*Jay-Z – the international superstar, mogul and rapper has always been an advocate for himself and his business pursuits – no matter how high the stakes are. Late in November, he managed to stall the legal battle that had broken between his company – Roc Nation and Iconix (another clothing line).
Iconix had gone ahead to buy Rocawear all the way back in 2007 and had lately claimed that Roc Nation’s newest line of baseball caps was in violation of an agreement with the acquired brand. Jay-z had simply waived away the claims saying that the sales contract applied to Rocawear and not Roc Nation while filing for countersuing Iconix.
When the time had come to select arbitration for the dispute outside court, an all too familiar problem arose. The roster of 12 people which had been provided by the American Arbitration Association could be eliminated by both parties until they were in mutual agreement of the individuals. This is where Jay-z’s legal team came forward saying that the artist had confronted a stark reality – there was no African American on the roster.
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Jay-z and his legal team have now made it clear that they are concerned for this mediation system to make biased decisions which will result in unlawful conclusions. Jay-z’s layers stated that the roster of the American Arbitration Association is specifically supposed to consist of neutrals and are deprived of Black litigants for complex and large cases.
As a response the AAA came up with 6 individuals of which only three appear to be African Americans. One among these three is even a partner at a law firm that represents Iconix. This was, therefore, a blindingly obvious conflict of interests. So what’s going to happen now? Well, Jay-z isn’t going to move forward with the $204 million lawsuit unless the arbitration agreement brings forward black people for dispute resolution.
This very lack of diversity may have already caused so many amongst the Black community not being able to pursue their respective discrimination claims. They may have felt that their claims will be futile in this questionable system and this is exactly what Jay-z and his legal team is on the verge of setting straight. This is because when Jay-z speaks out – people listen. A truly historic step for the Black community isn’t it?
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