Ice Cube on Sept. 18, 2022, at Douglass Park in Chicago. (Photo by Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP)
Back in June, hip-hop mogul Ice Cube did what some thought would be impossible. He landed a partnership for his Contract for Black America (CWBA) repair plan. The National Football League announced it was partnering with Cube’s pact to aid Black-owned businesses and combat the widening wealth gap in America.
The league committed over $100 million to causes that help the newly formed Contract With Black America Institute or CWBA; an initiative Cube launched with veteran media executive Jeff Kwatinetz during the 2020 presidential campaign, Forbes reported. The deal with the NFL calls for the league to steer more business to Black companies in various sectors, including consumer services and technology.
Kwatinetz is a co-founder in media company BIG 3 with Jackson.
Here are five things to know.
The racial wealth gap has widened over the last 30 years. White families outpace Black families by more than $100,000, according to data published in a September 2020 Federal Reserve report.
“This is how we decided to attack the wealth gap by going after big companies like the NFL,” Cube told Forbes.
The NFL vowed it would concentrate on “increasing direct and indirect spend to national Black businesses to help close America’s racial and economic wealth gap.”
Cube called the racial wealth gap “one of our biggest issues in this country.”
The contract’s “Sports Industry Economic Development Plan” stresses that the NFL teams hire exclusively Black companies for food vendors in stadiums. This includes more Black manufacturers, production companies, and marketing and advertising agencies in league operations, Forbes reported.
In negotiated the deal with the NFL, Cube added a sports business plan to the CWBA, which calls for professional leagues and college programs to improve their pipelines of vendors to include Black women-owned businesses.
Jackson debuted CWBA in August 2020i n a video on social media.
“Our mission was always to talk to the public sector and try to get things done,” Cube said. “We were going to spend our time going after the private sector and these businesses who make a lot of money off Black folks.”
The plan got pushback from various reparations groups, including Reparations for American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS).
Antonio Moore @tonetalks, one of the founders of the reparations movement #ADOS tweeted, “This doesn’t work without anchoring identity reparations goes to #ados or it’s just a class based policy or worse. In addition this contract needs to consider the works of #ados@SandyDarity@BreakingBrown in already making the case. But if you struggle on step 1 it’s irrelevant.”
Moore added, “People seem lost if you don’t address who receives it you’re not talking about reparations. There are basically 2 distinct black populations 1 that actually is owed US reparations for Slavery and Jim Crow and another that came voluntarily after 1965 after Jim Crow ended.”
This didn’t deter Cube, who pitched the plan to the 2020 presidential candidates and met with President Donald Trump, helping Trump develop his Platinum Plan for Black America.
Cube told Forbes that discussions with the NFL started in 2021.
Under the CWBA deal, the NFL is aiming for Black businesses to obtain 25 percent of annual contracts for top NFL events like the Super Bowl, Cube told Forbes. Qualified companies will be vetted and connected with the league to bid on agreements. Cube pointed out CWBA will not collect fees or make revenue from arranging the partnerships.
“What we’re trying to do is inject Black businesses up and down the chain from technology to construction to maintenance,” Cube said. “Our job is to find qualified companies, connect them to the NFL, and solidify a relationship. And then, make sure the relationship is working on both sides.”
Ice Cube performs on day three of Riot Fest on Sept. 18, 2022, at Douglass Park in Chicago. (Photo by Rob Grabowski/Invision/AP)
