
Common - Attended Florida A&M University
This Chicago legend attended Florida A&M University to study business administration. It wasn't too long afterward though that Common was featured in the Unsigned Hype column of the 'Source Magazine' and dropped out of college to be a rapper.
Duane Martin - Graduated from New York University
The former 'All of Us' star played basketball for NYU's team and was even drafted into the NBA by the New York Knicks. While he may not be acting at the moment, Martin is currently the owner of both a sports agency and a real estate company so that college ed may be paying off after all.
Will Smith - Could have gone to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The biggest actor on the planet had a chance to go to one of the country's premiere colleges, but turned it down to pursue his music career. "My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who was the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college," said Smith.
While I am a fan of capitalism as a source of human motivation, I've never been a fan of "Capitalism gone wild". In addition to seeing the benefits of capitalism, I've also studied the dirty side. The Ford Motor Company issued a memo in the 1970s in which they acknowledged that a certain number of their cars were going to explode each year, due to a technical malfunction in the production of the Pinto. After calculating the cost of the explosions and subsequent lawsuits, they decided not to recall the unsafe vehicles. In other words, they were willing to incur the financial cost of lawsuits from families of the dead and injured rather than actually spend the money necessary to recall the cars.
The health care industry is another example. While US citizens pay more in health care costs than any other country in the world, the quality of care is mediocre at best. Corporations are trained to put a price on human life, so an individual without the insurance necessary to obtain life saving surgery is simply left to die. The Hippocratic Oath becomes the hypocritical oath, as doctors who've promised to save lives are indirectly forced to allow their low-income patients to visit the Grim Reaper.
The profit motive once again comes into play as pharmaceutical companies are now allowed to advertise their drugs in order to find creative ways to get consumers to use their products. The pressure from shareholders to continue to achieve growth in profits and revenues pushes the industry over the top to do whatever it can to feed the insatiable monster of profit maximization and growth. We no longer need corner drug dealers, as the pharmaceutical companies have gladly replaced the thrill of illegal drugs.
Another by-product of capitalism has been the enslavement of the black social conscience. African Americans, in our quest to keep up with a standard of living that lies outside our reach, find ourselves compromising important principles, all for the sake of additional prosperity. Our greatest preachers become our slickest pimps. Our most prolific scholars submit themselves to voluntary intellectual castration. We judge one another on how much "bling" we have on our necks, instead of the amount of virtue we possess in our hearts. Courage is considered stupidity and we all find reasons to sit down when it is clearly time for us to stand up.
I am a fan of capitalism, but only to a point. Money must be a tool for empowerment, not an opiate to continue our commitment to slavery. Let money give you power, but you should never sacrifice your personal power for money. Having a life worth living means that your measure of "worth" must be greater than the size of your bank account.
This was an excerpt from the forthcoming book, "Black American Money," set to be released on July 15, 2009. For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered directly to your email inbox, please click here.
Comments: (24)
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By: GFC on 6/13/2009 11:22AM
Dr Boyce,
I agree with most everything you say but, I am a nurse and one of my pet peaves or what irks me most is when Doctors come in and start talking litteric that patients do not understand. Then some one else has to go in and explain it to them. Whether we like it or not this is a capitalistic free enterprise society. And all blacks are not doctors and they don't understand why and how they have been scarred. The only thing they know is that they are loosing their jobs, homes and life. They do not know what to do to get back on track. There was no doubt in my mind that when I voted for Pres. Obama that I was going to loose my job. White America warned us before we voted. This is not to say that we were not going to loose them anyway. Unlike some believe we would now be in battle with N Korea if McCain was in. But now that it is like it is, we have to find a way to correct this ourselves. This is something that can be done in a day. Thanks to our forefathers a lot of us are still farming. So hopefully will will still be able to eat. So as for voluntary intellectual castration, money to the commitment of slavery, measure of worth greater than your bank account; you need to be more specific. The black community needs to know what it can do to help itself. It seems to us that the successful blacks always empower themselves for themselves or either dope. So in laymens terms can you tell us what you mean? Low income people have been left to die for a long time. The only way to solve that is have more black doctors. The irony is you need these intellectual whites to teach us. The only one black hospital we had was King Drew and it was turned into a Mockery. Whitey is telling us everyday to get our own stuff and quit depending on him. We don't have the money, its as simple as that. So are you saying that if we had something like Walmart that we would be killing ourself, Or do you mean the processes that you have to go through to get it. Whatever it is that we need to do we need to hurry up and do it. Pastor Gordon always told me, if you don't have a job, make a job. Obama cannot tell us everything. You know that, they are trying to call him a racist everyday. Your're the financial voice, you why don't you help us. I don't care if I suffer, I just don't want my granddaughter to suffer. Its really time we started helping ourselves. I know that we cannot come up with a pharmaceuticals company tommorow but we need to get it together in some direction. I pray that the healthcare system works, but I do not have that much faith. Medicare and medicaid do not investigate situations until after the fact. Insurance companies do not care period, you will be covered, and they will hope you hurry up and die. Pharmaceuticals do need money for research but like you said they still have obligations to their stockholders.
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By: ann on 6/14/2009 3:31PM
You know it's lose and not loose, right? Other than that, you made very good points!... Thanks.
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By: Stephen Russell on 6/13/2009 2:19PM
I wholeheartedly concur with the good Dr. I have had my fill of commercials telling me what I need to be fulfilled! This capitalistic society dictates that our worth is measured from the outside in rather than from the inside out. Take in all you can while you can, but you will never have enough. How much more fulfilling to share and give from "within?" It is immeasurable.
The sense of wholeness achieved from the inside out was once known by us as a people. It is tragic to think that part of our culture could be forever lost.
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By: Gwendolyn Carter on 6/13/2009 3:25PM
I'm not disagreeing with him, I am just saying it is not going to change. Until we have more lucrative productive coporations to give us a democratic voice is not going to change. They have much more power than we have. So they are going to be able to mandate everything. What use to be doesn't matter. It is what it is that is shapeing things. If we keep ignoring certain things, we are going to be extinct or as he put it castrated.
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By: monique on 6/14/2009 10:13AM
The truth in all this is that money is what destroys our healthcare system. The only way the system is going to be improved is if we tear it down and build that stuff back up from scratch. It's an absolute mess, and the people who make money from these companies should be ashamed of themselves. They are destroying America.
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By: Black Moses on 6/14/2009 10:20AM
This would be a non-issue if we would have followed individuals like Martin R. Delany instead of Booker T. Washington; The Most Honorable Marcus Garvey instead of W.E.B. Dubois; The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad instead of Dr. MLK and The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Dr. Claud Anderson instead of Messy Jessie Jackson and his ilk. "The Duty of the Black is to do something for his Black self and Black kind. The Duty of the BLACK MAN is self-preservation. EVERY LIFE that is created on the planet earth has a duty. It is bound to this duty, by nature to do something for self." - The Honorable Elijah Muhammad (Muhammad Speaks September 10, 1971)
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By: monique on 6/21/2009 10:36AM
Elijah Muhammad lost his credibility when he disowned and disrespected Malcolm X. Rather than working together with this brother to achieve change, his ego led to him abandoning the greatest leader in black history. He also used and abused Muhammad ali, abandoning him when he lost his title and then showing up for the money when he got his title back. That negro is far worse than Messy Jessie or anybody else. If you worship him the way it sounds like you do, you need to check the facts!
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By: finkfayaself on 6/14/2009 5:08PM
Two quick points.
1. Can't you commentators get your point across without exploiting slavery? People may be getting ripped off and exploited in a variety of ways nowadays but no one is getting chained, whipped, raped, murdered or brutalised and exploited as in the cotton fields and cane fields of centuries gone. Have some proper respect for your ancestors and temper your words.
2. "While I am not one who wants to live in a socialist society, I do understand that capitalism and socialism must balance one another in any society that alleges to embrace human compassion"
If by "socialist society" your definiton of socialism means totalitarian Soviet or Chinese style communist states then your not talking any sense, for there exists - now or previously - no western styled capitalism for it to be balanced against (and that still includes China as present). Following on there are plenty of political parties and goverments around the world over the last 100 years that describe themselves as socialists that have presided over capitalists economies. To presume that capitalism and socialism, as defined by those who've coined the term and practised it for decades, are necessarily contradictory is nonsense.
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By: Frank on 6/15/2009 5:38PM
If blacks would stop and actually THINK as far as their capacity would take them, they'd realize that they are VERY fortunate to be here and not back in Africa with their tribes. As far as I'm concerned most of their whining is due to years of coddling by guilt laden liberal whites. Who in their right mind could defend policies like "affirmative action?" Any advancement should be on merit alone.
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By: fitfour on 6/16/2009 4:11AM
Frank do you feel yourself fortunate to be here or are you feeling priviledged? someone once said "mental bondage is much worst than physical bondage!" Please reply!
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