As an athlete, you expect the rules of the game to be applied equally; that is, what is required of you and your team is required of other players and teams. Fair play requires a level playing field, or there is no contest. What do you do when that proviso does not apply?
I’m referring specifically to states that are gerrymandering voting districts to gain Congressional seats for the Republican Party. That outcome is achieved by drawing district lines based on race. A state that is 1/3 people of color, for example, could end up having only white representatives because the non-white vote is diluted. That is not a level field.
It’s about politics, you say, not about athletics. Think again. It’s why I address this commentary to college athletes (Black athletes, especially) who play currently, or are considering playing, in a state that rigs the political playing field.
Your athletic success earns you much—NIL revenue, a college education, and, if you are good enough, a future professional contract. That is great for many reasons; however, in certain states, fairness has been replaced by the quest for partisan advantage. The system, in a word, is unjust.
Courtesy Afro-American Newspapers
I ask you to think beyond your own welfare, to see the landscape as John Lewis saw it when he was a college student. I ask you to think of all those who came before you, those who walked Pettus Bridge on “Bloody Sunday” in 1965, only to be tear-gassed and beaten.
Posted on X by Princeton University Professor Eddie S., Glaude, Jr.
I ask you to think of those who will follow you and consider what legacy you can leave.
To act on such thinking means giving up on what may be your life-long dream, playing in your home state or at a school with a national reputation in your sport. It involves matriculating at a school in a state that does not engage in racial gerrymandering.
Think of it this way: Why should I use my talent to support a system that cheats? If you choose to stop supporting cheaters, you, your teams, and those who follow will be better for it.
On Bloody Sunday in 1965, when John Robert Lewis led the march across the Pettus Bridge, only to be beaten, he was 5 feet 5 1/2 inches tall and weighed 156 pounds. Think of his statue, and how big he was, and is still.
Then think of Black athletic activists of the past who stood up for social justice and made history doing so … Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Tommie Smith, Juan Carlos, Colin Kaepernick, and others.
Then decide!
