Black Press International |

Date: Feature Week of January 5, 2003
Topic: Black Press Business/Economic
Author: William Reed
Article ID: article_ema010503a

AFRICAN AMERICAN OF THE YEAR: 2002
Politicians Talk, But It’s About The Benjamins and Economics, Stupid

What African-American had the greatest impact on our community and the nation during 2002?
When it comes to leadership, job and wealth creation, image and impact for the race, Robert Johnson is far and away the African American of the Year.

Robert L. Johnson, 58, is the founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of Black Entertainment Television Holdings (BET), which became the leading Black-owned-and operated media and entertainment company in the US. He established BET to make it “the most valued consumer brand within the African American marketplace.” BET enjoyed continual financial and strategic success since its inception in 1980. Through Johnson’s initiatives, in 1991 BET became the first Black-controlled company listed on the New York Stock exchange.

During the 22 years Johnson was at the helm of BET, he provided employment for thousands of African Americans in BET’s, and external companies‚, production and programming in news, sitcoms, movies, comedies, public affairs, youth programming, and music videos. Because of the network’s large reach into the African American community it has become a dominant medium for advertisers to reach Black consumers.

Instead of shying away from being Black, Johnson has worn his blackness with honor and articulated that point of view in board rooms that include: the United Negro College Fund, the Advertising Councils, American Film Institute, the National Cable Television Association’s Academy of Cable Programming, Hilton Hotels Corporation, US Airways, and General Mills.

In December 2002, Johnson became the first Black person to hold controlling interest in an NBA team. Although Bertram Lee and Peter Bynoe were thought to be the league's first Black ownership team in 1989 when they purchased the Denver Nuggets, it was later learned that Comsat Video actually owns 62.5 percent of the team. Johnson is expected to pay $300 million for the franchise. He is reportedly worth $1.3 billion, placing him 149th on that Forbes list of richest Americans, and richer than most of his 29 fellow NBA owners.

In addition to Bob Johnson, there were precious few others who made significant impact for African Americans in economics in 2002. Honorable mentions include:

Cathy Hughes, chair of the board of Radio One, Inc. In 2002, Radio One continued its urban market radio station purchases toward becoming the nation's seventh largest radio broadcasting company. The Company owns and/or operates 65 radio stations located in 22 of the largest markets in the United States and programs five channels on the XM Satellite Radio Inc. system, making it the largest radio broadcasting company primarily targeting African- American and urban listeners. Hughes personally funds college scholarships for journalism students and community events in cities her stations serve.

In 2002, attorney Johnnie Cochran pointed out that if you look at the NFL sidelines and you'll notice that the guys with the clipboards and the headsets are mostly white. In the 2002-2003 season, 30 of the 32 head coaches in the NFL were white. Although there are hundreds of Black millionaires running around NFL stadiums, in a report entitled "Black Coaches in the National Football League: Superior Performance, Inferior Opportunities," Cochran and fellow attorney Cyrus Mehri exposed the glass ceiling existing for Black coaches and in NFL front offices. Cochran and Mehri are the dynamic duo behind two of the most expensive racial discrimination settlements in American history --$176 million at Texaco in 1996 and $192 million at Coca-Cola in 2000.

Although his 2002 statement did not accrue direct revenues to Black Americans, Harry Belafonte’s civil rights contributions over the past three decades have. His perspective on Colin Powell as Secretary of State illustrates that Powell’s “appointment” has little positive impact on Black Life in America. Belafonte compared Powell to a plantation slave allowed, "to come into the house of the master" who would be "turned back out to pasture" if he ceased to demonstrate obedience to the administration. "There's an old saying - in the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation [and] those slaves that lived in the house," Belafonte said. "You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master ... exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him,” drew the singer scorn from not only white media, but Black pundits as well. Ironically, when he was still Senate Majority Leader-elect, Trent Lott withdrew from a November dinner event to honor Belafonte after CORE, an African-American group that orchestrated Lott’s appearance on BET, called the comments a disgrace.

Movie producers George Tillman, Jr. and Robert Teitel made money and impact in their production of “Barbershop”. The movie zeroed in on barbershops role as the “commercial center” of America’s Black neighborhoods. The $11 million budgeted film unfolds during a 24-hour period in which Calvin (Ice Cube) has to decide whether to sell the community landmark to a loan shark who wants to turn it into a strip joint, thereby throwing the barbershop’s large family of haircutters and trim-seekers into the street. The picture, which was making over $10 million a week after its release, featured Ice Cube, as a man whose get-rich-quick entrepreneurial brainstorms (from Herbalife franchises to do-it-yourself basement recording studios) have blinded him to the true worth of the perfectly viable business he owns. An hour and a half production, “Barbershop” opened in 1,605 theaters and was generating $13,084 a cinema in its opening weeks. A product of Tillman and Teitel’s State Street Pictures Company, “Barbershop” was one of the film industry’s top box office earners in 2002.

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