An Assist by Magic Johnson
While Magic Johnson has won many basketball games, his biggest victory, he says, will be when there is no technological divide in South Los Angeles.
To make sure that happens, the Magic Johnson Foundation and Hewlett-Packard Co., along with the Los Angeles County Community Development Commission and AT&T;, opened a renovated computer center Friday at the Ujima Village Housing Development.
The center shows its technological and athletic roots. Along with a powerful and fast lineup of Hewlett-Packard commercial and consumer products--from servers and PCs to printers, scanners and digital cameras--there’s a basketball court painted on the floor.
The opening ceremony, which was more church rally than ribbon cutting, boasted an audience of more than 250 people who yelled “Amen!” and “That’s right!” as politicians thanked sponsors and praised residents’ dedication and enthusiasm.
“We can only advance our minds if we take a step inside” the center, a smiling Johnson said. “That way if somebody makes it, they can reach back and help somebody else make it.”
Johnson said he grew up in a poor Michigan community but that his parents stressed education before sports.
“The problem with inner-city [children] is, we’ve got to have somewhere to use our time,” the former Laker star said. “If kids are looking for something to do, it means trouble.”
The Magic Johnson Inventor Center is housed in a renovated facility expanded by the development commission using its own funds, along with money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The center will help teach residents to use computers for homework, research or job hunting, said commission spokesman Calvin Naito.
The program, which Johnson hopes to extend across the nation, is a partnership between his foundation and Hewlett-Packard. The company provides the equipment while the foundation, among other things, helps scout locations and find sponsors.
Christopher Dotson, a 17-year-old Ujima resident, looks at the center’s computers as a means for breaking into the music industry by producing rap and R&B; tracks.
Dotson, known as B Box to his fellow rappers, makes up Youngster Productions, along with Ujima Village residents Anthony Coleman, 23, vocalist, and Nathaniel White, 21, songwriter.
“This is going to help because I’m working with slower computers at home,” Dotson said of his recording sessions. “. . . This is computer heaven.”
For other residents, like 59-year-old Jacqueline Clements, who has a grandchild with cerebral palsy, the Internet is a source of support and medical information.
Johnson said he hopes to help bring people in poor communities into the technology mainstream. “This is the team of life,” he said. “Sports is nothing. It’s better than winning a championship.”
