Everyone did not enjoy Sunday night's 2011 BET Awards.

After watching the three hour television event, Syracuse University professor and founder of the Your Black World, Dr. Boyce Watkins, penned a column detailing his distaste for rapper Lil Wayne and the network's support of the Young Money emcee, while comparing Viacom, BET's parent company, as operating with the same agenda as the Ku Klux Klan.

A piece from Dr. Boyce Watkins' column entitled "BET Has Officially Become the New and Improved KKK" reads:

The Ku Klux Klan has been regularly criticized for encouraging violence against African Americans and terrorizing our community.

But the truth is that the Klan doesn't have much power anymore, and their thirst for African American blood seems to have waned a bit.

At the same time, Lil Wayne and artists like him have made a habit of encouraging black men to shoot one another, to abuse or murder women, to consume suicidal amounts of drugs and alcohol and to engage in irresponsible, deadly sexual behavior.

Watkins goes on to point the finger directly at BET saying, "the executive committee for the BET Awards made the interesting decision to give the greatest number of award nominations to Lil Wayne, the man who said that he would (among other things) love to turn a woman out, murder her and send her dead body back to her boyfriend.

Oh yea, he also that he would kill little babies, have sex with every girl in the world, carry a gun on his hip and “leave a nigga's brains on the street.”

The Syracuse professor later touched on the affects he believes a network like BET supporting an artist like Lil Wayne has:

As a result, black men are the most likely to die from gun violence, mass incarceration continues to decimate black families, drug addiction and possession ruins black lives in droves, and HIV is the leading killer of black women.

So, the truth is that Lil Wayne-like artists and the corporate armies producing this weaponized genocide have killed more black people than the KKK ever could.

So, by accelerating, financing and supporting the “Lil Wayne gospel” to a community that is already dying, BET has effectively positioned itself as a new and improved version of the KKK.

Dr. Boyce Watkins does have a point. Even though you have to give BET credit for attempting to reduce its misogynistic images by taking BET Uncut off of the air (or maybe that's just me...I kinda liked BET Uncut).

But placing the blame on BET and an artist like Lil Wayne is only attacking the surface of much more deep rooted problems within the urban community.

Although, I guess you have to start placing the blame somewhere, huh, Doc?

Dr. Boyce Watkins' latest column isn't his first attack at Lil Wayne.

Just last week, Watkins read an entry entitled "Why I am Ditching Lil Wayne Completely," where he broke down the lyrics to Lil Wayne's “We Be Steady Mobbin” as brainwashing listeners to follow in the violence state of Weezy's lyrics.

At least Dr. Watkins is consistent.

Read Dr. Watkins piece, "BET Has Officially Become the New and Improved KKK," in it's entirety here.

Is someone else earning money from their labor? Is the labor of the athlete essential to the revenue-generating process?”  That helps us to understand how insane it is that athletes earn billions of dollars for coaches, but aren't entitled to any of that money for themselves.  I've seen race horses get better deals than that.

When you answer a simple question with a simple answer, you find that the issue that once seemed so complicated is not nearly as difficult to figure out as one might imagine.  Let's break the process down, shall we?

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The NCAA earns more money during March Madness than the Super Bowl and the World Series.  Tickets can be sold for the Final Four for as much as $8,000 dollars apiece.  Coaches and their families get to fly to games on private jets and use their massive salaries to buy mansions, yachts and fancy cars.  That money doesn't fall out of the sky.

It comes from corporations paying millions of dollars to advertise to the massive audience that shows up to view the show.  Is the audience there to see the coach?  Probably not.  I humbly suggest that the audience watches the game to see the big, tall athletes run up and down the floor.  In fact, you could probably still draw a big audience if the athletes showed up without the coaches.

But you could never draw an audience if the coaches showed up without their athletes.  Thus, it is established: watching athletes is what draws the audience, which is what draws the ad revenue. So, I ask again: Why are the families of athletes not allowed to negotiate for a fair share of this money?

Let's break down some of the quick issues that come up when one discusses the NCAA and why athletes should or should not be paid:

First, the issue is actually one of labor rights.  Athletes are not the ones who choose to be paid with just a scholarship.  They are forced into that style of payment because the labor market has been artificially rigged to control their income and labor options.  Congress allows all the universities across America to form a coalition (called the NCAA).

Members of this coalition have agreed to only pay athletes with scholarships under threat of severe punishment if they deviate from the agreement.  This style of action would be illegal in nearly any other industry in America and allows universities, coaches and administrators to profit handsomely by keeping athletes from demanding a fair share of the money.

The NCAA is allowed an exemption from anti-trust laws to maintain their cartel because they've convinced Congress that they are focused primarily on education and nothing more.  They argue that money doesn't matter and that they exist almost solely for the well-being of the athlete.  That is why they spend millions of dollars running those commercials telling you about all the great things they do for college athletes.

The problem is that the NCAA has no problem giving $30 million dollars to coaches like John Calipari at Kentucky, who has been found guilty of numerous NCAA violations and doesn't have a very high graduation rate.  Also, in my experience as a college professor, I've seen athletes pulled out of class for games, and forced to practice so much that they barely have time to study.

In fact, many athletes have their scholarships taken away when they can no longer play sports or compete at the level that their coaches expect.  Many athletes are expected to put their athletic performance ahead of their academic ones.

My argument is not that we should force universities to write a paycheck for athletes.  I guess that would be too much for them, even though they have no problem pumping out several million dollars per year to pay a coach who doesn't care much about academics.  Instead of paying the athletes, perhaps we should simply decriminalize compensation.

Why have we been convinced that a star athlete, worth $10 million dollars or more to his university every year, should be considered a terrible person because he takes $1,000 dollars from a booster to pay his mother's rent?  Do coaches have to beg for money to pay for their own rent?  If not, then why have we decided that athletes and their families should be treated as second-class citizens?

Here's the real deal on the NCAA:

Part of the reason they can get away with their billion dollar sweatshop is because most of the people being exploited are Black.  Most of the people watching March Madness don't realize the billions of dollars getting passed around, and most of them don't even care.  Also, most of the audience thinks that those Black kids should be happy with what they get, since a natural jealousy can rise up when people see a young Black man with more resources than they feel he deserves.

While they certainly have no problem watching a coach buy mansions and private jets from coaching a championship team, they have serious issues seeing a 20-year old Black kid in a Bentley.

The NCAA will change when the athletes get informed on the exploitation and gain the courage to stand up against tyranny.  Additionally, legal action from concerned citizens (National Black Law Student Association, did you hear that?) may help pave the way to challenge the lack of constitutional fairness of many of the NCAA's excessive rules and regulations.  This is a matter of equity and although a scholarship is nice, athletes should have the same labor rights as coaches.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Faculty Affiliate at The College Sport Research Institute and the founder of ALARM: The Athlete Liberation Academic Reform Movement.  For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com.

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We'd like to thank you for being loyal readers and following the site as today marks our 8^th month anniversary.

Still a baby on the web forefront, we thank you for making us one of the fastest growing urban entertainment portals out here on the net.

Making it a mission to provide up-to-the minute Hip-Hop news and interviews with some of the game's elite MCs and showcasing hot new music, our goal is to always keep you interested and coming back.

We take pride in what we do and our mission also to “EDUTAIN” our readers.  Whether it's covering the triumphs of President Obama or continuing to put the spotlight on police brutality since main stream media acts as if it's a thing of the past, Hip-Hop Wired is determined to be your voice and tell all the facets of our story.

In addition, we make it a point not to hide our dirty laundry and address our serious issues like Black-on-Black crime and the rise of teen violence which included last year's tragic death of Derrion Albert.  Since some artists are a part of the problem, we don't hesitate to get them to weigh in too and take them to task when it's needed.

Trying to stop the violence, we even chopped it up with David Banner and Twista who had some candid words and views as we search for a solution.

Aside from the music, this month we held in depth talks with Dr. Boyce Watkins as we discussed with him his views on South Carolina Lt. Governor Andre Bauer comparing the poor and Black people to stray animals.  (Yeah he had the balls to go there.)

Not resting there, Hip-Hop Wired also tackled the tragic earthquake in Haiti as well as the racial slanders that followed.  From Rush Limbaugh wanting to stop aid to our brothers and sisters in need or Pat Robertson blaming the catastrophe on Haiti's pact with the devil, we checked them and we checked them good.

We even took a closer look at the so called “Pact With Devil” as we explored France and The United States' role in the crippling of Haiti's economy since they took their independence in 1804.

A “crime” the white slave owners have refused to get over as they continue to penalize them for organizing the first successful slave revolt in the Americas.

As I stated earlier, our mission is to “EDUTAIN” and the journey with you, our family, is just beginning.

We've got a few new surprises in store next month as we take a look inside the belly of the beast.  Does it really rehabilitate or is it just a modern day slave plantation for some.

Also be on the lookout for the upcoming Hip-Hop Wired video channel.

We're just getting started so thanks again for the love and support as we continue to grow with you and take Hip-Hop forward.

Michael “Ice-Blue” Harris
Hip-Hop Wired Operations Manager

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed.   You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."

Currently campaigning for Governor of the state, he insisted that the country could not afford to keep giving away money without nothing in return.  Some of the stipulations he wants to invoke include poor people losing their benefits if they don't pass drug tests, and parents should be required to be more active in their children's education and be forced to attend PTA meetings.

Receiving flack for his “stray animals” comments, Bauer has since tried to clean up his words.  He added,

"There's no way that I was trying to tie animals to people, but what I was trying to talk about is the dependency culture, and just like when you feed an animal, you create a dependency."

Hip-Hop Wired recently spoke to Dr. Boyce Watkins about the comments and if he felt they were racially biased.

Dr. Boyce Watkins: He may not have been talking about all Black people but he was certainly talking about poor Black people.  But his comment wasn't exclusively aimed towards Black people but Black people have a greater reason than most to be offended because we do have a disproportionate representation among America's poor.  Also the Republicans have for the longest time made Black people the face of welfare so it's not inconceivable that his comments would be considered to be racist.

HipHopWired:  As we know the problem is way bigger but he chose to start with the kids.  Many kids who are on public assistance have drug addicted parents or some type of hardships so it sounds as if he's saying the children should suffer the parents' consequences.  Not once did he mention about trying to fight the drugs coming into the country because he knows that's controlled by the ones at the top.  It's well documented that the government pumped drugs in the ghetto to control Black people, could this be phase two?

Dr. Boyce Watkins: Now with this guy's remarks…his remarks were not just controversial, they weren't just a little bit insulting.  They were disturbing because he was effectively saying not just that poor people are like stray dogs.  But that if those people don't behave the way you think they should behave then you should take food from their children.  You should stop giving their children free lunch and then he connected feeding the children to breeding.  That these people should be discouraged from breeding by starving their children.   That almost sounds like some sh*t that Hitler would've said in Nazi Germany, that certain people should not be allowed to breed.

You're opening a real dangerous and ignorant and destructive door when you talk about controlling the reproduction patterns of people that you don't agree with. So for him to really say that, it's unbelievable and then you can go to another level.   He believes as a lot of people do, that the government has the right to control the actions and the behaviors of people that are getting government assistance but he doesn't feel that middle class and upper class people should have their behavior controlled.

HipHopWired:  How ironic when in actuality they get more government assistance than everybody?

Dr. Boyce Watkins: Exactly, because in this county the wealthy get more government support than anybody because the wealthy get corporate welfare.  You saw the government bailing out the bankers.  Even this politician himself is living off of government money.  How is he going to sit there and say that people getting government assistance should not be fed, their children should not be fed.  They should not be able to reproduce and all these other things when in fact he himself should also be subjected to the same behavioral modification mechanism.

And also when he talked about breeding he was actually saying that these people don't know any better.  Like they don't know how to stop breeding.  All these things that really are disrespecting the humanity of his fellow Americans.  So it makes him look as inhuman as you can imagine.  I think this guy, his comments are worse than anything anybody has said in politics in the past five years that I can think of.  His comments are worse than what Bill Clinton, Rob Blagojevich, and Harry Reid said. His comments go to the point of almost advocating various forms of genocide which is incredibly problematic which is why the need to get his butt out of office immediately.

HipHopWired:  Now let's be fair.  He's not the first person to complain about welfare abuse, Black or white.  Some people do sit on their ass and have baby after baby and wait at home for check.  What's the difference?

Dr. Boyce Watkins: The difference I think is… number one.  He compares them to stray animals which is problematic to begin with.  Number two… while a lot of people can criticize those who are irresponsible parents and while we all can agree with this idea that you shouldn't have children if you can't take care of them, the truth is irresponsible parenting is not just something poor people do.

I've been around rich people all my life and their parenting can be just as irresponsible.  They also impose a cost onto society when you raise a child who's hooked on crystal meth or some little rich boy who goes off to Wall Street and ends up destroying the whole financial system. Or goes to college and drinks like a fish and act like an ass and rapes some girl in a  fraternity house or whatever, you've got a lot of irresponsible parenting going in middles and upper class America too.   So my feeling is while we certainly can criticize and critique poor parenting, we can't sit here and assume that only poor people do it because we know that all different types of people do it.

For more information on Dr. Boyce Watkins, log on to www.yourblackworld.com.

The comments are cited in a forth-coming book by Journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann.

Dr. Watkins argues that Reid's comments are quite compelling.

“The idea that he would congratulate Obama for being less Black sends a clear signal that he and other Americans would support Obama IN SPITE of his blackness, which says that the whiter you are, the better you are. That is White Supremacy 101,” says Watkins.

Dr. Watkins goes further to argue that Reid himself may not be a racist, but that he is a reflector of the fact that America has a long way to go when it comes to race.

“But the truth is that for the past 400 years, light-skinned Blacks have been preferable to darker skinned African Americans in almost every walk of life, from beauty to employment to politics. In that regard, Reid was simply pointing out the obvious and reminding us that we are a long way away from any kind of ‘post-racial America.'”

Dr. Watkins argues that given that these comments were released near the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., it's time for America to hold a national conversation on race.

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Even though Rev. Sharpton and I discussed everything except for the fact that Tiger's wife is white, one of the callers slammed the issue on the table like a five pound slab of raw chicken. The caller made the old OJ Simpson argument: "Had he been with a sister, none of this would have happened."

While I don't agree with the caller's assertion (we know that marital drama knows no racial boundaries), I found it interesting that some of the black women in the studio smirked and looked at the floor, as if to say, "I hear ya girl." These smirks were not built on agreeing with what the woman said, but rather, on the disappointment and resentment that many black women have felt about the fact that Tiger Woods almost never seemed to show any interest in African-American females. Unlike guys like myself, who admire Tiger for his achievements, I know a long list of black women who could care less if Tiger were to take his golf clubs and jump off the side of a 10-story building.

The woman's comment about race, which again I did not agree with, led me down a trail of thought about Tiger Woods, race and how this incident is going to change the way we see him forever. One clear point that can be made relates to the OJ Simpson case. Before he was acquitted for the murder of Nicole Brown Simpson in 1995, OJ Simpson was America's favorite black man: He didn't have anything to do with the black community and white America loved him as much as they loved themselves. He simply turned in his "brother card," never to be seen in a soul food restaurant again. But fate changed all that, as OJ ended up relying on support from the black community to get him through his toughest hour. White America abandoned him for committing a mortal sin: Hurting a beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. Had Nicole Brown Simpson been black, it is arguable that OJ would never have been dealt with so harshly for the next 15 years.

Tiger may be in a similar situation with his wife Elin. I seriously wonder if Elin struck Tiger with that golf club, given that Tiger was going in and out of consciousness and drove straight into a tree. It's odd to me that one of the most focused human beings on the planet was unable to dodge large objects in the path of his automobile. But given that Tiger is the one being accused of committing adultery, one can only wonder if our society will decide that Tiger is the bad guy in this incident. Should this incident turn out to be a case of domestic violence, it should be made clear that if Tiger didn't hit his wife, he is not the one who should be charged and vilified. There is no excuse for committing violence in a relationship, period.

We have to remember that the world changes quickly, right before our eyes: No one ever thought that OJ Simpson would be public enemy number one, and it was once a pipe dream for Barack Obama to become President of the United States. So, the idea that Tiger Woods could become ostracized by the American public for the dirt now being released about his private life is not out of the question. I am not sure which direction this saga is going to go, but I can guarantee you this: It's going to get deeper before it's done, since the world has been waiting to see the real Tiger Woods.

Dr. Boyce Watkins