 The movie "42" opened with rave reviews and high ratings. I found it to be a heartwarming movie with a wonderful "heroic" storyline. Jackie Robinson was indeed a trailblazer who paved the way for generations of athletes to come. It takes a person of character and strong intestinal fortitude to endure what Robinson went through in those early years. In an article by Mark Newman on the MLB.com website, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is quoted saying: "I've often said that baseball's proudest moment and its most powerful social statement came when Jackie Robinson first set foot on a Major League Baseball field,...and '42' captures that event brilliantly." Although every professional sport played today has been integrated, when it comes to ownership things are quite different. A Philadelphia Tribune article written in October 2011 stated a stark reality. In 122 sports ownership groups (32 NFL teams, and 30 each in the other three sports), there was just one Black majority owner among all of those franchises, in all of those sports. In 2011 basketball great Michael Jordan was the sole African American with a majority interest in a professional sports team, the Charlotte Bobcats.
 Today marks the first anniversary of the creation of the Marketplace for Social Awareness and Social Responsibility, launched in 2012 to promote and support programs, initiatives, and events that address some of the social, economic and political issues facing us today. We’ve come a long way in our first year and we’re looking forward to many years of service to our community at large. I hope that in some small way we’ve helped you to become more socially aware. I hope that we’ve inspired you to continue being socially responsible
When I created the Marketplace the concept was quite simple, leverage social media to provide a vehicle for individuals to collaborate, unite, and effect change. My vision was clear and has not changed. I believe that if we create a mechanism for us to communicate and share information, a “Marketplace” of sorts, we will be in a better position to collaborate and work collectively. This is the reason the Marketplace for Social Awareness and Social Responsibility was created. Are you being bombarded by too much information from social media sites?
Are you knee deep in information overload? Is all of this information lulling you to sleep? Maybe you need to....  In a few weeks we will be celebrating the first anniversary of the Marketplace. As I reflect on our first year I am humbled by the outpouring of support, encouragement, and kind words that we have received. I thank you for this and am looking forward to your continued support in the future. I'll cut to the chase, I'm asking you for money. In launching the Marketplace my original intent was to leverage various forms of social media to entice our followers to engage in meaningful dialogue and discuss some of the major issues facing us today. I quickly realized while facebook, twitter, and all of the other social networking sites are good vehicles to promote social awareness and social responsibility, they are passive at most. We can engage all we want but liking or sharing a post is not being socially responsible. To be socially responsible you have to act, you have to do something. In an earlier post I referenced the Workshop for Civic Initiatives Foundation's statement that: "....individual social responsibility includes the engagement of each person towards the community where he lives, which can be expressed as an interest towards what’s happening in the community, as well as in the active participation in the solving of some of the local problems......and everyone of us could take part in that development in different ways, for example by taking part in cleaning of the street on which he lives, by taking part in organization of an event, connected with the history of the town or the village or by rendering social services to children without parents or elderly people. The individual social responsibility also could be expressed in making donations for significant for the society causes – social, cultural or ecological. There are many ways of donating, as for example donating of goods or donating money through a bank account or online".  In January I posted my credo. One of the lines states: "I will challenge everything, question everything, and validate everything." Every so often something gets posted about someone that's not true and it goes viral unchecked. During the past election cycle there were posts flying through the internet stating that Mitt Romney said he "can relate to black people" because his ancestors once owned slaves. According to Snopes.com this statement was from a spoof article published by a satirical web site. The latest is the re-posting of a message attributed to Bill Cosby. This one seems to pop up every so often. My guess is since Bill Cosby is a well known and respected public figure someone thought that attributing these comments to him would lend some credibility to their right-wing agenda. Below is an excerpt from the post:
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EditorErnest R. Heyward is the Founder and President of the Marketplace for Social Awareness and Social Responsibility Inc. 
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