Teka-Lark Fleming

Janay Rice was beaten in public by Ray Rice, and the top commentaries in social media in Los Angeles are: Why did she stay? and: The white cop got to beat Marlene Pinnock and keep his job—so why can’t Rice play ball?

The fields of sports and music have long and inglorious histories of beating women.

As a society we accept it for the greater good.

The greater good is:

Wall Street
The NFL
The University
Los Angeles
New York

University of Southern California (USC) has a new major and school. The name of it is the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation.

For those in the ivory tower , it is easy to say, “Don’t watch the NFL.”

But to me that’s just playing. People like me don’t watch the NFL. Throwing that out is going to do nothing to impact my life at all. I have no risk. Not watching sports is a badge of honor in the circle I travel in.

But I have several friends in Los Angeles that work as well as get grants, fellowships and many other resources from USC.

Who is Andre Young? Andre Young is Dr. Dre, the founder of the rap group N.W.A., aka Niggas With Attitude.

In 1991, Dr. Dre severely beat and injured music journalist and broadcast TV show “Pump It Up” host Dee Barnes.