Todd Boyd
Encyclopedia
Dr. Todd Boyd, American
academic, is the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture and Professor
of Critical Studies in the USC School of Cinematic Arts
. Boyd is an author, media commentator, producer and consultant. He is a highly regarded expert on contemporary popular culture and is noted for his pioneering work on race, media, hip hop culture, and sports.
in 1991, was first "intellectually awoken" when his father gave him a copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X
. Boyd, commonly known as “The Notorious Ph.D.” due to his often controversial viewpoints, went on to teach at the University of Utah
from 1991–1992, and then moved on to the Cinematic Arts department of the University of Southern California
, where he has taught since 1992.
Boyd and his ground-breaking research on hip-hop culture and controversial opinions about the black community at large have led him to become an internationally known and sought after voice on race matters. Bob Baker of the Los Angeles Times has cited Boyd as a figure that is "perpetually in demand by reporters to pass judgment on everything about race from pimp fashion to radio programming to the historical validity of a mysterious black caddy in The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)."
Dr. Boyd has penned six books, written numerous articles and essays for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune (among other publications), and is a columnist on ESPN.com’s Page 2. He produced and co-wrote the Paramount Picture film The Wood (1999), and has made numerous media appearances on both leading networks and cable television programs from the Today Show (NBC) and Good Morning America (ABC) to Biography (A&E).
Armond White of The Nation struggles to see hip-hop as a “movement” in today’s Black culture because he believes the "emphasis [is] on individual wealth rather than community benefits". Feminist scholar bell hooks
believes that hip-hop is a culture that thrives on "fantasy", and that despite its intention to stay true to its community, it is instead "packaged for mainstream consumption". In fact, she believes that hip-hop as a whole strongly reflects "imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy." On the other hand, Boyd believes that there is a strong link between the Black Power
Movement and hip-hop culture; he clarifies this point by saying, "In the same way that civil rights spoke to the conditions back in the day, hip hop artists now speak to a populace often disillusioned by those considered overtly political in a traditional sense."
Imus’ comments sparked a nationwide debate about verbal ownership, and many groups, including the NAACP believe that
the word, “nigger/nigga” should be banned from the English language. In fact, on July 9, 2007, the NAACP held a funeral in which the word was symbolically buried. Boyd feels that this mock funeral was an “incredible waste of time" and felt that the energy should instead be “directed toward more pressing social and economic issues within the black community.” Boyd further dismisses these claims by saying, “It is particularly ironic that an institution that is regressive and out of touch as the NAACP would bury the n-word while they continue to use 'colored' as a form of identification. That seems like a bit of a contradiction”.
Dr. Boyd asserts that blaming hip-hop for public and personal indiscretions is wrong, and that in the case of Imus and the 2007 Rutgers women’s basketball team, “we should hold Imus accountable for Imus”.
Boyd contests that this state of unrest was more directly linked to the usurping of Babe Ruth—the white baseball pioneer who held the number two position on the list in a sport that Boyd claims is very “republican”. Boyd stated that “though Aaron [held] the record, Babe Ruth still [represented] the heart and soul of baseball…it is Ruth who continues to personify the identity of the sport”.
Yet Boyd’s contrary opinions do not stop there: in a satirical open letter to Hank Aaron penned under Boyd’s writing alter ego, “The Notorious Ph.D.” on ESPN.com’s Page 2, he called Aaron a “full-fledged, bona fide, 100 percent playa hater of the highest order”, and pled with him show support for Bonds surpassing his impressive record rather than being influenced by the scandal.
Interestingly enough, the record-setting home run ball was purchased by designer Mark Ecko, who set up an on-line forum for “the public” to vote and decide the fate of the disputed ball. Those who voted supported sending the ball to the Hall of Fame with an asterisk, signifying the questionable legitimacy of the record. Boyd, suggests that Babe Ruth and other white players who played in Major League Baseball before 1947—the year the league was racially integrated—should also have an asterisk by their accomplishments as well due to the unfair “benefits of playing in a competitive league that did not allow for fair and equal competition based solely on the issue of race.”
Beyond the potential for creating history by becoming the first African-American President, Obama’s run has also been widely discussed due to his tendentious campaign tactics. His popularity, largely fueled by the heightened public support of many of today’s celebrities has caused many citizens to speculate the power of celebrity endorsement. Time magazine claims that in this “Democratic presidential nomination race that has defied convention at every turn, celebrities are playing a much bigger role than usual.”
However, no celebrity brought more weight with her support than Oprah Winfrey. In an Associated Press article, Boyd comments, “Oprah is in a category all her own. She’s not a movie star. She’s not a rock star. She’s a brand. She’s one of the few people in the world who can be identified only by one name.” He continued, “Oprah is very powerful. Like most people, she wants to demonstrate her power. She wants to be a kingmaker. If she can get a president elected, that’s a big line on an already long resume.”
Oprah’s support has not been met with positivity by all of her fans and viewers. Some fans claim that her public role of a “uniter”, “who transcend[s] “race, class and political divides” runs the risk of “splinter[ing] her viewership along partisan lines”. Dr. Boyd keeps a more positive outlook on Oprah’s future, suggesting that “whether or not Oprah ends up helping Obama, she has little to lose with her fan base. But if Obama were to get elected, Winfrey has a lot to gain. ”
Yet it is not only the support of celebrities that has caused some citizens to be wary, but the celebritization of Obama himself. According to a USA Today article from 2005, although Obama is a “deliberately low-key newcomer to Capitol Hill...he’s also an A-list celebrity, courted by everyone from Oprah to Gorbachev”. His celebrity was further solidified back in 2005 by events such as his Newsweek cover, his picture being taken by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, and his casual mention on TV’s Will and Grace. Boyd weighs in on the issue saying, “Obama has the potential to be a star like nobody else does. He was that ‘It’ factor—that star appeal. And it’s Hollywood that created that system.”
Needless to say, although Obama’s potential election will have a tremendous symbolic impact on American culture, Dr. Boyd believes that the “symbolic” aspect of electing the first black man into office only goes so far. He says, “At some point, symbols need to be grounded in reality, and that’s when we really start to see and understand the impact of how something like this might in turn effect people’s perception of American Culture.”
Selected Newspaper/Magazine Commentary:
Covers:
DVD Voice-over Commentary
This is a sampling of Dr. Boyd's numerous Media Appearances
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
academic, is the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture and Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Critical Studies in the USC School of Cinematic Arts
USC School of Cinematic Arts
The USC School of Cinematic Arts, until 2006 named the School of Cinema-Television , is a film school within the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. It is the oldest and largest such school in the United States, established in 1929 as a joint venture with the Academy of...
. Boyd is an author, media commentator, producer and consultant. He is a highly regarded expert on contemporary popular culture and is noted for his pioneering work on race, media, hip hop culture, and sports.
Biography
Boyd, who earned his Ph.D. in Communications Studies from the University of IowaUniversity of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
in 1991, was first "intellectually awoken" when his father gave him a copy of The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collaboration between Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley. Haley coauthored the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted between 1963 and Malcolm X's 1965 assassination...
. Boyd, commonly known as “The Notorious Ph.D.” due to his often controversial viewpoints, went on to teach at the University of Utah
University of Utah
The University of Utah, also known as the U or the U of U, is a public, coeducational research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret, making it Utah's oldest...
from 1991–1992, and then moved on to the Cinematic Arts department of the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
, where he has taught since 1992.
Boyd and his ground-breaking research on hip-hop culture and controversial opinions about the black community at large have led him to become an internationally known and sought after voice on race matters. Bob Baker of the Los Angeles Times has cited Boyd as a figure that is "perpetually in demand by reporters to pass judgment on everything about race from pimp fashion to radio programming to the historical validity of a mysterious black caddy in The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)."
Dr. Boyd has penned six books, written numerous articles and essays for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Tribune (among other publications), and is a columnist on ESPN.com’s Page 2. He produced and co-wrote the Paramount Picture film The Wood (1999), and has made numerous media appearances on both leading networks and cable television programs from the Today Show (NBC) and Good Morning America (ABC) to Biography (A&E).
Controversy and criticism
Todd Boyd has earned his most commonly known nickname, “The Notorious PH.D” due to the controversial stances he takes on many topics. Bob Baker claims that the professor often crosses “into Todd Boyd territory, where most academics fear to tread.” Boyd’s non-traditional views of the African American community have been both lauded and arraigned. His progressive perspective on the social significance of hip-hop in American culture at large has stimulated an on-going debate."The Civil Rights Movement is Dead"
Boyd’s bold statements such as "the civil rights movement is dead" have ruffled the feathers of more traditional black theorists and critics. Boyd believes that hip-hop plays a significant role in shaping today’s black society; in fact he believes that "hip-hop has emerged as a social and cultural movement displacing the ideas of the Civil Rights era". More conventional Black theorists believe that Boyd’s theory is a "slap in the face of the heroism of our ancestor's struggle" and that hip-hop culture is instead a “poorly articulated social revolution.”Armond White of The Nation struggles to see hip-hop as a “movement” in today’s Black culture because he believes the "emphasis [is] on individual wealth rather than community benefits". Feminist scholar bell hooks
Bell hooks
Gloria Jean Watkins , better known by her pen name bell hooks, is an American author, feminist, and social activist....
believes that hip-hop is a culture that thrives on "fantasy", and that despite its intention to stay true to its community, it is instead "packaged for mainstream consumption". In fact, she believes that hip-hop as a whole strongly reflects "imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy." On the other hand, Boyd believes that there is a strong link between the Black Power
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
Movement and hip-hop culture; he clarifies this point by saying, "In the same way that civil rights spoke to the conditions back in the day, hip hop artists now speak to a populace often disillusioned by those considered overtly political in a traditional sense."
...and in the case of Don Imus...
However, Boyd also recognizes that the infiltration of hip- hop into the mainstream has “taken a private conversation and made it public”. As the black street culture of hip-hop has gone into widespread circulation, the culture as a whole has become the scapegoat for all sorts of racial and cultural dissatisfaction. This debate was only exacerbated by radio personality, Don Imus’ racially charged comments about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team in 2007.Imus’ comments sparked a nationwide debate about verbal ownership, and many groups, including the NAACP believe that
the word, “nigger/nigga” should be banned from the English language. In fact, on July 9, 2007, the NAACP held a funeral in which the word was symbolically buried. Boyd feels that this mock funeral was an “incredible waste of time" and felt that the energy should instead be “directed toward more pressing social and economic issues within the black community.” Boyd further dismisses these claims by saying, “It is particularly ironic that an institution that is regressive and out of touch as the NAACP would bury the n-word while they continue to use 'colored' as a form of identification. That seems like a bit of a contradiction”.
Dr. Boyd asserts that blaming hip-hop for public and personal indiscretions is wrong, and that in the case of Imus and the 2007 Rutgers women’s basketball team, “we should hold Imus accountable for Imus”.
Barry Bonds: Guilty when Proven Innocent
As Barry Bonds closed in on becoming baseball’s historic all-time home run leader, the fans of the sport were very polarized on issue of the record being broken. While some waited with anxious anticipation as he made progress at surpassing the old record set by Hank Aaron, others felt that Bonds’ “scandalous” journey should be thrown out all together due to his alleged use of performance enhancing drugs. Boyd believes that race was a major “issue in Bond’s quest” and an ESPN/ ABC poll supported Boyd’s opinion by suggesting that a “race plays a unique role” in fans support (or lack thereof) of Bonds goal to break the record.Boyd contests that this state of unrest was more directly linked to the usurping of Babe Ruth—the white baseball pioneer who held the number two position on the list in a sport that Boyd claims is very “republican”. Boyd stated that “though Aaron [held] the record, Babe Ruth still [represented] the heart and soul of baseball…it is Ruth who continues to personify the identity of the sport”.
Yet Boyd’s contrary opinions do not stop there: in a satirical open letter to Hank Aaron penned under Boyd’s writing alter ego, “The Notorious Ph.D.” on ESPN.com’s Page 2, he called Aaron a “full-fledged, bona fide, 100 percent playa hater of the highest order”, and pled with him show support for Bonds surpassing his impressive record rather than being influenced by the scandal.
Interestingly enough, the record-setting home run ball was purchased by designer Mark Ecko, who set up an on-line forum for “the public” to vote and decide the fate of the disputed ball. Those who voted supported sending the ball to the Hall of Fame with an asterisk, signifying the questionable legitimacy of the record. Boyd, suggests that Babe Ruth and other white players who played in Major League Baseball before 1947—the year the league was racially integrated—should also have an asterisk by their accomplishments as well due to the unfair “benefits of playing in a competitive league that did not allow for fair and equal competition based solely on the issue of race.”
Who’s the Big “O”? : Our Obsession with Obama and Oprah
As the first African-American candidate to have a realistic competitive run for the United States presidency, Barack Obama has stirred the nation, causing citizens to reevaluate their ethics and truly question their willingness to evolve. Due to the controversy caused by Obama’s ethnicity and sudden celebrity, Dr. Boyd became a highly sought after opinion, weighing in at sources such as the Associated Press, Time, The NBC Nightly News, in addition to a Newsweek cover story.Beyond the potential for creating history by becoming the first African-American President, Obama’s run has also been widely discussed due to his tendentious campaign tactics. His popularity, largely fueled by the heightened public support of many of today’s celebrities has caused many citizens to speculate the power of celebrity endorsement. Time magazine claims that in this “Democratic presidential nomination race that has defied convention at every turn, celebrities are playing a much bigger role than usual.”
However, no celebrity brought more weight with her support than Oprah Winfrey. In an Associated Press article, Boyd comments, “Oprah is in a category all her own. She’s not a movie star. She’s not a rock star. She’s a brand. She’s one of the few people in the world who can be identified only by one name.” He continued, “Oprah is very powerful. Like most people, she wants to demonstrate her power. She wants to be a kingmaker. If she can get a president elected, that’s a big line on an already long resume.”
Oprah’s support has not been met with positivity by all of her fans and viewers. Some fans claim that her public role of a “uniter”, “who transcend[s] “race, class and political divides” runs the risk of “splinter[ing] her viewership along partisan lines”. Dr. Boyd keeps a more positive outlook on Oprah’s future, suggesting that “whether or not Oprah ends up helping Obama, she has little to lose with her fan base. But if Obama were to get elected, Winfrey has a lot to gain. ”
Yet it is not only the support of celebrities that has caused some citizens to be wary, but the celebritization of Obama himself. According to a USA Today article from 2005, although Obama is a “deliberately low-key newcomer to Capitol Hill...he’s also an A-list celebrity, courted by everyone from Oprah to Gorbachev”. His celebrity was further solidified back in 2005 by events such as his Newsweek cover, his picture being taken by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz, and his casual mention on TV’s Will and Grace. Boyd weighs in on the issue saying, “Obama has the potential to be a star like nobody else does. He was that ‘It’ factor—that star appeal. And it’s Hollywood that created that system.”
Needless to say, although Obama’s potential election will have a tremendous symbolic impact on American culture, Dr. Boyd believes that the “symbolic” aspect of electing the first black man into office only goes so far. He says, “At some point, symbols need to be grounded in reality, and that’s when we really start to see and understand the impact of how something like this might in turn effect people’s perception of American Culture.”
Publications
- The Notorious Ph.D.’s Guide to the Super Fly 70s: ISBN 0-7679-2187-9 (Harlem Moon/Broadway/Random House, 2007)
- Young Black Rich and Famous: The Rise of the NBA, the Hip Hop Invasion, and the Transformation of American Culture: ISBN 0-7679-1277-2 (Doubleday/Random House, 2003)
- The New H.N.I.C: The Death of Civil Rights and the Reign of Hip Hop: ISBN 0-8147-9896-9 (NYU Press, 2002)
- Am I Black Enough For You? : Popular Culture from the 'Hood and Beyond: ISBN 0-253-21105-0 (Indiana University Press, 1997)
- Out of Bounds: Sports, Media and the Politics of Identity: ISBN 0-253-21095-X (Indiana University Press, 1997)
- Basketball Jones: America Above the Rim: ISBN 0-8147-1316-5 (NYU Press, 2000)
Selected media appearances
Selected Television Commentary:- ABC- ABC World News Tonight
- NBC- The Today Show, NBC Nightly News
- CBS- CBS Evening News
- PBS- The News Hour with Jim Lehrer
- ESPN- Sports Center, Outside the Lines
- A&E- Biography
- CNN- Headline News
- AMC- Hell Up in Hollywood
- E!- True Hollywood Stories
- Court TV- Both Sides
- HBO: O.J. Simpson: A Study in Black and White (2002), Perfect Upset: The 1985 Villanova verses Georgetown NCAA Championship (2005), Bill Russell: My Life, My Way (2000).
Selected Newspaper/Magazine Commentary:
- The New York Times
- Time
- Newsweek
- U.S. News and World Report
- Vibe
- USA Today
- Los Angeles Times
- Washington Post
- GQ
- Variety
- Chicago Tribune
- Boston Globe
Covers:
- The Village Voice, January 8, 2003
DVD Voice-over Commentary
- Super Fly (1972)
- Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
- Cabin in the Sky (1943)
- Stormy Weather (1943)
This is a sampling of Dr. Boyd's numerous Media Appearances
External links
- ESPN Articles Written by Todd Boyd: