Boycott of college football gets no traction in Florida, elsewhere
The silence has become part of the story.
What if the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States called for a boycott — and no one participated? Florida sits squarely in the crosshairs of a new NAACP campaign that seeks to use one of the state’s most powerful cultural and economic forces — college football — as leverage in a fight over voting rights and political representation. But there's been little visible response to the call to action.
Days after the NAACP launched its “Out of Bounds” campaign , the institutions it targets have largely stayed silent. The effort focuses on flagship public universities in seven Southern states, including Florida, where civil rights leaders say recent congressional redistricting has weakened Black voting power. The campaign calls on athletes, recruits and fans to withhold support from those programs to apply economic pressure.
“Across the South, Black athletes have helped build some of the most profitable college athletic programs in America,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said, arguing that the same system can be leveraged for political change. “What these states have done is not a policy disagreement. It is a sprint to erase Black political power.
The NAACP will not watch the same institutions that depend on Black athletic prowess to fill their stadiums and their bank accounts remain silent while their states strip Black communities of their voice," Johnson added. Johnson’s strategy: If even a fraction of top recruits choose to play elsewhere, including at historically Black colleges and universities, the balance of power in college sports could shift. The NAACP and Congressional Black Caucus called for the boycott May 19.
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