This season’s Super Bowl is now in the books and the season is officially over.

There is a racial discrimination lawsuit filed by former Miami Dolphins head coach, Brian Flores against the National Football League for the lack of Black head coaches in the league (One, with another multi-racial coach being hired last week, means there are now two Black head coaches among 32 football teams).

Currently, Black players make up approximately 70% of the NFL. The heat may be on for the NFL to take some type of action regarding the racial disparity amongst high-ranking positions.

There was a time when there were no Black football players in the NFL. Former player Keyshawn Johnson and award-winning NFL columnist Bob Glauber wrote a book about the first four Black men to play in the NFL.

Aptly titled, The Forgotten First, the book is about four young men who were the first Black players to cross that threshold to become professional players in a league that had no Black athletes. The burden of playing at a time where segregation was still alive and well affected the lives of Kenny Washington, Woody Strode, Marion Motley, and Bill Willis.

Before Jackie Robinson broke the racial barrier in Major League Baseball, a running back who attended UCLA, as well as being a teammate of Robinson in college, signed a contract with the Los Angeles Rams.

On March 21, 1946, Washington became the first Black man to sign in the NFL. Several months later, through the efforts of influential Los Angeles political and civic leaders, the team eventually signed the second Black player, Strode.

Later that year, a team in a rival league to the NFL, the AAFC (All-America Football Conference), the Cleveland Browns’ head coach Paul Brown signed running back Marion Motley and defensive lineman Bill Willis. The league eventually merged with the NFL.

Johnson told CBS News that when Brown signed the two players, he didn’t do it for the purposes of civil rights.

“He did it because he wanted good football players. … There was other owners prior to that that wanted to do it, but they just didn’t want to upset the other owners. They wanted to. He realized that, he was like, ‘Yeah, I got to have me something that’s gonna help me win,” Johnson said.

The play of Motley and Willis earned them entry into the Hall of Fame as they helped the Cleveland Browns win four straight AAFC championships. Washington only played three seasons with the Rams before injury and age forced him to retire. Strode only played one season, but he stayed in Hollywood to launch an acting career.

• Business

by Black Enterprise Shop

February 14, 2022

This ERP Solution Helps CPAs Become More Strategic

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CPAs are necessary and super helpful, but like every industry, accounting is changing. A professional who has had a steady workflow for years or even decades might find their responsibilities becoming increasingly automated today. Expected to grow approximately $9 billion over the next four years, automation will affect everyone. With so many platforms and tech-driven solutions out there, accounting as a field is increasingly shifting towards more strategic advisement services.

The CPA Exam is among the most crucial and influential examples of this movement. Since this past July, the exam’s been changed to reflect newer, tech-focused areas such as IT controls, automation, and business processes with decreases in focusing on areas like IFRS and U.S. GAAP. CPAs looking to make an opportunity out of this evolution can download this white paper on How The CPA of the Future is a Strategic Advisor.

While some accountants might look at automation as the enemy, those who are going to thrive with the times should actually embrace it. By being able to consolidate a business’s management needs into one suite where you can organize ERP, financials, CRM tasks, and e-commerce needs, like NetSuite, CPAs can free themselves up to operate at higher levels by making tech-focused recommendations, data-driven savings and investment plans, and a lot more.

If this all sounds a bit broad, it’s because the fields of accounting and financial advisement are complex. To understand the shift more specifically, check out the white paper. The presentation breaks down how the CPA Exam is broken up into four sections: Auditing and Attestation (AUD), Business Environment and Concepts (BEC), Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR), and Regulation (REG). It then gives examples of how most of the new changes to the exam are in the AUD and BEC sections with an increased focus on business processes, automation, data analytics, and control over financial reporting.

For aspiring CPAs, understanding these changes will obviously benefit you when taking the exam, but they’ll also help you shape a broader vision for how you’ll thrive in a changing industry once certified. Taking advantage of the tools at your disposal to offer high-level strategy, analytics, and automated services, you can become the CPA of tomorrow.

To learn how The CPA of the Future is a Strategic Advisor, download the full white paper today.

• Business

by Black Enterprise Shop

February 14, 2022

Enhance Your Intelligence With Flashbook’s Robust Learning Library

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To say knowledge is power is an understatement. With mobile devices such as phones and tablets packing more power than full-sized computers just two decades ago, the ability to create and download apps that anyone can access at any time has introduced a new set of possibilities.

One such creation has been the rise of self-help and knowledge-based programs. With the simple click of an icon, people can download and learn from dense language-learning courses, study for professional exams, along with many other tools for personal advancement.

Thanks to FlashBooks Business Book Summaries, you’re now able to break down self-help and business books into bite-sized 20-minute learning sessions. For a limited time, a lifetime subscription to FlashBooks Business Book Summaries is available for just $99.99. That’s a savings of 94% from its MSRP ($1,740).

For just $99.99, purchasers not only receive unlimited access to the entire FlashBooks library and Audiobook summaries, but the intuitive program allows users to glean a book’s big ideas in under 20 minutes.

Whether you’re using the program on a desktop computer, a laptop, a mobile phone, or a tablet, book summaries are formatted for every device, making for a visually pleasing experience.

Popular titles include, “Atomic Habits” by James Clear and narrated by Dean Bokhari (4.5-star rating), “The 5 Love Languages” by Gary Chapman and narrated by Dean Bokhari (4.5-star rating), and “Psycho-Cybernetics” by Maxwell Maltz and narrated by Dean Bokhari (4.6-star rating).

A single subscription can be installed on up to three devices, and robust software updates are included with your purchase. New titles are added monthly. Access to FlashBooks Business Book Summaries is available offline, as well, as books can be downloaded to your device so you can read them virtually anywhere.

Whether you’re looking to increase skills for professional advancement or if you just want to learn something new, you’ll find what you need and more with this program. Get a lifetime subscription to FlashBooks Business Book Summaries for $99.99.

Prices subject to change.

The University of Alabama is set to remove the name of the state’s racist former governor, Bibb Graves, from a campus building and solely honor its first Black student – Autherine Juanita Lucy Foster.

On February 3, the university’s board of trustees voted to honor Graves, a notorious former Grand Cyclops of the KKK, school alumni, and two-term governor in the state (1927-1931 and 1935-1939). Although, the University of Alabama cited Graves’ funding of education and renouncement of the KKK as its reason for honoring the racist man. Detractors, with common sense, argued that he was still a bigot and his policies were not fair, non-discriminatory or equitable.

An associate professor pointed out that it was a slap in the face to honor Lucy Foster by having her good name connected to a known white supremacist. 

“It felt that even her [Foster’s] legacy, no matter what accolades she had previously as a Black woman, it did not matter. She had to share the indignity of being on a building name hyphenated with a Klansmen,” said Hilary Green, an associate history professor at the University of Alabama.

A recent graduate, Barbara Whitesell, wanted to ensure that Lucy Foster was honored fully. 

“If you’re going to give her credit. You have to give it all to her. She endured a lot more than any student that has ever gone to UA probably has,” Whitesell said. “I was very disgusted and very disturbed that somebody thought that was a way to honor someone. It was very fine timing that they announced it when they did, too.”

On February 10, the board of trustees recanted its vote allowing the accomplished woman’s name to stand alone. 

Lucy Foster was a trailblazer at the higher learning institution. Born in 1929 in Shiloh, Alabama, Lucy Foster was the daughter of sharecroppers. She would later attend Miles College (a Black school), where she graduated with an English degree in 1952. In September of the same year, she and a friend, Pollie Anne Myers, desired to continue their education and applied to the then-segregated University of Alabama. 

The women were selected to attend the school, but when administrators discovered they were Black, they reneged on their admission to the university. Members of the community were outraged and decided to fight back. Prominent attorneys Thurgood Marshall and Arthur Shores stepped in– writing the school’s then-president John Gallalee. Gallalee was unmoved and denied the plea. Marshall and Shores planned to sue the University of Alabama, but ironically Marshall was already working on Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka. The legendary future Supreme Court Justice won the case a year before Lucy Foster and Myers’ suit was set to begin. A morality clause prohibited Myers from attending. However, Lucy Foster entered the university on February 3, 1956.

The brilliant student would be terrorized on her third day of school by an angry white mob. The University of Alabama failed to protect Lucy Foster. Marshall and Shores couldn’t prove the school’s neglect. She was later expelled.

It took the University of Alabama 32 years to rectify the injustice. In 1988, the school sent Lucy Foster a letter rescinding the expulsion. She and her daughter entered the university in 1989. Lucy Foster graduated with her Master’s in 1992.

A recent graduate, Barbara Whitesell, wanted to ensure that Lucy Foster was honored fully. 

“If you’re going to give her credit. You have to give it all to her. She endured a lot more than any student that has ever gone to UA probably has,” Whitesell said. “I was very disgusted and very disturbed that somebody thought that was a way to honor someone … “It was very fine timing that they announced it when they did, too.”

In 2020, a petition was launched to remove Graves’ bigoted name from the College of Education (Lucy Foster had become an educator). The document garnered over 2,000 signatures in support of renaming the building to honor the brave woman. 

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Black Twitter quickly reminded Fat Joe that he was in the same boat as Joe Rogan after he posted a video lambasting the professional podcaster for his problematic use of the n-word. 

On Feb. 10, Fat Joe recorded a roughly seven-minute rant on Spotify’s support of Rogan despite numerous entertainers like India Arie leaving the streaming service over his racist rants. 

After touching on freedom of speech, artists removing their music from Spotify and attempting to give a Black history lesson (yes, during Black History Month), Fat Joe, born Joseph Antonio Cartagena, told viewers, “Shoutout to everyone that’s better than me and taking their music off of Spotify, I’m not. Because all my people know Joe will do charity, Joe will open a business in the hood and give out jobs, Joe will give computers to the school, but Joe got to get to the bag. Joe ain’t crazy.” 

“I’m not taking my music off Spotify but, Spotify is made up of black music whether its R&B, whether its rap, whether it’s trap, all that fall in there, he continued. “Because our music is on that platform, and they make their money from black people, do you think it should be allowed for a guy to be talking racist s**t on their platform?”

“This guy Joe Rogan, he’s a piece of s**t. Joe Rogan is a piece of s**t.”

Twitter users, Black and white, quickly reminded Fat Joe to keep that same energy when he used the n-word. 

Fat Joe and Joe Rogan https://t.co/TbyS1JK8g1 pic.twitter.com/yuwGk7LSfS

— Anthony (@AnthonyGSupreme) February 10, 2022

Y’all better stop playing in our faces for Black History Month. Fat Joe giving history lessons around Joe Rogan using the n-word, BUT NOT refraining HIMSELF is peak Spicy Caucasity… I don’t care where he’s from. FOH. pic.twitter.com/Q3y6cxAVq3

— Keka Araújo (@KAraujoNWT) February 13, 2022

The irony of Fat Joe a non black man who loves to say n*gga attacking Joe Rogan for doing the exact same thing. The audacity… pic.twitter.com/XEfSFvZGds

— Slim 🍯🍊 (@kevsaidthat) February 10, 2022

Fat Joe calling out Joe Rogan for saying nigga pic.twitter.com/XPqthhj0Ms

— CJ Is Reading “Black Against Empire”🇧🇧 ☭ (@BajanCj) February 11, 2022

@fatjoe If nobody has called you the n-word in a disparaging way, you’re being disrespectful when YOU use it. I don’t care what environment you’ve grown up in or the people that allowed it. The world doesn’t appreciate it… Let’s start there then I can hear you.

— BARS 1st Listen Edition (@BARS1stListen) February 11, 2022

Fat Joe know he ain’t Black either right… https://t.co/gdl3IBpijI

— Eclipxs (@Randyrayray25) February 14, 2022

Last September, Fat Joe caught heat for using the n-word throughout the Verzuz with Ja Rule. His performance triggered memories from 2019 when he said that as a Latino, he could use the word if he pleased.

“Let’s speak about Latinos not being black. Latinos are Black,” the “Lean Back’ rapper said.

“In Cuba, at one time, there was eight million Cubans. Five million, unfortunately, were slaves. Three million were actual Cubans, and they integrated and had babies. Same thing with Puerto Rico when you go to Loíza. And when you talk about Santeria, that came from the motherland, Africa.”

“Sometimes, Latinos may even identify themselves with African and black culture more than black people. This ain’t no crazy thing. Fat Joe ain’t on crack. He know what he talking about.”

Fat Joe spewed nonsense. Enslaved Africans in Cuba at its max were between 800,000 – 1.3 million. In Puerto Rico, the numbers were fewer. And although these facts are relevant to his uninformed argument, the real issue is Fat Joe isn’t Black in either country.

The Bronx-born rapper should keep in mind that while he points a finger at   Rogan, there are three others pointing back at him. 

• Lifestyle

by Wendy Medina

February 13, 2022

Not So Fast! Wendy Williams Disputes Claims She’s ‘Of Unsound Mind,’ Fires Back At ‘Disgruntled’ Advisor

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It’s no secret popular talk show host Wendy Williams has been publicly struggling with her health issues.

But after her bank, Wells Fargo took up the cause saying that the veteran talk show hostess was being unduly influenced after Williams unsuccessfully tried to get access to her millions, a battle has ensued between the bank and the ailing talk show star, Page Six reports.

This time, Williams is firing back at Wells Fargo and the financial advisor who deemed her an “incapacitated person” after she demanded her accounts be unfrozen.  

The 57-year-old has filed an affidavit with the New York Supreme Court for a temporary restraining order against Wells Fargo, according to the outlet.

Her former Wells Fargo financial adviser Lori Schiller, was fired due to alleged misconduct involving her accounts and claimed Williams was “of unsound mind.”

To that, Williams retaliated, “It appears that Schiller was and is disgruntled by this decision for a potential change in direction, and it saddens me that [Wells Fargo] and I have not been able to resolve this controversy amicably.”

She continued, “For more than two weeks, Wells Fargo has repeatedly denied my requests to access my financial assets, which total over several million dollars,” she continued. “I have submitted multiple written requests to Wells Fargo and I have visited various Wells Fargo branches in the South Florida area in an effort to resolve this matter outside of the courtroom.”

A spokesperson for Wells Fargo denied all allegations in a Feb. 10 statement, asserting that the well-being of their customers is their top priority. 

Williams has not hosted her daytime talk show for almost a year, since July 2021. News of her requiring guardianship emerged as the future of The Wendy Williams Show host remains in limbo.

The embattled TV host has had a myriah of health troubled. She fainted on a live broadcast of her show in 2017, checked into rehab amid a divorce in 2019, and lost her mother in 2020, as well as contracting COVID-19 last year. Now, she’s in the midst of a legal battle to access her millions.

As we previously reported, last Friday, Williams’ attorney, Celeste N. McCaw, filed an emergency order claiming Wells Fargo had denied the TV host access to her “accounts, assets, and statements” for more than two weeks. At the time, her former financial adviser Lori Schiller, whom she fired due to alleged wrongdoing involving her accounts and improper professional conduct, alleged Williams was “of unsound mind.”

Going into its 15th season, there’s a possibility that if Williams cannot return, the show could be renamed.

• Sports

by Wendy Medina

February 13, 2022

Black Girl Magic: Erin Jackson Makes History As First Black Woman Speedskater To Take Home The Gold

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With the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing in full swing, 29-year-old Erin Jackson of Ocala, Florida just made history as the first Black woman to win a gold medal for an individual sport.

Speedskating, a sport that the U.S. had not seen triumph in at the Olympic games since 2010, was left in smoke after Jackson won first place in the women’s 500m with a time of 37.04 seconds, at the National Speed Skating Oval on Sunday night, USA Today reports.

“She is a role model for so many people,” said teammate Brittany Bowe, who is also from Ocala.

“And I think what she did tonight is going to be a springboard to give so many little girls and boys the opportunity to look up to someone that they haven’t been able to look at and relate to. That goes far beyond what any of us could imagine.”

Jackson’s athletic career started off with inline skating and roller derby. By the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, she qualified for the 500m speed skating event as the first Black woman to represent Team USA, however, did not win. That didn’t deter her from making her dream become a reality. 

“She never came in with an ego that, ‘oh I’ve already been at the top in this, I’ve got it.’ No. She was very humble, she was willing to start off at square one,” said national team coach Ryan Shimabukuro.

Jackson follows a long line of extraordinary Black women in making history in the Olympic Games. “Hopefully it has an effect,” she said. “Hopefully we can see more minorities, especially in the USA, getting out and trying some of these winter sports.”

Unlike many Olympic-caliber athletes, Jackson also graduated from the University of Florida with honors with an engineering degree, further accentuating the power of Black girl magic.

Method Man’s new sex symbol status has reportedly spawned a naysayer, and the “Bring The Pain” aptly responded. 

Recently, the rapper-turned-actor of  WuTang Clan fame has been the apple of the ladies’ eyes on the internet since stepping into his grown-man sexy. Method Man’s bearded good looks caught the attention of a hater who made the precipitous decision to photoshop Meth without his beard. The photo appeared to be a mashup of his and actor Michael Rainey’s faces. Rainey portrays “Tariq” on STARZ’s Power: Book 2 Ghost. The 50-year-old rapper posted the image on Twitter. 

Method Man clapped back on the hater in a now-deleted tweet.

“U know what’s funny ?! A 50 ur old man got y’all in ur feelings so bad. U gotta resort to this.. all I send in return is love n light! #whoraisedthesenegroes”

Fans also responded to the disrespectful photo. 

Not surprised by men editing method man without a beard to make him seem unattractive. Men always get envious when they notice a lot of women fawning over a guy . It’s one of the major reasons why they hate boy bands / groups . They wish they had women thirsting over them lmao!

— YT : Zion Destiny ASMR ⁷ (@zionnndestinyyy) February 12, 2022

A grown man seen Method Man getting recognition from women and being the topic of discussion so he decides to photoshop a picture of him without a beard… Y’all too spicy for me 😂

— More Life 🙏🏽 (@pj_iykyk) February 12, 2022

That man removing Method man’s beard is a crazy amount of hate. Think of the time spent in photoshop meticulously airbrushing each follicle

— Ikea Corey (@PhifeDiggidy) February 12, 2022

With or without a beard I’m folding: pic.twitter.com/O9hitEfSIX

— Keisha From Belly (@amirahmonet_) February 13, 2022

@methodman is literally the finest. Beard, no beard, young, old, dead eye, regular eyes, rapping, acting,breathing 50 lmao 🥰

— LP (@MercedesMarv) February 13, 2022

Beard, no beard. You can get pregnant all the same. pic.twitter.com/GLEPanLcJ5

— Tamela Mann’s Burner Account (@BeaEngBlessed) February 12, 2022

Beard no beard ima let ya fold me like a folding chair🤣🤣

— Luvisoverrated (@Luvisoverrated_) February 12, 2022

On Feb. 3, Method Man, born Clifford Smith, shook the internet when Essence Magazine dropped its digital cover and interviewed the handsome entertainer. 

“NEW COVER ALERT: M-E-T-H-O-D, MAN! Listen here, if “You’re All I Need To Survive” was a person, here he is in his purest essence. Aging gracefully, gorgeously, and defining growth for the Hip Hop generation, our February cover star, @methodmanofficial, deserves his flowers.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by ESSENCE (@essence)

Meth takes his sex symbol status and his haters in stride. He posted this little ditty on  Twitter. 

“I swear y’all all I be doin’ is drinking water and mindin’ my business… (exhales).”

I swear y’all all I be doin’ is drinking water and mindin’ my business… (exhales)💯 pic.twitter.com/3YR7VfMe2l

— methodman (@methodman) February 12, 2022

Haters be da**ed. Meth is a baddie. 

• Business

by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors

February 13, 2022

Manufacturing for the First-Ever Black-Owned Fleet of Self-Driving Pods Has Officially Begun

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JéGO Technologies Inc., a Black-owned innovative tech firm based in Miami, Florida, is celebrating that they have officially begun the manufacturing process for their self-driving vehicles called JéGO Pods. To be released in late 2022, these pods will mobilize and facilitate health services such as flu testing, IV therapy, and more. In addition, they have entered the Metaverse.

The Metaverse is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection. Interested individuals can easily experience this by using virtual and augmented reality headsets.

JéGO Technologies Inc. steers away from a myopic view of traditional tech but instead aims to build an ecosystem that benefits communities. In fact, the company has really put its best foot forward in pioneering the next generation of automation.

As a civic tech company, its mission is to connect economies as well as enable them to thrive; to invite the public on a journey with them by using Augmented Reality. In the Metaverse, participants will be able to experience what it will be like to be inside or next to the JéGO Pods before their launch. Users have the opportunity to sign up on the JéGO Augmented Reality APP which launches this month.

Another exciting reveal is the JéGO Pods Non-Fungible Token (NFT) which will also be made available this month through OpenSea, which is the largest platform for NFTs.

JèGO is definitely one of the companies disrupting the norms in technology and commerce, placing them as one of the top startups to watch out for in 2022. The company has even has been able to garner traction with pre-orders, strategic partnerships, and secured capital from angel investors. After going through a rigorous due diligence process, the public can now invest in the company through Start Engine for a limited time.

The JéGO Pods and NFT couldn’t have come at a more opportune time, placing themselves right at the center as pioneers in innovation and technology. The team at JéGO is pleased to collaborate and bring communities more clean and sustainable solutions to everyday problems and that is commerce on the go!

How to become an investor:
To invest now to own a piece of JéGO and become a part of the brand’s fast-growing community, visit www.startengine.com/jego

Also, be sure to follow the brand on Instagram @JegoTechnologies and Twitter @JeGOPods

This article first appeared on Blacknews.com.