MISSTEP

Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and NFL Under Fire for Backing Nonprofit That Said ‘All Lives Matter’

NFL-Roc Nation tie-up announced donation to Chicago group whose white director posted about cutting dreads for kids who have a “desire for a better life.”

The National Football League and Jay Z’s Roc Nation company are taking criticism for a planned donation to a Chicago nonprofit that proclaimed “All Lives Matter” on its social-media feed and posted photos of its founder cutting the dreadlocks of a black teenager. The collaboration between Roc Nation and the NFL, called Inspire Change, announced it would donate $200,000 to the Crusher’s Club, a group that runs boxing programs for kids in the city’s low-income areas. But social-media posts resurfaced by a Twitter user dubbed Resist Programming show the club using the phrase “All Lives Matter,” a term used as a criticism of the Black Lives Matter campaign against police brutality, and founder Sally Hazelgrove cutting the dreads of a black teen and saying it was a “symbolic of change and their desire for a better life.” The club has rejected criticism, saying it “welcome[s] all hairstyles from our youth.” It added its only ambition was to help the kids “improve their neighborhoods, maximize their potential and develop into the leaders of tomorrow.”