“One Man’s Opinion”by Gordon Curvey

Watch “Music Inner City TV/”Sports Inner City TV” pre-season interviews with members of our Seattle Seahawks via Ustream TV to the right. If not airing it will be on soon!

If you readers know anything about me you know I am more than a TV producer. For years I have fought for one thing…DIVERSITY. Diversity in the studios of sports radio here in the home of the Seattle Seahawks…Seattle, Washington.

In the last year sports radio KJR hired Jerry Brewer as a sports radio host. He is a African American and is doing a fine job with Elise Woodward on KJR. How bout that a African American and a female from 10am to noon Monday thur Friday.

Brewer by the way is a sports editorial writer for the Seattle Times and does a fine job their too. Lisa Decker the GM for Clear Channel in our area told me she would make some changes and she would stand up for diversity. Hiring Brewer was a start for sure. She kept her word.

710 ESPN here in Seattle is another story. Zero African Americans on the air on a daily basis and it seems like the General Manager and Program Director does not care about the word diversity. Yes they have a Hispanic-American over the air but not a African Americans on a regular basis. This is a problem folks. When about 90% of the time the hosts on 710 ESPN are discussing a African American in the sports world, a African American is needed over the air. But like I said it seems they do not want change. Do not care about having a African American over the air on a regular basis.

Look at MSNBC folks. THEY CARE ABOUT DIVERSITY!! Tamaron Hall, Rev Al Sharpton, Prof. Mellisa Harris-Perry, Toure, Karen Finney and now add Joy Reid (pic to the left) MSNBC has announced that Reid will have her own daily program starting soon!! THIS IS GREAT!! Joy Reid has done a great job on MSNBC as a guest on various programs so she has earned the right to have her own program.

Will Fox News FINALLY  allow a African American to have their own program? It seems not. All they care about is having Sean Hannity clones over the air. Just like 710 ESPN here in Seattle, Fox News CAN CARE LESS about having a African American over the air with his or hers own program. This is a fact readers.

A perfect example of why a African American is needed over the air on sports radio and on TV is the Seattle Seahawks Richard Sherman situation in which the word I HATE so much and that word is “thug” has been brought up time and time again.

I am VERY happy that my brotha Sherman broke it down to let “blind” I am sorry to say mostly white folks know that the word “thug” is a code word for “nigga”. We as African Americans already know this. Sherman discussed his so called interview with Erin Andrews all week. And today Seahawk Marshawn Lynch barely talked to the media at Press Day the Super Bowl in New Jersey. He did a short one on one interview with Hall of Famer Deion Sanders which I knew would happen.

MORE Sanders and more Stephen A. Smith’s and more Jerry Brewer’s and more Jason Whitlock’s and more Micheal Wilborn’s etc are needed over the air. And needed badly!! The time is now. It makes NO SENSE for sports radio 710 ESPN here in Seattle to have zero African Americans over the air on a regular basis. They should follow the lead of MSNBC. They care about the word….DIVERSITY!!