OG Talk
Archived
I partly agree with Dr. Watkins...But I really don't care enough to make some type of huge protest...My way of silent protest is refusing to give any of these rap c00ns and puppet string pulling joos my money...
"Why DR. DRE gave 35 MILLION to "white" USC as opposed to an HBCU?-Dr. Boyce Watkins
- Thread starter KENNY DA COOKER
- Start date
Yeah, I don't buy it. He's out to turn this into another venture where he can make money. Not just give shyt away for funsies. I'm sure Dre has given plenty back to the black community. But nikkas stay asking for more and more
Its only the black community that the rich don't do enough for.
When will these lazy ass nikkas decide to get off of their asses and do for themselves.
MegaTronBomb!
Power is in my hair nikka
Its only the black community that the rich don't do enough for.
When will these lazy ass nikkas decide to get off of their asses and do for themselves.
Nobody want's to address the "black savior" crutch...If one of us blacks makes it, we're supposed to have some obligation to uplift the rest of us up.
From Oprah to Bill Cosby to Magic Johnson to Will Smith to Russell Simmons, the causes they give their money/support to are criticized, and questioned cause somebody else deserved it more.
No matter what blacks with money do....it's not enough.
its Dre's money and he can do whatever wants. I don't get why people are so hell bent on tryin to spend other peoples money
yall are missing the entire point.
a lot of us in here don't even care to be in another man's pockets. im moreso disappointed with the people in here defending this chit actually.
its the fact that he forked over a staggering 35 mil to an institution where only 4% of its students are black, and that's including the athletes.
its moreso mortifying than anything else. but my main gripe is with the people in here talking about "this is him giving back to his community".and what is it that you claim dre is getting out of this exactly? its a donation. not an investment. he gets a tax write-off and that's it.
and all these post got murked, cause not one of you could even name one top HBCU that could even accommodate/sustain such a program... much less have it operate in the capacity that it could in LA.
y'all were just throwing out shyt, hoping it would stick... disregarding the entire fact that USC reputation in the arts,film,technology,media and business is far greater than any of the top HBCU's out there.
y'all so caught up in being pro black, you sound stupid...y'all turned this into a race issue, and threw all logic out the window.
the word you mean to use, is Uncle Tom... not c00n.
you didn't merk anything. in fact, you got shut down when you posted this earlier.
you wanna know why USC can sustain such a program? BECAUSE THEY HAVE $$$. and all dre is doing is making the rich richer.
im not even on the hbcu argument, but donating $35 mil to an elite hbcu school can work wonders.
what are you talking about now?
aint nobody in here even on that "watch his pockets" type chit.
hell, dre would've been better off just sitting on his money and not donating to anybody if you ask me.
Dillard President Asks Dr. Dre Why He Gave $35 Million to USC and Not a Black College | AllHipHop.com
Dr. Dre is one of the most successful entertainers in history, earning hundreds of millions of dollars by making great music. Much of this music moves because he has been able to successfully package urban/black culture, selling it to audiences around the world. One of the questions some have about those who readily use their blackness for profit is the following: What are you giving back to those who gave you so much?
Its hard to know exactly what Dr. Dre is doing for the black community, but we all know where he made his greatest gift. Dr. Dre and music producer Jimmy Lovine recently announced a whopping $70 million dollar donation to USC to create a new degree. The program is one that pulls together liberal arts, graphic arts, business, music and technology. Dr. Dres donation is the largest ever given by any African American in history, and oddly enough, the money is going into the hands of rich white people.
As I prepared to give the commencement address at Simmons College, a growing HBCU in Kentucky with a very rich history, I heard a story about a group of ex-slaves who pooled their money to buy four acres of land so they could educate future generations. Without sacrifices like these, the school would not be giving so much to the community today. The schools extraordinary president, Dr. Kevin Cosby, has not taken a paycheck for his work for the last eight years and readily speaks of how the school is located in one of the poorest districts in America. He sees his contribution as a chance to lift up the community around him, rather than simply milk the communitys resources.
If I could transplant Dr. Cosbys brain into Dr. Dres body, black America would be changed forever. Also, had those ex-slaves been naive enough to give all of their money to the big white university down the street, the impact of their contribution would be minimal at best. One of the reasons that black Americans struggle economically is because weve been locked out of economic opportunities, while massive institutions like USC hoard the wealth to protect their own (take a look at the very low percentage of African Americans they hire or admit as students). Simultaneously, when we do have access to the resources necessary to begin our building process, we dont feel inclined to support those who look like us. Thats the difference between the black and the Jewish communities: They teach their children to generously target their resources to protect them against oppression.
Some may argue that Dr. Dre can do whatever he wants with his money, and this point is valid: No one has the right to tell any of us what to do a child has no obligation to care about his mother, a husband has no real obligation to provide for his wife, the list goes on and on. But the truth is that if you choose not to care about your community, then dont expect your community to care about you. Black people have always been incredibly loyal and supportive of Dr. Dre, particularly those who made him the defacto King of Compton and Long Beach. It would seem that his greatest economic gift should go to them instead.
Another person who had something to say about the gift is Dillard University president, Walter M. Kimbrough. Dr. Kimbrough was once the youngest president of any HBCU in the country and proudly considers himself to be a part of the hip-hop generation. In an op-ed in the LA Times, Kimbrough openly asks Dre why he chose to give so much money to USC, as opposed to one of the struggling HBCUs that really could have used those resources:
I understood their need to build a pool of skilled talent. But why at USC? Iovines daughter is an alum, sure. And he just gave its commencement address. Andre Young before he was Dr. Dre grew up in nearby Compton, where he rose to fame as part of the rap group N.W.A. The Beats headquarters are on L.A.s Westside.
Still, what if Dre had given $35 million his half of the USC gift and about 10% of his wealth, according to a Forbes estimate to an institution that enrolls the very people who supported his career from the beginning? An institution where the majority of students are low-income? A place where $35 million would represent a truly transformational gift?
Dr. Kimbrough is absolutely correct. USCs endowment is over $3.5 billion, which gives this school more money than every single HBCU in America combined. Even more stunning is that the schools endowment isnt even in the top 20 in the nation. The point here, and I hope Dr. Dre understands this, is that white people have plenty of money and they arent going to use that money to help people who look like you. They dont exactly need black people making donations, since theyve already earned over a billion dollars from their African American athletes, many of whom have mothers who cant even pay the rent.
Even worse is that much of this wealth was accumulated on the backs of slaves and black people who were locked out of the economic system. Schools like USC make it diffcult for black students to gain admission and even more difficult for black faculty to get jobs. The university sits down the street from South Central Los Angeles, a virtual war zone where prisons and funeral homes get rich from all the young black men being fed into the prison industrial complex. USC doesnt use many of its resources to help these individuals, it simply uses Dr. Dres money to build higher walls so they can protect the rich white kids from the scary black ones.
//
//
Black students at USC protest police harassment during a recent party on campus
I wonder if Dr. Dre knows that not only does USC admit very few black students, but the ones who are there are subject to serious racism and racial profiling. During a recent campus party, the LAPD sent over 70 police officers in riot gear with a helicopter to break up the party after noise complaints. All the while, the white kids were partying up in their fraternity houses without so much as a peep from the police.
Additionally, for Dr. Dre, his $35 million dollar donation (half of the $70 million he is sharing with Levin) is merely a drop in the bucket for a school like USC that is sitting on an amount of money that no HBCU will have for at least another 100 years. USC shed no tears when Dr. Dres baby brother was murdered in the violence that has poisoned the black community. They did nothing when his son died from an overdose on the drugs that were dropped into black communities in the 1980s. HBCUs have scholars working to solve these problems, and thousands of students who will graduate to fight for black America. USC does NOT.
Dr. Kimbrough goes even further to explain why USC was a questionable donation target for someone who grew up as a struggling black kid in South Central Los Angeles.
USC is a great institution, no question. But it has a $3.5-billion endowment, the 21st largest in the nation and much more than every black college combined. Less than 20% of USCs student body qualifies for federal Pell Grants, given to students from low-income families, compared with two-thirds of those enrolled at black colleges. USC has also seen a steady decrease in black student enrollment, which is now below 5%.
A new report on black male athletes and racial inequities shows that only 2.2% of USC undergrads are black men, compared with 56% of its football and basketball teams, one of the largest disparities in the nation. And given USCs $45,602 tuition next year, Im confident Dre could have sponsored multiple full-ride scholarships to private black colleges for the cost of one at USC.
Dr. Kimbrough made a courageous decision to write this article. There are some who might criticize him as a hater or argue with his right to question what Dr. Dre does with his money. But Im not talking to those people right now. Instead, we must look at the facts: Dr. Dre, a man who has made hundreds of millions of dollars selling back urban culture to the world has made his largest donation to a predominately white university that doesnt need the money and rarely admits black students unless they can play a sport. I love Dr. Dres music, but I am dying to ask my good brother, What were you thinking?
By the way, as schools like USC have gotten rich from black athletes, HBCUs can barely pay the bills. All the while, almost none of this money is returned to the black community, and multi-million dollar USC athletes like Reggie Bush have their integrity questioned for receiving a few hundred dollars under the table. The fact is that these schools rob black people blind, dont give hardly anything to the black community, and laugh at the fact that we are ridiculous enough to turn around and give money back. If I were the president of USC, Id be giggling under my breath and wondering how a group of people can have such little respect for themselves.
I think this is what some in the dotcom era might call an SMH moment. Dr. Dre is a brilliant producer, but this move just doesnt make any sense. I hope he has something to say.
Don't see what the big issue is. Dude is joining up with Iovine to start a shiny new "music/arts/blah blah" program. This isn't a blank check to a university.
Folks with their faux outrage are hilarious.So Dre was suppose to give Howard enough money to sustain the program and then enough money to run the program?
You say we've only been talking about the bad HBCUs but in one of my earlier posts I pointed out that Howard has had some financial problems the past few years, have had to enforce furlough days, can't get financial aid out on time and had to eliminate a bunch of programs.
MegaTronBomb!
Power is in my hair nikka
It's 35 million, for an academy at USC... not a "here white people, take my money and do whatever with it
" donation.No shyt, donating 35 million to ANY school can work wonders, but what you can't even begin to explain is what inherent qualities do the elite HBCU's ( Hampton,Morehouse,Spelman,Howard etc.) have that could support this academy and have it operate in the capacity that it can in LA, at USC.
your argument never passes the " Dre is black and gave a lot of money to a school with a small black enrollment, and i dont like it one bit
"
Dre
So basically 35mil to reserve his kids a spot in the 5% of blacks they enroll. Thir endowment can cover whatever his money was gonna do anyway, why not donate to a place that needs it? Bill cosby never attended a hbcu but still donated at least 40 mil to spelman.
Ronnie Lott
#49erGang
Because Dre can do whatever he wants with his money that HE earned. Its not about what school "needs" what. Its about who wants to give what they want to give. I don't understand why people are gettin so upset about the decisions people make with their own money
Merely discussing the subject is not expressing anger. I say his decision was dumb but its his to make. But my question is how in the fukk does USC only enroll 5% african americans? Thats deplorable. I wouldnt want my name attached to a school with enrollment issues like that
Ronnie Lott
#49erGang
Please explain how Dre made a "dumb" decision?
MegaTronBomb!
Power is in my hair nikka
LA's black population is only 8-9%, and none of the large Universities in California have black enrollments over 8%...UCLA, routinely hovers around 1% black enrollment.
we've already established that tho, it's not that USC doesn't let black people in, or that blacks dont go to college... it's that California schools have far larger asian,latino and white populations to draw from for enrollment.
Have you been to LA breh? it's not a black city like Atlanta or DC...y'all routinely make threads about how LA doesn't have black people and isn't overly black like other cities are. it's been a majority white and latino city for decades.
Bill Cosby is all about education, he routinely shyts on black america and the hip hop generation for our lack of accountability,wanting hand outs and valuing material possessions far more than we do education.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/08/us/a-black-college-gets-cosby-gift-of-20-million.html
Black America can make fakkits like Eddie Long and Tyler Perry wild rich, but they aint giving shyt to HBCU's...
Black America can create multi million dollar Super churches, but we can't give our schools shyt.
Why are we asking Dre why he didn't give his $35 Million to a black school that really needed it... when Black America has given literally over $200 million for Tyler Perry movies in the past 5 years?
Why is Dre obligated to do his part to help black america, when black america isn't helping itself.... when it clearly has the ability to help itself?