NFL Teaming Up with Ice Cube’s Racial Equality Initiative

The NFL is stepping up its racial equality initiatives with the help of Ice Cube.

On Thursday, the league announced a new partnership with the rapper-actor’s Contract with Black America Institute, an initiative focused on economic inclusion for minority groups.

As part of the agreement, the NFL has already spent and allocated $125 million with Black-owned-and-operated businesses.

“I’m glad the NFL stepped up,” Ice Cube said. “They’re the biggest and most powerful and most influential to other Fortune 500 companies. So we want to get them to lead the charge.”

Ice Cube founded CWBA in 2020 with longtime business partner Jeff Kwatinetz and advisers Ja’Ron Smith and Chris Pilkerton. The Institute’s foundational document was written in the wake of the 2020 killing of George Floyd.

The initiative “strikes at the heart of racism and presents a blueprint to achieve racial economic justice,” per its preamble.

Recently, the document added a section to address “systemic racism prevalent in much of the sports industry, particularly as it relates to economics, leadership, participation, and wages.”