• Listen to this segment with Melanie Campbell and Sheilia Umi Hankins

• Listen to the entire program with Sonali Kolhatkar

Yesterday, to much surprise, the NFL was awarded an ‘A’ for racial diversity in hiring by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports. Ironically, the stellar report card grade came just one day after The Black Women’s Roundtable published an open letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell critiquing his racially insensitive handling of domestic violence. The Black Women’s Roundtable, a coalition of 19 different women’s rights groups, issued the letter in response to Goodell’s inept handling of player Ray Rice’s assault of his then fiancee Janay Palmer in an Atlantic City elevator.

While the letter applauded Goodell’s decision to appoint a four person female task force to examine and revise its domestic violence policies, it also brought up the fact that not a single Black woman was appointed to the task force despite the fact that almost 70% of all NFL players are African American. The letter highlights the dire statistics facing Black women in America who are three times more likely to die as a result of domestic violence than white women. Yet, of the 84 players who were arrested for domestic violence in the NFL between 2000 and 2013 not a single player received more than a one-game suspension.

Recently, NFL sponsors like Anheuser Busch and Nike have joined with the National Organization for Women in calling for Goodell’s resignation. Another player by the name of Adrian Peterson has now been suspended for allegations of child abuse. And just yesterday, Arizona Cardinals player Jonathan Dwyer was arrested for domestic violence.

GUEST: Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and convener of the Black Women’s Roundtable; Sheilia Umi Hankins co-director of the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African American Community (IDVAAC) and member of the Black Women’s Roundtable.