(Image: Getty)

Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s 13-year NBA run with the Los Angeles Lakers was just the beginning for his longstanding career off the court. The 6’9”, 220-pound point guard—who won five NBA championships and a gold medal at the 1992 Olympics held in Barcelona—now juggles a plethora of business ventures from health centers to urban development projects. As the Chief Executive Officer of Magic Johnson Enterprises, the Lansing, Michigan native has been able to provide jobs as well as goods and services to minorities throughout the country with his lofty endeavors. The 52-year-old has also transformed the face of HIV since revealing his contraction of the disease more than 20 years ago.

Once the basketball hall-of-famer realized his potential beyond the game, he created a plan for life off the court: build wealth, develop a series of lucrative partnerships and pass on the benefits for future generations. “Our mindset needs to change when we think about material things,” he told Black Enterprise in a 2010 interview. “We want to be hip and cool; we want to have 20 cars. Young people look up to people like Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, but their role models should be people like Ken Chenault. They don’t realize he’s much more powerful and will make more money than them for years because he won’t have to retire early like pro athletes do.” In light of Johnson’s recent minority stake in the Los Angeles Dodgers, BlackEnterprise.com figured now was the time to Decode the business of Magic.

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Magic & Cookie Johnson (Image: Getty)

BIG & SMALL SCREEN MAGIC

In 1994 the former NBA player created a chain of movie theaters in minority neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area. Seeing the need for first-rate movie multiplexes in Black neighborhoods, Johnson Development Corporation later partnered with Sony-Loews Theaters to open additional locations in Atlanta, Cleveland and Houston. AMC Theaters purchased Sony-Loews in 2006, renaming the entrepreneur’s multiplexes to AMC Magic Johnson Theaters. Since giving up his management role, most theater locations have since closed with only two remaining—one in Harlem and the other in Largo, Maryland.

In February 2012, Magic Johnson became one of the few minorities to acquire his own television channel through Xfinity (formerly Comcast). Named Aspire, the channel is geared towards African-American and families will offer movies, documentaries, short films, music, comedy and inspirational programs. “Aspire will be a network that encourages and challenges African-Americans to reach for their dreams and will appeal to all generations,” said Johnson about the channel, which is set to launch this summer. “Aspire will celebrate our heritage, our groundbreaking achievements and the fearless talent that has shaped American culture.”

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(Image: Getty)

TALKING A GOOD GAME

Although the exuberant, competitive athlete-turned-businessman retired in 1991, he has never been far from the game… or the Lakers. During the Lakers’ 1993–94 season, Johnson replaced head coach Randy Pfund, and helped the team win the first five games of that season. Soon after, when they began to lose, Johnson announced he wouldn’t coach again. “I want to go home,” he told the Associated Press in 1993. “It’s never been my dream to coach. I want to own, to be a businessman. You’ve got to chase your dreams.”

Johnson got his wish in June 1994, when he stopped coaching the West Coast franchise, but simultaneously became the first minority shareholder of the Lakers, purchasing for a reported 10 percent of the team for $10 million. He went back to play one more season with the California-based team during the 1995-96 season, then retired for good after losing to the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 1996 playoffs. Johnson eventually joined TNT as an NBA analyst for seven year, and ultimately landed a multi-year agreement with ESPN as a studio analyst on NBA Countdown in October 2008.

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Magic Johnson during his HIV+ announcement conference (Image: Getty)

HIV ACTIVISM

After letting the world know he was HIV positive during a 1991 press conference, Johnson immediately went into action by starting a campaign and the Magic Johnson Foundation. Since launching in 1991, MJF has expanded to host a scholarship that pays up to $5,000 in tuition; help families become home owners; annually provides food to more than 10,000 families in need and offer technologically-savvy learning centers in urban communities. The foundation has three major partners that work with HIV/AIDS relief: AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest healthcare provider for HIV/AIDS, providing services to over 1,200 individuals living with HIV/AIDS via five AHF Magic Johnson clinics; Abbott, a worldwide healthcare company devoted to helping establish health management and finding new medicines, who will offer health education to minority communities through a multi-year plan; and Aetna, a national health insurance company, who launched a 20-week “nutrition and exercise competition between fourth-and-fifth graders at five elementary schools in the Houston Independent School District.” Overall, Johnson’s programs help around 250,000 people every year, and they only continue to grow.

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Johnson with MLB star Barry Bonds (Image: Getty)

A TRUE TEAM PLAYER

In October 2010, Johnson sold his 4.5 percent minority interest in the Los Angeles Lakers, giving up an estimated $27 million of the team’s total worth. A partial owner since 1994, it was rumored that he sold his stake to look into buying other NBA franchises. However, it was recently revealed that Johnson had actually set his sights on baseball—specifically the L.A. Dodgers. Already an investor for the Dayton Dragons, who sold out 844 consecutive games (an ongoing record for a North American professional sports franchise), Johnson became the first athlete to buy stock in a team of a different sport. Johnson, alongside Stan Kasten purchased the L.A. Dodgers for a “record $2 billion.”

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Johnson with Starbucks Chief Executive Officer, Howard Schultz (Image: Getty)

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Knowing the importance of daily nutrition, the former Lakers’ owner partnered with several companies to put his imprint on the food service industry. In 1998 Johnson teamed up with Carlson Restaurants Worldwide Inc. to establish Magic Johnson’s T.G.I. Friday’s in Ladera, CA. He also teamed up with Sodexo, Inc., a food service company, in 2006 to establish SodexoMAGIC, which provides catering, food distribution and environmental maintenance to a client list of nearly a dozen companies.  During that same year, Johnson worked with Starbucks’ Chief Executive Officer, Howard Schultz to acquire 50% of the coffee shop company, but sold 105 coffeehouse franchises back to the company in 2010 for a reported $75 million.

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(Image: Getty)

URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Health is of vital importance to the former professional athlete, which is why he “jumped at the chance” to develop more than a dozen 24 Hour Fitness Magic Johnson Sports Clubs. The gyms are based in areas where he has an established presence with his other ventures in California and Texas, in cities such as San Diego, Oakland, Compton and Arlington. In 2001, Magic joined together with Canyon Capital Realty Advisors—one of the country’s largest private real estate companies—to redevelop properties in urban communities. Fused together, the Canyon-Johnson Urban Fund as it’s called, recently signed on as the sponsoring agency to develop One Santa Fe, a $160 million mixed-use project under construction in the downtown Los Angeles Arts District. According to MarketWatch, “One Santa Fe will include 438 apartments and 78,620 square feet of office and retail space, along with nearly 50,000 square feet of public outdoor space.”

Forget the boardroom or even the power lunch; the real great ideas are birthed in the… shower?!?! Well, that’s how it worked for Verneda Adele White, creative director and founder of Human Intonation,  an independent apparel line geared towards raising awareness about various social and human rights issues. “Like all great entrepreneurs, I thought of [the name] in the shower,” says the 27-year-old with a laugh. “As I was brainstorming, I really wanted to invoke something. When I was thinking about fashion and wanting to raise social awareness the thought process was, I want to use fashion as a voice, so Human Intonation is giving voice to these social human rights issues that affect all of us as human beings.”

White’s beautiful mission was actually born out of personal tragedy. Five months after Hurricane Katrina displaced her family, she got word that her first cousin and best friend, James Wesley White, died from complications from AIDS. White’s misplaced emotions of anger and grief led her to lash out sexually until something just “clicked” inside of her. “I was very hurt, very angry about [my cousin’s] passing and part of that was a lot of acting out,” she admits. “Then I realized that being reckless isn’t going to bring him back and there’s something more productive I can do with this.”

The end result was Human Intonation. Founded in the summer of 2008, the brand—which includes graphic tees for both men and women—donates 20% of all its sales to non-profit organizations tied into the message of each of the four collections. For example, the Katrina tees benefit Hands on New Orleans, while proceeds from the Darfur Peace, Healing Haiti and Stop HIV tees go to Darfur Peace & Development Org., Yele Haiti and Advocates for Youth, respectively.

More than just a fashionista with a generous heart, White is about evoking real change through action. Over the course of the past year she’s held a series of roundtable discussions that focus on changing people of color’s sexual attitudes and HIV/AIDS awareness. The first three were all-female affairs because African-American women are the hardest hit by the disease, but last night (December 2) she opened the floor for the first co-ed “Protection is the NEW Black: Sex, Love + Lies in the Age of HIV Forum.” The panelist included motivational speaker and AIDS activist Hydeia Broadbent, President of Global World Solutions, Prof. David Hughes, program manager for LifeBeat Kizzy Graham and relationship blogger Slim Jackson. The resulting conversation was honest, real and hopefully opened up a few eyes.

“Yes, we are able to live a long time with medicine and have a normal life being HIV positive and living with AIDS, but that is not everyone’s story,” White warns. “Don’t ride that on your back and feel that it’s not a death sentence, it can still happen. My cousin found out in September of 2005 [that he had AIDS] and he died in February of 2006—five months. So that’s where I get a lot of my passion and motivation. Every time you choose to have unprotected sex that might be the last time before your life changes for real.”

Broadbent: Born with AIDS and a will to live

International HIV/AIDS activist and motivational speaker, Hydeia Broadbent, didn’t choose her career path, it chose her. Abandoned by her drug-addicted biological mom, Broadbent, who was born HIV positive, has turned what many might have considered a tragic tale into a triumphant one, dedicating her life to helping keep others from getting infected.

Since the age of six the Las Vegas native—who was adopted as an infant—has been a renowned public speaker, traveling to universities like Duke, UCLA and Howard, and appearing on such television programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show, 20/20 and Good Morning America to warn teens and young adults about the dangers of unsafe sex.

In March of 2010, Broadbent teamed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help launch a new social media initiative called “I Know.” Its purpose is to encourage African Americans ages 18-24 to talk openly about HIV, to know their status and to get tested. The campaign features public service announcements starring celebrities such as Jamie Foxx and Ludacris, and utilizes social media outlets like FaceBook and Twitter to get the word out.

Broadbent says it’s critical for young people to understand that HIV changes your life.

“I lead a pretty normal life but the medicine that helps keep me healthy is very expensive,” says the activist, who relies on the state to foot the enormous bill. “Nowadays kids don’t see HIV as a death sentence. Some of them know people with HIV and assume it’s as easy as popping some pills every now and then. It’s not; each pill I take costs $750.”

The money is just one of Broadbent’s many hardships.

“The medication can also make you really sick,” admits the 26-year-old, who says she spends more time than she’d like inside a doctor’s office. Broadbent also points to the lingering stigma around having HIV/AIDS and says despite having an active social life, dating isn’t easy. “I was once in love with someone who wasn’t strong enough to deal with me having AIDS,” she shares. “That affected me a lot because AIDS is part of me.”

“People sometimes think because I was born with HIV my story does not apply to them,” she adds. “But I’ve had it all my life. Who better to tell you about the disease than someone who has never lived a day without it? My message to young people is that having HIV affects you mind, body and soul. It’s not a death sentence but it does make things a whole lot more complicated.”

More than 2 million followers mourn Keys' Twitter death.

Social media has become a huge part of many people’s lives, so it makes sense that it will play an equal role in the death of several celebrities—digitally. Spearheaded by singer/philanthropist Alicia Keys’s charity, Keep a Child Alive, the Digital Life Sacrifice campaign will find various public figures signing off from Twitter and FaceBook tomorrow (Tuesday, Nov. 30) in an act of solidarity to raise awareness and funds for families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India. Tied in to World AIDS Day, the social media boycott or “digital death” of Keys and her celebrity friends—including her husband Swizz Beatz, Usher, Serena Williams, Lady Gaga, and Kim and Khloe Kardashian, among others—will continue until $1 million is raised.

As part of the campaign, participating celebs will send out “last tweet and testaments” viral videos, as well as dramatic images laying in a casket, to get the word out. “It’s really important and super-cool to use mediums that we naturally are on,” Keys told The Associated Press. “It’s so important to shock you to the point of waking up.”

Faithful Twitter followers are urged to help bring their favorite stars back to life by texting the first name of the celebrity they’re mourning to 90999, which will automatically donate $10 to the cause. With over 27 million followers among them, Keys and her high profile friends should back to tweeting in no time; but that doesn’t mean you should stand idly by. If celebrity Twitter accounts aren’t your thing, be sure to find a charity of your own choosing to donate to and help fight this ongoing epidemic.

“This is such a direct and instantly emotional way and a little sarcastic, you know, of a way to get people to pay attention,” says Keys. “It’s not that people don’t care or it’s not that people don’t want to do something, it’s that they never thought of it quite like that.”

Read more on World AIDS Day and people who are fighting to raise awareness

• Young AIDS Activist Hydeia Broadbent: “Living with AIDS is no death sentence”
• Obama AIDS advisor Phil Wilson on our only true defense against HIV/AIDS

The nation’s unemployment rate, fell to 9.7% in May from 9.9% in April, due in part to the creation of 431,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday. The government’s hiring of 411,000 temporary Census count workers fueled much of that boost.

African Americans had reason to cheer the latest report on news that the unemployment rate for blacks dropped one percentage point from 16.5% to 15.5%. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said she was pleased that the African American jobless rate had lowered, but couldn’t say unequivocally if it was because of the temporary Census jobs or a long-awaited move in the right direction of the economy.

“It’s hard to say because I don’t have all of that data, but I also was pleased to see it did tick down,” she said during a conference call, adding that black unemployment figures would improve even more once Congress passes a bill that would provide $1.2 billion for a summer youth employment program. The House passed its version of the measure before leaving for the Memorial Day recess; a Senate vote is expected to take place when lawmakers return to Washington on June 8. The bill also would extend unemployment benefits and COBRA.

Healthcare employment was little changed in May; however, over the prior 12 months, healthcare employment had increased by an average of 20,000 per month.  Manufacturing employment increased by 29,000 over the month and temporary help services added 31,000 jobs over the month.

Black Lawmakers Seek to Limit Reach of Ethics Office
Before slipping out of town for the Memorial Day recess, a group of 20 Congressional Black Caucus members, led by Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), very quietly introduced a resolution (H. R. 1416) to limit the powers of the Office of Congressional Ethics. The measure would prohibit OCE from publicizing an ethics referral before there has been a finding of any violation and also would require a sworn complaint from a citizen claiming personal knowledge of an alleged wrongdoing.

It is unlikely that the bill will win much other support and may even ruffle some feathers.

But according to University of Maryland political scientist Ronald Walters, there is a perception that the panel has shown bias against the black lawmakers.

Five CBC members were recently investigated by the panel for violating House rules by participating in a junket to the Caribbean that was financed by corporate sponsors. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-New York) was the only one to receive admonishment. Citing the late Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, a close Pelosi ally, who was exonerated of what Walters described as “very egregious” charges, he said, “When the only members who are most vulnerable appear to be African American members, there’s something wrong with the process.”

The watchdog was created by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) to reassure taxpayers that the Democratic-controlled Congress would take ethics violations seriously and provide greater transparency. Two black lawmakers, Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-North Carolina) and Rep. Robert Scott (D-Virginia), sit on the independent, citizen-run panel. OCE doesn’t have the power to sanction lawmakers but acts as an advisory board to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct.

“The [OCE] was created to provide more transparency in the House of Representatives. It was a commendable goal. We must now perfect its processes to ensure that those aims are achieved in a manner consistent with America’s spirit of justice. The processes must be fair to all people involved,” Fudge said in a statement issued this week by her office. She also accused the OCE of acting as “accuser, judge and jury.”

Skeptics may question both the wisdom and the temerity of introducing such a measure, and though Waters believes it has merit—he’s also pretty certain that it also won’t go anywhere.

White House Hosts Summit on Black Men and AIDS

The White House held a summit Wednesday on the dire impact that AIDS has had on African American men, and officials said incidences of the disease may even be on the rise.

According to CDC figures, black men bear the greatest burden of HIV infection and account for nearly two-thirds of all estimated HIV infections in the black community. Their HIV diagnosis rate in 2006 was the highest of any group—more than seven times that for white males and twice the rate for Hispanic males and black females. In fact, the number of people with HIV in some of the nation’s black communities is comparable to the rate highly impacted African countries.

Summit participants included policymakers, community and religious leaders, doctors and key members of the Obama administration. The event was part of a series of meetings the White House conducted in the past several months to explore different aspects of the HIV/AIDS issue. The administration will soon release its national HIV/AIDS strategy to decrease the incidence of the disease and improve care.

Click here to view the summit.

What Washington Will be Talking About Next Week

Not surprisingly, jobs will be one of the hottest topics as the House anticipates whether the Senate will follow its lead by voting on and pass a version of the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act. The bill includes $1.2 billion for youth summer employment, and extends unemployment benefits and small business loan programs

On June 10, the House Ways and Means Committee’s Income Security and Family Support panel will hold a hearing on policy solutions to address long-term employment.

That rate would have been higher if not for the creation of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD), says LaMont Evans, CEO of Healthy Black Communities Inc. When five organizations came together to start NBHAAD in 1999, the goal was to educate people about behavior that increases the risk for HIV infection, encourage testing for the disease, and to persuade those who test positive to seek treatment.

Despite the stable rate of new infections, “It is not a comfortable thing to have a stable epidemic,” says Evans. Since the program began, “200,000 black people have contracted HIV, which is totally unacceptable because HIV is 100% preventable,” Evans says.

The theme of this year’s NBHAAD focuses on encouraging African American communities to actively think about the impact of HIV/AIDS and prevention efforts. NBHAAD has been instrumental in mobilizing churches, fraternities and sororities, and community organizations to help fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the black community. For the 10-year anniversary on Feb.7, more than 600 institutions will hold marches, health fairs, and town hall meetings, and offer free HIV/AIDS testing.

One possible reason for those 200,000 infections is complacency, which leads to risky behavior. With more effective drugs on the market to treat the disease, people are living longer and no longer seeing AIDS as a death sentence, says Dr. Theresa Mack, who primarily treats patients with HIV/AIDS in New York.

In 2007, the rates of AIDS diagnoses decreased among blacks but were still higher than the rates of any other race/ethnicity, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of AIDS diagnoses for black adults/adolescents were 10 times the rate for whites and nearly three times the rate for Hispanics. The rate of AIDS diagnoses for black women was 22 times the rate for white women. The rate of AIDS diagnoses for black men was almost wight times the rate for white men.

CDC data also shows that African Americans between the ages of 13 and 29 account for half of all new infections among those in that age group.

Before there can be a decrease in new infections of AIDS/HIV rates among blacks, society needs to tackle certain social conditions, which include poverty, poor access to health services, and poor educational attainment, says Dr. Kevin Fenton, director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention at the CDC.

“We will need to have a mobilization around the community in a way that really meets the sense of crisis that we are facing today,” says Fenton. “We need to continue to focus on delivering the most effective prevention and intervention to those in greatest need.”

How you can help:
Learn About HIV/AIDS. Educate yourself, friends, and family about HIV/AIDS and what you can do to protect yourself.
Get tested for HIV. To find a testing site near you, call 1-800-CDC-INFO, visit hivtest.org , or, on your cell phone, text your zip code to Know IT (566948).
Speak Out against stigma, homophobia, racism, and other forms of discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS.
Donate time and money to HIV/AIDS organizations that work within African American communities.

Resources:

CDC HIV/AIDS: African Americans – Information on HIV/AIDS and African Americans

HIVtest.org – Find an HIV test site near you from the National HIV Testing Database, available 24 hours a day.

CDC Basic HIV Information — Learn about HIV/AIDS, how it is and is not transmitted, the risk factors for HIV transmission, preventing transmission and the symptoms of HIV infection.

Black AIDS Institute

Ryan White Program for financial assistance in treating HIV and AIDS

Wimberly

Many have joined the fight to prevent, treat, and study the spread of diseases affecting black communities, one of those being Dr. Yolanda Wimberly, a nationally recognized adolescent health specialist and pediatrician who was the first Morehouse School of Medicine physician to receive the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) Humanism in Medicine Award last October.

BlackEnterprise.com talked with Dr. Wimberly about the importance of community awareness, health education, and disease prevention.

BlackEnterprise.com: Why is community outreach and health education awareness important for African American and urban communities, and why is patient-centered care of interest to you?

Dr. Yolanda Wimberly: Health education is key for preventive medicine because it allows people to be educated about the signs and symptoms of a disease and ways in which to protect themselves from contraction. In addition, it gives an opportunity for those who may have the disease resources to get tested. Patient-centered care is important because it allows the patient the opportunity to take charge of their own health and be more invested in the process. Educating my patients and their families is key and is a big step toward compliance.

You’ve also worked to establish adolescent clinics at existing health systems. Why is this work important to you, and how can someone go about establishing those types of networks in their own communities?

Adolescence is the time when lifelong habits are formed. Think about your eating habits, study habits, and exercise habits. Most of them are formed in adolescence. I believe if you give them correct info and show them the correct and healthy ways of doing things, they will do it the rest of their lives.

It is quite easy to establish the networks in the communities by visiting and offering services to local agencies and having meetings with them to brainstorm on what they feel is needed for youth.

Several studies have shown that the minority presence is scarce in the areas of science and technology. As an educator, what are some challenges that you are seeing?

There are an increasing amount of programs aimed at increasing minorities in science and technology, but there are many factors that we have to contend with. There are funding issues, interest, and also, in a world with so many choices and opportunities, convincing young people that they can become a physician is sometimes a barrier. Strong math and science skills are key for this profession and unfortunately, traditionally as African Americans, this is not emphasized in our school systems.

How can those challenges be remedied by those who are interested in science education and mentoring?

I would suggest finding a program that mentors African American students. Some colleges, especially HBCUs, may have summer programs for kids starting in middle school. Oftentimes, if one looks on a Website or calls the local college or medical school, they will be able to get info. In addition, it is important for colleges and medical schools to have collaborations with schools where they interact with students on a regular basis to expose them to the sciences.

As the costs of healthcare and insurance coverage rise, how do you spread a message of awareness and the importance of regular doctor visits  to communities struggling to pay the bare minimum of everyday expenses?

I tell people it is easier to stay healthy than to recover from illness. The cost of healthcare is rising and that is why it is even more important to use preventive measures and increase awareness of primary prevention. It is important to apply for grants to offset and supplement some of the costs but it will be even better when we get our healthcare system overhauled and have something that is better than what we have now.

What specific healthcare issues and initiatives do you think President-elect Barack Obama and his administration should most focus his efforts toward addressing and implementing?

Health disparities.  It is amazing the health disparities in the U.S.  When you look at African Americans, we have higher rates of diseases that are the cause of death than other races and ethnicities. I specialize in adolescents/young adults, so my focus is particularly on diseases that affect that population, including sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV; mental health, such as depression and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); and reproductive healthcare. I believe if we can focus on our young people and provide them with excellent health education and teach them better health habits before they begin bad habits, it will go a long way.