September 20th 2023.
Jackson State Women’s Basketball Coach Tomekia Reed took to X, formerly Twitter, to express her displeasure with the way the TV news program 60 Minutes portrayed Jackson, Mississippi, in their second profile of former Jackson State Coach Deion Sanders in two seasons. According to HBCU Sports, Reed made it known that her problem was not with Sanders, but with the media’s portrayal of her hometown.
“My post is not about Prime! So don’t start that,” Reed wrote. “I am proud of his move, his opportunity, and I cheer for them every game. He is showing that once a HBCU coach gets a chance they can make it happen! My post is about how 60 minutes could have showed a better Jackson, MS.”
Reed also questioned if the abandoned house the program showed was even located in Jackson.
“@60Minutes y’all made Jackson, MS look horrible. You should be ashamed of yourselves for showing the worst house you can find in America and make it like that describes us. I’m not even sure if that abandoned house you showed is even in Jackson. #ThisisHome”
The current head coach for the Jackson State Tigers, T.C. Taylor, also weighed in on 60 Minutes’ portrayal of Jackson. Taylor, who Sanders endorsed to players as his choice to take the reins at Jackson State before he left for Colorado, agreed with Reed and said that the program didn’t show the “bright spots” of the city.
“It gave a bad look on Jackson, I thought,” Taylor said during a team press day. “Jackson has plenty of bright spots. There’s some good things going on in the city with this program and Jackson State in itself. When you see things like that and how they portrayed it, you know, they’re the media, so they control the narrative. But if you’re from here, born and raised here, you know what the city of Jackson is all about and the state of Mississippi.”
60 Minutes has not yet responded to the criticism of their profile publicly. The program briefly mentioned the water crisis Jackson experienced in 2022 while Sanders was the head coach at Jackson State University, juxtaposed against the bountiful water fountains on the Boulder campus. During the water crisis, Sanders described the situation as one born from inequality.
It’s clear that Jackson State Women’s Basketball Coach Tomekia Reed and current Jackson State Tigers Head Coach T.C. Taylor want the world to know that Jackson, Mississippi, is more than the negative portrayal that 60 Minutes gave it. Both coaches have expressed their frustration with the media’s control over the narrative and how they are not showing the bright spots of the city. Sanders also weighed in on the water crisis, describing it as an issue of inequality.
It remains to be seen if 60 Minutes will respond to the criticism or not, but it’s clear that Reed, Taylor, and Sanders want the world to know that there is more to Jackson, Mississippi, than what the media portrayed.
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