Congratulations to Dr. Randal Pinkett the newest winner and first Black winner of The Apprentice. Randal is a newlywed, and consistently represented the positive image of a man in relationship to his family (which is in alignment with the Real Men Cook Crusade). Dr. Pinkett is also founder, president and CEO of BCT Partners, a multi-million dollar management, technology and policy consulting firm based in Newark, NJ. In addition to being a Rhodes Scholar, graduating with M.S., MBA, and Ph.D. from MIT, Dr. Randal Pinkett was also awarded the 2002 MOBE Influencer and Innovator in Technology Award.

There has never been a more obvious winner of The Apprentice, than Randal. As project manager, Randal achieved three wins and zero losses, compared to his competitor's one win and two losses as manager. In the final competition, which was focused on a charity fundraiser, Randal raised more than $11,000 compared to his competitor's total of $0 (although Yahoo! can share responsible for this major difference as part of a major PR breakdown). The only negative thing that could be said about Randal's performance is that he didn't check or account for the rainy weather, which was later acknowledged by Randal (although he did check the weather, a 30% probability was not enough for him to worry). Randal was undeniably the King Kong of this competition, and Donald Trump apparently agreed when he declared to Dr. Pinkett, "You're Hired!"

Despite Randal's clear victory, The Apprentice would not end without controversy, when as accounted on The Apprentice website:

"Randal leapt to his feet, cheering. He threw himself at his teammates and hugs were given out all around. Trump yelled over all the excitement to get Randal back to the table for one more piece of business. At the table, Trump asked Randal what he thought about Rebecca, and Randal told him that he felt she was great. 'Randal, if you were me, would you hire Rebecca, also?'"

"The crowd was visibly taken aback when Randal said that he felt only one person should be hired as the Apprentice. Trump said that he could have been swayed to hire Rebecca, but taking Randal's comment under consideration, he would stick with only one."

The crowd was not only "taken aback," the crowd booed Randal. After three seasons of individual winners, why was the first Black winner expected to share his 15-minutes of fame with someone else? Trump showed his ignorance in asking Randal if he should hire Rebecca, and then showed is brilliance by not pressing the issue. Randal showed is strength when he made the right choice, despite the fact that many people would have "sold out" their beliefs with the adrenaline of national television combined with the desire to be viewed as "nice". The media response to Randal reeks of the nasty aroma of race in America. Dr. Pinkett has been called "selfish" in the media and on The Apprentice website 60% of the respondents to the poll "Who would you hire?" selected Rebecca, in spite of Randal's obvious dominance of the game.

Randal's dominance of The Apprentice reminds me of King Kong. He was exponentially above his competition, but in the end when he did not take the submissive position, which was against his nature, he was vilified. Black people should be proud of Randal and deserve to be OUTRAGED by the media!

Hopefully, this will become the straw that breaks the camels back; however, as America proved through a long and well documented history which includes millions of tons of cotton, Black camels have very strong backs.

Delores, AfriCreations
http://www.africreations.com