ESPN, CNN, & Mainstream Media Protecting Magic the Pay Day Loan Slumlord

By Walter L. Hilliard III

“It’s money like Magic,” says Earvin “Magic” Johnson in a Jackson Hewitt high-interest tax refund commercial. These loans, really payday loans, charge interest rates from 50 to 500 percent, and Jackson Hewitt also happened to be sued by the federal government and California because of its deceptive lending practices.

So Magic is a part of the high-interest payday loan scams sucking money out of poor minority communities, but has smiled his way past critics on his way to building a fortune of about $500 million.

Magic’s also the “frontman/owner” (65% ownership) of Aspire TV (launched in 2012), having hooked in with an all-White executive team from InterMedia Partners (33% ownership), who really run the network and happen to actually be competitors of Aspire TV, all the more reason to offer Black people low-quality “chitlin circuit-type programming.” Some have complained about this scam, a scam in which Magic secured government money, our tax dollars, to throw together his proposal for the network, which helped Comcast meet its minority-ownership obligations in securing a minority interest in NBC Universal. So the point is that Black people are not really benefiting, not in key executive jobs and the Black masses are getting poor quality programming.

Magic is a non-threatening, smiling, business hack and Steppin Fetchit-type minority owner who aligns with White businesses and investors that benefit him financially, and siphon money out of the disadvantaged Black community.

However, during an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper in which he responded to Donald Sterling calling him out about several things, including asking, “What does Magic do for the Black community?” Magic said he was particularly perturbed at this accusation because he takes great pride in how much he’s done for the Black community. But even residents in his struggling hometown, Lansing, Michigan, where his parents still live, say he’s done nothing for their city except charge individuals hundreds of dollars to participate in his basketball camp. Apparently, Magic hasn’t opened up any businesses in their city.

Magic, a hero to Black folks?

Only if you believe in Mainstream Media Magic.