Ryan Clark is Right: Black Athletes Shouldn’t Play Where Their Voting Rights Are Threatened

MAGA folks in the South are big mad right now. Ryan Clark took the mic on “The Pivot Podcast” and suggested (I’m lying. He said this with his whole damn chest.) that “Black athletes should stop signing with schools in states that gerrymander districts to block Black representation.”

His comments are popping off online because if this ever actually happened, it would cripple the SEC. On any given Saturday at college football games across the southern part of the U.S., the field is full of Black bodies playing the game while an almost completely white audience cheers them on.

The thing Clark understands about this dynamic is that many of these fans support policies that harm the people on the field. Yet, they don’t want the players to consider that when deciding what school to attend.

This is a thorny issue, so let’s break down what he’s talking about and ask the all-important question: Is he right?

What He’s Talking About

Clark’s comments were aimed at states like Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, where battles over voting rights and congressional maps have sparked accusations that Black political power is being intentionally weakened. His argument is that Black athletes are generating billions of dollars (with a big damn B) for universities and conferences in states whose political leadership pushes policies that many of the communities these players come from see as harmful. (For the data heads, Black players commonly make up around 70 percent of football rosters in the SEC.)

The response from people who disagree with Clark was immediate and predictable. They said he is politicizing college football (essentially saying that athletes need to stick to sports and not act like they live in the real world) and that he should not ask Black athletes to sacrifice life changing opportunities for a symbolic protest.

Is Ryan Clark right? Well, I don’t want to overstate it, so let me be measured in my response.

HELL YES HE IS RIGHT. I’ll give you two quick reasons why.

The Business of College Football

College football is not just entertainment. It’s an economic engine powered mostly by Black labor.

I know I’m being a bit repetitive on this point, but I need to say it again. These schools, conferences, coaches and towns make billions of dollars off the backs of young Black athletes while politicians in these states push policies that disproportionately harm Black communities. So, if they don’t want Black athletes taking their talents elsewhere, maybe they should stop politically silencing Black people in their state.

Have a Seat With The Fake Outrage

Let’s be real for a second. Conservatives start sounding like union busters the second the conversation turns to Black athletes recognizing their collective power. These are the same people who called for a boycott of Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light over a partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvayney. So them suddenly acting outraged over Black athletes potentially doing the same thing but in a more focused and impactful way feels more than a little dishonest.

What Clark is suggesting is not radical. He’s simply saying that if your labor builds the machine, you have every right to question what that machine stands for. And the whole point about these athletes sacrificing life-changing opportunities is nonsense. I can think of colleges in California, Michigan and other blue states that would be happy to add these young men to their rosters.

Conservatives love talking about the free market until someone suggests that Black athletes use it too. The SEC spent decades profiting from Black labor without expecting Black players to think politically about what that labor supports. Ryan Clark’s real crime is not what he said. It’s that it took him so long to say it.