Ice Cube Partners With NFL For Economic Equity Initiative
Actor, rapper, filmmaker Ice Cube is teaming up with the NFL for a partnership to tackle racial economic inequality.
The league announced Thursday (June 30) that it’s partnering with the hip hop legend, who leads Contract with Black America Institute (CWBA), an economic inclusion-focused initiative.
“We feel like if you tackle the huge wealth gap between Black people and white people in this country, that should solve a lot of problems that’s there,” Cube said on the AP Pro Football Podcast. “Our thing was to go after some of the biggest companies in the country that rely on Black consumers or Black workers, and the biggest one that we focused in on was the NFL.”
The partnership with Ice Cube’s CWBA will focus on identifying league-wide opportunities in the financial, tech, and production sectors, with a concentration on increasing spending to Black business nationwide to help close America’s racial and economic wealth gap.
The Contract with Black America Institute was created by Ice Cube, his longtime business partner and lawyer Jeff Kwatinetz and advisors Ja’Ron Smith and Chris Pilkerton. The quartet worked with Troy Vincent, the NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations, to present the idea to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.
The NFL has already spent and allocated $125 million with Black owned and operated businesses, including Ariel Investments, CityFirst/Broadway Bank, Cover Communications, and Fearless Technology during the last year.
