May 20, 2026
Black Athletes Urged to Boycott States Where Voting Rights Are Under Attack
Black Athletes Urged to Boycott States Where Voting Rights Are Under Attack
- 11 minutes
Black athletes are being attacked to not play
in states where voting rights are being attacked.
Here it is. No one black should be on a playing
field of institutions that's living off of
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our labor. And yet in states that are seeking
to re-institute a share cropping reality.
NAACP this morning in solidarity with the CBC.
We are calling on athletes who are coming
out of high school not to attend any state
funded schools of states that have moved
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to minimize our right to vote, to minimize
our ability to elect candidates of our choice,
and states that are seeking to create a sharecropping
reality. That's right. Now, here's why. Black
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athletes should boycott the SEC. I saw this
online so I felt I had to amplify it. Why?
Because you do not get to scream roll tide on
Saturday and then roll over black communities
on Monday. No, you do not get to spend the weekend
worshiping black athletes, then spend the work
week helping Republicans redraw black people
out of power like democracy is arts and crafts
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for segregationists. You cannot chant, bark,
roar and war eagle your way through the weekend,
then come back on Monday with voter suppression
pencils and act like nobody notices. Now let's
talk money, because that is the part they understand.
The SEC distributed more than $1 billion to
member schools in one year. That is $72.4 million
per school. SEC athletic departments generated
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about $2.6 billion in revenue. SEC football
averaged 5.2 million viewers per game last
season. Entire towns eat off this machine. Alabama
football alone was tied to $138 million in
visitor spending in Tuscaloosa. Hotels eat,
bars eat, restaurants eat, parking lots eat,
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politicians smile in school colors and call
it tradition. That is the contradiction. They
love black speed, black strength, black touchdowns,
black dunks, black relay teams, black bodies
making white schools rich. But black voting
power, black representation, black districts
that stay intact, suddenly they get allergic
to democracy. Man, forget all that. Those kids
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can get that money to an HBCU. They love us
in uniform. They just do not love us with leverage.
At its time, it is time. uh Colleges are corporations.
Colleges are companies. They have a board.
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They have interest. Typically, the highest paid
faculty member at a state institution, state
university, is the football coach. Because of
the revenue, that the institution makes due
to who? Well, the players in the football program.
This is a serious request. Obviously, parents
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have to be involved in this because we are heavily
involved in where our children go to college
and how they perceive what college really means.
Also, in order for this to work, HBCUs have
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to step. up is required. But this is not something
that HBCUs have not had to do in the past.
The reason why HBCUs exist is because height
institutions did not want to respect the black
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scholar who attend. Okay, while there are many
who are calling for black athletes to boycott
by playing in SEC schools. uh There is some
skeptic uh sentiment. Jamail Hill is skeptical
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of sports. Black fans helping the effort, here
it is. uh As it relates to black athletes,
here is my concern that I have brought up
in the last few days as we've had this conversation
about what is the role of the black athlete
in this moment. What are we prepared to do?
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We, mean, the non athletes, the people who
don't have. opportunities to go to SEC schools.
And this was evidence in 2016 with Colin Kaepernick
is that we're not great at standing and inconveniencing
ourselves. We want everybody else to do it.
We want to put the responsibility on these
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athletes to say no to an SEC school. That doesn't
mean that they can't go to say USC or UCLA.
They can go to other options. Yes, I understand
that in the eyes of many people, this is
just a small sacrifice. Well, what's your sacrifice?
Because My problem is, I know what will happen
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is you'll tell these athletes, stop going to
the SEC schools and every Saturday, y'all be
watching Tennessee and y'all be watching Georgia
and y'all will be watching LSU and y'all will
be watching all the teams that you love because
you can't give up your team, right? They did
it with Colin. I agree with you. I agree with
you. They're not there yet. completely disagree.
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And the reason I disagree is because every movement
starts with conscious intent. Conscious intent.
Whatever movement before their movement started,
every movement, somebody said it can't be done.
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But every single movement, a group of people
said that's impossible. But every movement,
someone pointed out problems with the movement.
If King would have listened to the black,
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good, good hearted black folk who told him
he could not do this in the South, we would
not have King as a national leader. If Rosa
Parks would have listened to members of her
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personal circle who say, Rosa, you're not a
civil rights leader. This isn't what you want
to do. Just tell them your feet were tired that
day. We would not have the Montgomery bus boycott
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started on the campus of Alabama State University.
So while I respect it, I simply don't believe
it because I've seen black people be magical
too many damn times. All right, send it a thoughts
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here. If anybody can do this, we can do this
doc and I want to take a highlight of what
you know, what she's saying there is some truth
to it. In that I love her calling the question,
what will the rest of us do? That's the part
of it. That's right. part saying it shouldn't
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be done. I read comments you asking these athletes
to make this kind of second. Yeah, we are.
We're asking the athletes and we're asking their
parents and to Jamil's point. then we got the
back there play. So it can't just be about them.
We need some Muhammad Ali type energy here.
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That's right. And there were other black athletes,
but we can count on them on one hand, maybe
two hand, that were willing to have discipline
and make sacrifice. And what we are missing
today is discipline and sacrifice. We make these
leagues. We make these teams. So whether it's
the NFL, the NBA, all of them. When we enter,
where and where we enter, Magic happens all
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the time. As you said, we can absolutely do
this. I applaud the National NAACP for getting
this started. Marcus Farrell, that video is
from Marcus. Marcus did that thing. I'm going
call Marcus after the show, Doc, and tell him
I am so proud of that video that we played,
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how we laid that out. And then taking this a
step further, I think the HBCUs, as you laid
out, the HBCUs need to form a pact, P-A-C-T.
And we don't need them all, but we need them
all. We should get them all. because I think
it's about 109 or so historically black colleges,
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both private and public, no more excuses. This
is the time. And they should offer packages
to these athletes and their parents that if
you do this, we got you all the way through.
And then we do our own thing because baby, you
best believe just like the Montgomery bus boycott,
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those people didn't cave because they, it was
morally right. They cave because of the dollar
bills y'all. And what black people have. They
don't respect our politics. Obviously, that's
very clear. But baby, we got money power. So
we combine that with what Jamil is saying,
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which is what are the rest of us going to do?
Make sure the rest of us are engaged in action
and supporting every athlete in their family.
These HBCUs come together and put aside who's
the president where and say, we're going come
together on this. And we sure up them babies.
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And then, doc, we need to go get college. Because
Jamil is right about that. people left that
man out there by himself. needs to help lead,
help these young people, encourage their courage.
And I want to see some of these NBA and NFL
black folks stand up. They got what people
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call F-U money. They got it right now. And if
the black athletes in the NFL and the NBA decided
we ain't rolling like this, they would shut
down the entire, and I know they got contracts,
but maybe they got lawyers. We got lawyers,
we can fight this thing. But I'm telling you,
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this is called all hands on deck on this. Everybody
has a role to play. We just got to figure out
what the role is. Nobody can be on the sideline.
There's no action too little, small. But we
can move mountains on this. That's right. That's
right. I'm of how Harry Belafonte supported
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the movement by way of funding it. I'm of how
Josea Williams would ah go to a city prior
to Dr. King and be the bad cop. Then Dr. King
would come in and say, well, let's negotiate.
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And the individual's not realizing they together
the whole time. Yeah, absolutely. And so there's
strategy and creativity. And that's where our
power has always been in our strategy and creativity.
We just have to know we can. We can't, can one
more thing and I know we this is worth talking
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about. Even brother Danny Glover who I had
the chance to really get to know in the Sanders
campaign. And even in talking to him doc finding
out why he didn't get a lot of major major
roles. I mean, I know we all know him as the
lethal weapon. Right. But it's because he stood
up. He up for what was happening in Haiti. He's
pro-peace anti-war. He put his career, his
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body on the line for what is just right and
good. If individuals can do that, as you just
gave some example, there are many. Imagine what
we could do collectively. We just have to have
the discipline and the courage. And then we
just got to be about our father's business
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and our father's or our mother's business is
that of justice. Thank you for reminding me
of Danny Glover. I was actually a doctoral student
at Clark Atlanta University when they gave
him a humanitarian award and I got to meet him.
I didn't know. about his uh international or
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global humanitarian efforts until that day.
And just as humble and approachable, but
a man who fought from heart rather than from
his brain only, he fought with his heart.
Yeah, absolutely.
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