States that don’t want Black voters don’t deserve Black athletes

Black athletes generate nine figures a year for colleges in states that won’t count their mothers’ votes. On Tuesday, the NAACP told them to walk. 

The NAACP’s “Out of Bounds” campaign covers eight states and 13 flagship programs in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. 

“Black athletes should not be asked to generate wealth, prestige, and power for state institutions while those same states strip political power from Black communities,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said. “It is a sprint to erase Black political power.” 

A sprint. Not drift or erosion: a sprint. 

The Voting Rights Act is dead. Shelby County v. Holder gutted Section 5 in 2013. Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee narrowed Section 2 in 2021. Louisiana v. Callais finished the job on April 29. Justice Kagan wrote the eulogy from the dissent. The Voting Rights Act, she said, is “all but a dead letter.” 

Florida passed its redistricting bill the day Callais came down. Tennessee erased its only majority-Black district. Alabama raced to the Supreme Court to throw out its court-drawn map mid-primary. Louisiana suspended its May 16 primary so the legislature could redraw maps before a vote was counted.

Berkeley Law professor Erwin Chemerinsky did the math: It’s the largest decrease in Black representation in Congress and state legislatures since Reconstruction. 

Republican consultant Lee Atwater put the party’s strategy on tape in 1981. By 1968, you couldn’t say certain things out loud. So, you say forced busing, or states’ rights, or tax cuts. Get........

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