Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Dr. Boyce Spotlight: Black Female Entrepreneurs Give You Virtual Assistance

 

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University - Scholarship in Action 

Most of us think that a personal assistant is someone who lives and works right next to you. In the age of technology, it is no longer necessary to be in the same room or even the same country as the person who handles your daily affairs. With technology, cell phones, and other ways for us to remain connected, it's quite simple to work with someone every day of your life and never even see them. It is because of their brilliant use of technology and entrepreneurship skills that the ladies with JustGo Virtual Assistants are today's Dr. Boyce Watkins Spotlight on AOL Black Voices:

What is your name and what do you do?
Our name is JustGo and we are a company that provides new age administrative and personal assistant services to high profile speakers, authors, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. Our assistants, although in another state, are able to complete and fulfill client requests and wishes through the use of internet, email, fax, phone, and/or chat. We may not be able to personally pour your daily cup of coffee, but we can definitely have it delivered to you. JustGo presents a comfortable and convenient opportunity to those professionally inclined individuals with impeccable administrative and computer skills to work from home while also gifting its clients with money saving services that reduce over-head expenses and relieves the pressures of routine responsibilities. This frees the client to focus on tasks that are more profit generating or gives them the opportunity to enjoy leisurely activities they otherwise may not have time for.

 

Click to read more.

Basketball Wives: The show that makes Absolutely No Sense

Since most of the women on basketball wives are either unmarried or have never been married, why don't they just call the show "Basketball Baby Mamas?"

With all the cat-fighting, hemming and hawing, back and forth and he-say, she-say, this show’s popularity says a lot about our culture.  Also, it’s an embarrassment to black women everywhere who are being convinced that letting a basketball player get you naked somehow makes you into a somebody.

Perhaps intelligent black women are just going out of style.  But then again, maybe all the smart black women in the world who are NOT gold-digging hoochie mamas can get together and say something about this show.   There’s more to life than blinging your way onto TV with absolutely no sense of true purpose.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Is there a Difference between Being Curvy and Being Fat?

by Dr. Boyce Watkins

Ashley Patrice Williams at AOL Black Voices recently wrote an article on the difference between being curvy and fat.  I am not going to get into the business of telling beautiful black women how to carry their weight (there’s already too much scrutiny in media making women self-conscious about their bodies), but most of us can agree that no one carries a few extra pounds the way a black woman can.

Two things come to mind in the curvy vs. fat debate.  First, there’s a difference between looking good and being healthy.  So, as wonderful as “sistuhs” might look with a little bit of extra “junk in the trunk,” we must always be cognizant of the wide variety of illnesses that plague our community that result from eating so much salt, fat, sugar and all the other things that keep killing us.  Big Momma’s Sweet Tea and fried chicken might taste better than candy, but Big Momma and her husband also died from cardiac arrest and diabetes.

 

Click to read.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Kelley Williams-Bolar, Al Sharpton to Appear on Dr. Phil

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

Many of you might remember the case of Kelley Williams-Bolar, the single black mother of two who was jailed for sending her children to a school that was outside their home district. Well, Dr. Phil McGraw has decided to do a show on Kelley's situation, set to air in the coming week.


Shortly after AOL Black Voices brought Kelley's case to the nation, I found that there were quite a few citizens around the country who were concerned about her situation. Millions of people around the world rallied to Kelley's defense, and ColorofChange.org and Change.org did a wonderful job of gathering hundreds of thousands of signatures on petitions that were eventually delivered to the governor of Ohio.

Click to read.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Madam Prezident: Is “The Game” Making Lesbianism Into a Gimmick?

Madam Prezident apparently has issues with the TV show, “The Game.”  Check it Out.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Afrika Owes: Ivy League Bound Student Busted for Dealing Drugs for her Boyfriend

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

I spoke this weekend to a group of aspiring college students in a group called "Black Achievers." The group invited me to speak because I talk regularly about the value of education, as well as confronting the structural obstacles that make it difficult for our kids to find success. But one thing I brought to the table that the students and their parents might not have expected is the need for us to confront the destructive elements of hip-hop culture, which teach our good kids that "keeping it real" is something that should be done at all costs, even when it causes them to lose their lives.


The reason I brought this issue to the forefront of the discussion was because of young women like Afrika Owes. Afrika is a 17-year old who was once headed to an Ivy League school. But rather than going to anyone's university, she will be spending most of her adult life in prison. Afrika was recently arrested for being part of a drug ring run by her boyfriend in prison. "Head shots only," he would tell her from behind bars, as he detailed how he wanted people to be executed.

Click to read.

Some Trying to Say that the Oprah Winfrey Network is a Failure

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action 

 

I’m not sure if this is the right time to pass judgment on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), since it just began.  But Alexis Stodghill at AOL Black Voices, the New York Times and others are beginning to wonder if the magic is going to last.   According to the Times:

OWN, her two-month-old channel, is attracting fewer viewers than the obscure channel it replaced, Discovery Health. At any given time this month, there have been about 135,000 people watching OWN, according to the Nielsen Company, and only about 45,000 of those people are women ages 25 to 54, the demographic that the channel is focusing on.

Those ratings levels, down about 10 percent from Discovery Health’s levels last year, are being carefully watched by people who would like to rebuild cable channels around other celebrities, and by investors who worry that OWN is a drag on Discovery’s stock.

 

Click to read.

Professor Laquita Blockson Studies the Black Female Entrepreneur

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse UniversityScholarship in Action 

I've known of the work of Dr. Laquita Blockson for over a decade. I consider Dr. Blockson to be one of the leading experts on Minority female entrepreneurship in the entire United States. Given that the black female has been found in numerous studies to have the lowest average net worth of any race/gender group, the work of women like Laquita Blockson has a level of importance that is beyond words. It is because of her commitment to helping her sisters experience the freedom of socially-responsible entrepreneurship, education and wealth building that Dr. Laquita Blockson is today's Dr. Boyce Watkins Spotlight on AOL Black Voices:

 

Click to read.