Not on her watch.
Tomekia Reed, the women’s basketball coach of the Jackson State Tigers, took strong exception to the way “60 Minutes” portrayed the city of Jackson, Mississippi, during its interview with Deion Sanders.
Sanders, who coached the Jackson State football team for three seasons before departing for Colorado at the end of 2022, was the subject of a segment that contrasted Jackson, Mississippi, with Boulder, Colorado. The feature showed a run-down home in Jackson juxtaposed with the greenery and open spaces in Boulder.
“60 Minutes” correspondent Jon Wertheim introduced the segment by stating, “The distance between Jackson and Boulder is 1,000 miles and immeasurably further culturally,” before delving into various statistics. He highlighted the shift from a city that is 83% Black to a town that is 1% Black and even mentioned a Boulder kite shop while suggesting Sanders had never experienced fly-fishing.
Reed took to social media, specifically X (formerly Twitter), to express her discontent with how “60 Minutes” portrayed Jackson.
“y’all made Jackson, MS look horrible,” Reed wrote. “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.”
When someone inquired about the segment’s content, Reed responded, “It was comparing Jackson, MS to Boulder, CO. They showed very nice locations in Boulder and showed the worst they could find in Jackson, MS. We have so much more to show that wouldn’t have hurt @60Minutes to take time to spotlight.”
“60 Minutes” had not issued a response at the time of reporting.
Sanders was questioned about what he conveyed to the players he left behind at Jackson State when he announced his move to Colorado.
“Opportunity called. Sooner than later in life, there will be opportunities that knock at your door, and at this juncture in my life, I felt like the opportunity for not only me but also for my kids was tremendous,” he explained. “Not only did we take several kids from that team – three trainers, maybe 12 of the 14 staffers. So, we afforded to give people tremendous opportunity here.”
