Posted on August 11, 2016

Detroit Reverend: NBA Should Share Wealth with Black Community

Taryn Asher, FOX 2, August 10, 2016

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A lot of men are getting rich by playing professional basketball and Rev. Horace Sheffield thinks the league should share the wealth.

Sheffield calls it “greenlining”–the economic exclusion of people of color beyond the basketball court.

“We don’t feel we get an equal share for what we contribute to the bottom line,” said Sheffield.

Sheffield, the head of the Detroit Association of Black Organizations, is taking on the NBA and the Detroit Pistons.

The reverend calls it an economic injustice–the majority of the Pistons basketball players are black. So is the majority of Detroit residents, who he says are most of the team’s viewers and consumers. So Sheffield wants to know why they don’t get to cash in on the financial success.

“We want a percentage of the Pistons money to be more reflective among black vendors, black business people, black media, spending money in markets that black folks govern and control,” Sheffield said. “That’s what we are talking about.”

Sheffield was so upset about it back on May 11, he wrote letters to the NBA and Detroit Pistons addressing his concerns but have yet to hear back.

That’s why Rev. Sheffield–along with the help of former Detroit police chief Ralph Godbee, is launching the “Bust the Ball” campaign to not spend money on the NBA.

Basically, if they don’t want to do more business with them, he says African-Americans won’t bring business to the NBA.

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Sheffield and his church will be hosting a regional meeting involving 30 national and local black organizations to discuss how the African-American community plans to deal with the disregard for their dollars on Aug. 18.

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