AP on Spike Lee's donation

I'm too lazy to look this up, but what is the enrollment stats of minority students at J-schools? I think it's a noble thing for Spike to do..... but limiting it to one school, how much effect can this program really have? I think his money would have a greater impact if he targeted the NY public schools and got college bound students interested in a career in journalism (not just sports). That way J-schools throughout the nation could see an increase in minority enrollment.

Budcrew....I also had issues with that portion of the article. The athletes profiled were arrested, USAToday wasn't fabricating their mug shots.

 

There's also a sidebar with that piece on Lee's donation...

 

WHAT AN ASSHOLE

 

Any donation made to education is fantastic. But I'm with whoever said maybe the money would help more in earlier stages. If you can write, and you can offer different views, this business is wide open. Most newspapers are itching to diversify their newsrooms or information centers or whatever. If there is some conspiracy keeping minorities out of sports writing, it begins well before college.

 

I'm just wondering -- will the first two endowed scholarships go to Sports Bruh and Reel E Reel?


Sorry, had to..... ;D

 

Pointless discussion.

If someone points out that language skills, Anglo language skills, are important... you automatically are wearing the Grand Dragon robes.

No point in getting into this.

 

Second that.

 

I think it is indeed a very important discussion to have because, without going as far as Rhoden and comparing it to Apartheid in South Africe, sports are still largely filtered through the eyes of white American journalists.

By the same token -- how many minorities are applying for sports journalism jobs? Isn't that a question as well -- how many black kids growing up really want to be sports writers?

That's the flaw I find in all of these "studies" that claim a lack of something -- that might be true, but couldn't, at least in part, a lack of something be because there just ain't that many of whatever is lacking interested in it?

And I think it could get real sticky if a white kid decides to apply for one of these endowed scholarships and gets denied.

Can you say law suit.

 

I think the money would be better spent on high school programs but that's just me.

Having taught in an "urban" school, very few college-bound black students were interested in the lower-paying majors such as teaching or journalism. They were mostly headed into fields where they wouldn't qualify for food stamps at their first couple jobs.

 

But that's my point - is that a bad thing if black kids for the most part aren't interested in sports journalism? Do we need to artificially inseminate the pool of reporters with minorities by pushing kids in a direction they might not want to go in order to fill an agenda?

 

That's why I think the money would be better spent at the high school level to get them interested in the first place. Not so much push them toward something they don't want, but let them know that poor pay doesn't mean the career doesn't have its perks.

Once the kids get to the college application process, their minds are generally made up.

 

I think Spike's heart is in the right place.