(ThyBlackMan.com) Floyd Mayweather was recently ridiculed for not being able to read. The rapper 50 Cent made fun of him the other day, offering $750,000 if he publicly reads a page of Harry Potter. In response to the rapper’s humiliating call, Mayweather took a picture of his most recent paychecks and put the images on Twitter with the caption, “Read this.”
The paychecks were for a combined total of $72 million dollars, which is more money than most people will earn in 10 lifetimes. Floyd’s move is not surprising, since it reflects our society’s focus on the material as opposed to the substantive. It basically says (as I mentioned in my video) that “It’s OK if I can’t read, as long as I’m making a lot of money.”
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is a product of a system that has a habit of ensuring that our most poweful and prominent black athletes are not adequately educated. It’s easier to control another human being if they don’t have access to education, free ideas or the tools of critical thinking. After teaching at the college level for the last 20 years, I’ve seen countless young black men ushered through entire universities without having the
ability to read. One of my friends who taught at The University of Tennessee said that he saw graduating football players who couldn’t even spell the name of the school they played for.
Here’s another thought to be considered as well. Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been able to mostly dodge the literacy issue by leaning on pure genetic luck. Had he not been gifted with lightning-quick reflexes, he wouldn’t be able to use his multi-million dollar bank account as justification for his educational short-comings. According to Dr. Umar Johnson (who appeared with myself and Killer Mike in the film “Elementary Genocide”) black boys who can’t read at an early age are prepared for entry into American prisons. So had Floyd been born with average athletic ability, there’s a very strong statistical likelihood that he might be unemployed or incarcerated.
Perhaps rather than throwing up a paycheck to squash criticism of his literacy problems, Floyd Mayweather Jr. can honestly share his struggles with reading in a way that inspires other young black men to develop themselves as human beings. Lord knows that Floyd Mayweather Jr. isn’t the only celeb who can’t read very well, and we know that our school systems are atrocious. So, if it’s true that he has difficulty reading, that’s nothing to be ashamed of, as long he’s working to fix the problem and not choosing to ignore it. Hell, I’d even be happy to help educate the brother myself.
As a side note, many people don’t know that Henry Ford, the man who ushered in America’s industrial revolution, also had trouble reading. During a trial in the 1920s, elites sought to embarrass Ford by revealing that he wasn’t very well educated and could barely read. This only served to distance Ford from those who could have helped him, but endeared him to those who were struggling with the same problem. Maybe Floyd Mayweather Jr. can learn from the experience of another American genius and realize that this is an opportunity to help himself, his children and his community by taking on the literacy challenge head-on. Floyd’s never dodged an opponent in the past, and a real man would show that he’s not afraid of this opponent either.
In case you want to see it, here’s a picture of Floyd Mayweather Jr. ’s tweet. Yes, that is quite a bit of money, but take it from a Finance Professor when I tell you this: The most precious commodities in the world are the ones that money can’t buy. To that extent, dollars are actually pretty cheap.
Staff Writer; Dr. Boyce Watkins
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition. For more information, please visit http://BoyceWatkins.com.
