The NAACP is out of bounds

The NAACP’s “Out of Bounds” campaign, calling for Black college athletes to boycott playing at universities within GOP-led states engaging in voting rights suppression, comes from a genuine place to fight against Black voter disenfranchisement. However, the campaign’s architects failed to consider the undeniable realities that require a more strategic approach to multifaceted circumstances.

One circumstance concerns the landscape of college sports, particularly regarding labor compensation. Years ago, players were not compensated. Compelling players to boycott without compensation makes more sense because they don’t lose salary. A scholarship of equal value can be found elsewhere. But in the world of name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, not all are created equal.

Additionally, a request for that segment of the labor class to deny themselves a paycheck is unfair when that ask isn’t made for labor of similar circumstances, and especially the Black bourgeoisie, who have not declared any boycott among their class of labor in the name of protecting Black political power.

If members of the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus, who support this initiative, were willing to both denounce and return dollars from donors who support candidates and initiatives antithetical to Black political power and Black economic empowerment, I might be more amenable to their demands on young athletes.

Another concern is the call for these athletes to consider historically Black colleges and universities. Not because HBCUs are problematic. Rather, the majority of HBCUs are located in GOP-led states engaging in congressional redistricting efforts. That HBCUs are underfunded without a boycott of predominantly white institutions in the South means that a defection of Black players from predominantly white institutions in the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 would likely facilitate further underfunding, and even defunding, efforts in those GOP-led states to effectively close HBCUs.

HBCUs don’t have the wealth that predominantly white institutions have because, of course, racism.

But even if they were not forced to close through political machination and disinvestment, and top-tier talent were to defect to HBCUs across the country, what happens to the talent they replace, who were without opportunities to play elsewhere? Where do they go now? Who replaces their scholarships and possible NIL deals?

Sure, these athletes can go to other schools in the Northeast, Midwest, and West that aren’t engaging in gerrymandering to disempower Black voters — but predominantly white institutions, no matter where, aren’t bastions of Black empowerment.

What’s the return for shifting Black talent for these universities to profit if they continue to fail to accept Black students or invest in Black populations, where many of these schools are located, and have their own histories of enslaving African people (like Rutgers and the University of Pennsylvania) or making their states a racist utopia (like Oregon)?

Had Black college athletes decided to boycott on their own, that’s different because they’ve decided to take the risk after weighing it. There’s something wrong with older folk, who themselves are children and beneficiaries of Civil Rights Movement activists, demanding younger Black people make a stand on behalf of Black people, when the very leaders who had the chance to exert heavy pressure on the Biden administration and call for boycotts of Arizona and West Virginia in the name of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, but didn’t.

It’s not a good look.

I understand the desires of Black people to see our people stand up against racism and white supremacy. But if we’re going to support the call for our people to make sacrifices, we must provide alternatives where we rely on each other. The Montgomery bus boycott is an example. Black folks supported each other with ride shares, carpools, and donations for gas purchases.

We must have our own institutions to support us, insulated from the threat of a white supremacist patriarchy and retaliation. Maybe a league of our own, or a bank funded by accumulated donations to support athletes boycotting Division I schools in the South. We have to think bigger and bolder. We cannot keep our activism and advocacy inside boxes that can be crushed by the white power structure.

But outside-the-box thinking requires strategizing beyond what sounds good or feels right.

We must do what’s right, and do what’s right for our people, including the young men and women we declare are our future. Sadly, this campaign treats them like the universities we’re telling them to boycott — like commodities.

And in that way, we’re no better than the systems and institutions that already exploit them.

Rann Miller is an educator and freelance writer based in Southern New Jersey. His “Urban Education Mixtape” blog supports urban educators and parents of children attending urban schools. urbanedmixtape.com @UrbanEdDJ