No political representation, no athletic participation. That ought to be the new calculation, simple enough for even the fat cat good ol’ boys in the luxury suites to comprehend without needing a high-paid tutor, a lobbyist, and three traitorous Confederate grandpas whispering from the crimson and red wallpaper.

If Black people are being chiseled out, cut up, packed, cracked, sliced, diced, and politically neutered in former Confederate states, then why in the hell should Black student-athletes keep performing for the flagship universities of those same states? Why should they catch TDs, slam dunk basketballs, sell millions in jerseys, fill huge stadiums, ignite screen ratings, and fatten billion-dollar athletic conferences in cities, towns, and states where their families, communities, and people are treated like unwanted algebra problems on a congressional map?

This is not some contrived, make-believe atrocity made up over red mimosas by overly caffeinated Democrats in cashmere leisure suites. Tennessee Confederates just gave the winky- winky nod to a new congressional map that bulldozes and demolishes the state’s only majority-Black U.S. House district centered in Memphis, splitting Black voters into multiple Republican-leaning districts. The NAACP has sued, arguing Tennessee is attempting to erase the state’s only majority-Black congressional district.

So let’s not pretend that by turning back the hands of time, the erasure of progress is hypothetical or speculative. This is Memphis being cut up like cheap BBQ chicken at a roadside political picnic.

And please take note: Tennessee is not standing alone in the corner wearing a fresh white Klan hood. Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina, Mississippi, and other once Confederate states below the Mason-Dixon Line have eagerly jumped into the latest redistricting battle after the White Supremacist-dominated Court gutted the Voting Rights Act protections in Louisiana v. Callais, giving Confederate-led legislatures the thumbs up to play racial shell games with Black political power while calling it “fair maps.” Because apparently, when democracy gets too colorful, somebody in a statehouse reaches for the crayons and starts redrawing reality.

So the righteous question raised and amplified by D.L. Hughley, Ryan Clark, and others hit with the old-fashioned force of a Deacon Jones or Dick “Night Train” Lane smackdown collision: why should a four-star or five-star Black athlete sign with a college in a state that gerrymanders Black people out of meaningful representation?

Hughley has publicly asked why blue-chip Black gladiators would go to plantations in states proudly escorting in what he flawlessly branded as a 21st-century incarnation of Jim Crow, and Ryan Clark has argued that Black recruits should reevaluate signing with schools in states that dilute Black voting power.

It ain’t deep nor complicated: They’re pimpin’ your Black ass!

And the schools being talked about aren’t random junior varsity intramural Tiddly-Winks clubs tucked behind a cotton field. No, not even, this is SEC and Southern powerhouses Bruh, the football cathedrals where Black bodies become Saturday religion baby: Tennessee, Alabama, LSU, Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Auburn, Florida, South Carolina, Arkansas, Texas A&M, and the rest of that plantation-adjacent athletic empire where “tradition” often means “don’t ask too many historical questions unless you brought a helmet.” The SEC announced that it distributed $1.03 billion to its 16 universities for the 2024-25 fiscal year, which means this is not about school spirit and college degree programs. This is big business wearing shoulder pads.

These are many of the institutions that fought “diversity and inclusion” tooth n’ nail in the 1950s and 60s, refusing to allow Black players or students on their campuses.

The absurdity is insulting enough to require its own BYU marching band. Black athletes are good enough to entertain the vastly conservative/Confederate-minded fanatical fan base, deepen the already fat pockets of the athletic department, allow the use of their brands for recruiting other Mandingo warriors, lift the state’s economy, and make university presidents smile like they just found Black gold, Texas tea - oil under their stadiums. However…. When their parents, grandparents, cousins, neighbors, and communities ask for voting power, representation, fair districts, and a seat at the democratic table, suddenly the same state says, “Now hold on, boys, let’s not get all carried away here.”

Ain’t this all a bitch?

Praise the coach. Kiss the logo. Tell the cameras this university made you a better man.

But political power? Legit, equitable voter representation? A congressional district where your Aunt Eva and Uncle Herman’s vote is not shredded into pieces like day-old cafeteria meatloaf? Now, hold on. Let’s not get radical.

The NCAA itself says Black student-athletes comprise 20% of Division I participants in 2024-25, while Black athletes remain particularly foundational to football and basketball, the national pastimes that propel the money machine that is collegiate sports.

NCAA data showed Black athletes represented 40% of college football players and 44% of men’s basketball players. And those players are found on the more elite squads. So when people talk about Black athletes withholding their labor, they are not talking about symbolism. They are talking about pulling the plug on the turntable while the party is still poppin’.

That is why the slogan matters: No political representation, no athletic participation.

If these states do not want Black people voting with power, then they should not expect Black athletes to perform with loyalty. If they do not want Black communities represented in Congress, they should not expect Black quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, point guards, forwards, sprinters, and defensive backs to represent their universities on national television. If they want to strip Black citizens of political influence, then perhaps Black athletes should strip those states of Saturday glory.

Because there is something grotesque about a state telling Black people, “We don’t want your political power,” then turning around and asking a Black teenager to carry the football through a stadium full of mostly white fans chanting like democracy didn’t just get jacked tailgating in the parking lot.

So yes, ask the question loudly. Ask it at breakfast tables. Ask it on podcasts. Ask it in barbershops. Ask it in church parking lots, sports bars, beauty salons, living rooms, and every household where parents are deciding which gridiron plantation deserves their child’s God-given talent, and which one only wants his body on Saturday and his ballot buried by Tuesday.

Ask it when recruiters show up grinning like used-car salesmen, carrying glossy brochures, “family atmosphere” speeches, and enough little white lies to stuff a mascot costume.

Someone, anyone. Why should Black athletes keep enriching systems that refuse to respect Black citizenship?

This kind of labor strike, walk-off, boycott should be driven by Black parents who recognize the stakes with open eyes and no delusions. They know their children are not just “student-athletes” in some glossy brochure fantasy. No, instead they’re revenue-generating turbo engines in cleats and helmets, Black bodies powering billion-dollar programs in neo-confederate states that still treat Black people like trespassing vandals.

Black parents, more than anyone, should recognize the insult buried inside the arrangement: you want my child’s speed, strength, discipline, pain, marketability, and Saturday heroics, but you do not want my community’s vote, voice, representation, or power.

That is not school spirit. That is exploitation with a marching band. Here, please permit me to be brutally sharp and blunt: if Black athletes walked away from these SEC football factories, half these programs would go from prime-time extravaganza to slow-motion community theater with helmets. Take away Black speed, Black power, Black creativity, Black swagger, Black improvisation, Black fourth-quarter nerve, and suddenly Saturday in the South starts looking less like college football and more like a church picnic with tackling drills.

An all-white SEC would no longer be the mighty cathedral of American football. It would be a beige scrimmage with cleats. Bland, stiff, predictable, and moving at the breathtaking speed of an albino Galapagos Tortoise. The stands would not be packed with roaring fans. They’d be dotted with parents, cousins, a few bored boosters, the remaining members of the White Citizens’ Council, three fellows from the Moose Lodge, and whatever poor souls still pay dues to the Order of Wild Oxen.

That marching band might outgain the offense.

And the ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX networks? They would start sweating through their studio makeup. ESPN would discover real fast that “tradition” does not run a 4.3 forty. Boosters would learn that nostalgia cannot catch a slant route. Athletic directors would find out that Confederate sentiment looks terrible on third-and-long.

If a state wants Black excellence on the field, then it ought to respect Black power at the ballot box. If it wants Black speed, Black strength, Black charisma, Black competitive fire, and Black brilliance lighting up its gigantic stadiums, then it can start by not treating Black voters like pests caught in the machinery of white political control.

Otherwise, let those stadiums get quiet. Let those luxury boxes feel lonely. Let those tailgates lose their purpose. Let those good ol’ boys discover that without Black athletes, their precious Saturday spectacle turns into a khaki parade of mediocrity, sponsored by mayonnaise and regret.

They’ll be so quiet…, one could hear a rat piss on cotton, guaranteed.

Let the boosters sweat. Let the networks panic. Let the athletic directors finally understand that the “student-athlete” they praise in press conferences is not just a body in pads. He is a citizen. A son. A grandson. A neighbor. A young Black American with enough sense not to keep dancing for people who keep locking the door to democracy.

Now, need I not mention the NFL ought not schedule a Super Bowl in the Land of Dixie?

It’s time to get serious.

And additionally, these will be the same states whose politicians champion everything Trump desires, from arresting President Obama to dropping a nuke on Compton, Harlem, or Atlanta - like that isn’t possible with these butt-kissin’ minions.

Wake up Black people!

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, DesiCortez: Born in Alabama’s contradictions, forged in South-Central L.A., rooted in Denver at fifteen—Desi Cortez cuts with a blunt edge: columnist (BlackCommentator, BlackAthlete, NegusWhoRead), KOA firebrand, Rocky Mountain News board voice, 24-year public-school realist. He writes like he lives—through the noise with razor truths on race, politics, and sport. Contact Mr. Cortez and BC.