AAST and CLJ Professor David Stovall Discusses Issues with the NFL’s Partnership with Jay-Z’s ROC Nation on the Chicago Tribune
David Stovall, UIC professor of African American studies and criminology, law and justice, is interviewed in a Chicago Tribune article exploring various issues surrounding the NFL’s community involvement initiative with Jay-Z’s ROC Nation, the league’s donation to a Chicago nonprofit that helps young boys in Englewood, and the social media firestorm after tweets from the group’s white founder show her cutting the dreadlocks of a black teen who is part of her program. Stovall is skeptical of the corporate partnership and notes the insensitivity to issues around black hair and its link to history and identity were compounded by using the cutting of locks on social media. “It doesn’t matter so much the young person saying, ‘I wanted to cut my locks and try something new.’ It’s the positioning of the thing when you then put that out there in the public sphere. It makes no sense. The whole thing makes no sense,” he said. http://bit.ly/2ZKPlAZ (subscription required)