By Nunnie Robinson, WG Sports Editor
Being born in the era of staunch segregation, when Jim Crow reigned with impunity, I find myself sickened, disjointed, and angry at the country’s insidious and pervasive direction under leadership whose principles appear forged in anarchy, shameful incompetence, and overt, unmistakable racism. Much of this backlash was born from the election of America’s first Black president and intensified by the election of one of the most virulent, incompetent, and despicable facsimiles of a human being ever to occupy the Oval Office, even being chosen over a highly qualified and competent former attorney general and vice president simply because she is both female and minority.
We, as African Americans, have come to expect the vile degradation inherent in a country steeped in racist superiority and demagoguery.
What’s my point, you may be asking, and what does this have to do with sports? Thanks for asking. Simply put: it’s time to act.
Do you recall the treatment Colin Kaepernick received from “45” for simply exercising his constitutional right to protest racism and injustice by kneeling during the national anthem, an anthem coincidentally, written by a man with racist views?
Consider this: every state engaged in the discriminatory practice of extreme gerrymandering was once part of the Confederacy. Take a close look at the makeup of major intercollegiate sports programs in the SEC and ACC: Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Carolina, and other states that have repeatedly conspired to weaken, reduce or eliminate Black political power.
Just recently, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for Alabama Republicans to pursue a new voting map, overturning a lower court’s ruling, despite ongoing concerns over minority representation.
So, in my call to action, I encourage our athletes to consider HBCUs and schools in states such as Minnesota, Maryland, California, and Colorado instead of universities that support or tolerate policies that deny, dilute, disenfranchise and dehumanize the citizenship and voting power of Black Americans and other minorities.
In conversations with friends, additional suggestions emerged, including greater personal involvement from professional athletes through boycotts, protests, and public advocacy. Others believe fans and team owners should play a greater role. Fans perhaps but many billionaire owners appear in lockstep with this hideous administration.
Another friend pointed to college basketball as a possible starting point: highly recruited athletes, when presented with choices among ACC/SEC schools, HBCUs, or Big Ten programs, could deliberately choose institutions aligned with democratic values and publicly explain why they made that decision. Such actions would bring awareness to issues of grave concern for those who value freedom, the U.S. Constitution, and democracy itself.
We must not go backward under any circumstances.
VOTE IN THE MIDTERMS AND ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO VOTE!!!!!