Jay-Z, part owner of the New Jersey Nets, announced recently that the new arena for the team will be built in Brooklyn, his hometown. The arena’s naming rights were purchased by Barclays, a UK-based bank, paying $400 million for 20 years. Just after the January 18th announcement though, local politicians and journalists criticized the team and its majority owner, Bruce Ratner, for taking money from a bank whose founding family profited from their ownership of slaves in the 18th century and their involvement with the South African government in the 1980s.
Since then, Jay-Z, who owns less than one percent of the team, has declined to comment. His reps have told the press they will neither address the matter or take any action. The rapper does have a recent history of boycotting though: Last year, he stopped drinking and serving Cristal champagne at his 40/40 clubs after an executive with Cristal’s producer made disparaging remarks about rappers and their affinity for the drink. Barclays, for its part, says its slave-trade past should be understood in the context of history, and says that it will spend $2.5 million on enhancing basketball courts all over the borough of Brooklyn in good faith.
