Whenever I watch collegiate sports, particularly basketball and football, I think about the 2004 movie, “A Day Without A Mexican.” This cinematic fantasy told the story of what occurred in California when a mysterious occurrence caused all of the Mexican workers to disappear. Life came to a standstill for most people in the state, chaos ensued.
Imagine what would happen if Black parents upset about a state’s voter restriction laws aimed at people of color decided that enough was enough. Families that have athletically gifted sons or daughters might ask them not to enroll in a particular university in that state.
There are voter restriction laws in many states, but it appears that an athletic boycott would be most effective in the football- and basketball-crazy South, in a region heavily populated by Black voters. Picture a University of Georgia, University of Alabama or University of Texas without Black athletes.
An athletic boycott can be most effective as was proven by Colin Kaepernick in 2017. The effects of his kneeling during the national anthem are still being felt today throughout our nation. As Bob Dylan used to sing during an earlier time in the Civil Rights Movement, “The times they are a-changin’.”
Luciano S. Martinez, Murray
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