On Friday, NY Giants QB Jaxson Dart revealed his true colors by showing up in upstate NY and introducing Tr**p at a rally at Rockland Community College.
Dart’s appearance drew immediate reactions, one most notably from his teammate Abdul Carter, who took to X after seeing the video of an ecstatic Dart support his president.
“Thought this sh!t was AI, what we doing man,” posted Carter.
And that set things off on Memorial Day weekend.
Dart’s appearance rehashed the discussion regarding sports and politics, an intimate relationship that has always existed yet one that is denied by and decried by the right and MAGA fans unless the relationship involves people like Dart.
After the video and Carter’s reaction began going viral, opinions quickly flooded social media.
MAGA found a new golden boy to support and one idiot even lent his hateful and idiotic Islamophobic point of view to the debate; when that crowd needs something to fire up their base of ignorance, there’s no low they won’t travel to in order to fan the flames of hate.
Others with a moral compass criticized Dart, defended Carter and pointed about MAGA’s hypocrisy when it comes to sports and politics.
This comes on the heels of the NAACP‘s call last week for Black athletes, fans and families to “withhold athletic and financial support from public universities in states that have moved to limit, weaken, or erase Black voting representation.”
In its Out of Bounds campaign, the organization identified eight states – Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia – for Black audiences to boycott, specifically targeting athletic programs with more than $100 million in annual revenue, which include programs from the SEC, Big 12 and the ACC.
But this didn’t begin last week.
We’ve written extensively about the subject and about how current Black athletes need to rediscover and revive the athlete activism once wielded by Black athletes in previous generations, an activism that has been silenced through NIL and the big money swelling the coffers of college football and basketball.
The NCAA has echoed the same call previously.
In 2021, the organization sent a letter to the player’s unions of the NFL, NBA, WNBA, MLB and NHL urging Black free agents not to play in the lone star state due to its passage of oppressive laws targeting marginalized groups.
“If you are a woman, avoid Texas. If you are Black, avoid Texas. If you want to lower your chances of dying from coronavirus, avoid Texas,” wrote the NAACP in their letter.
Their letter was sent two months after the NAACP’s Texas chapter stood up for Black students at the University of Texas by filing a complaint with the the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights against the school’s song, “The Eyes of Texas”, which was originally performed in blackface at minstrel shows starting in the 1900s.
Two years ago, the NAACP took aim at the state of Florida and urged Black athletes not to play for schools in the state.
Yet in 2026, things have worsened significantly under an administration overtly geared towards eliminating protections and freedoms specifically designed for Black people.
And that’s why Black athletes must take a stand.
And whether they like or recognize it, they have the responsibility to do so.
Some have argued that it should not fall on the shoulders of collegiate Black athletes, yet history tells us they are the ones who bravely stood up and created change.
It happened in Missouri in 2015, when Black football players (and white teammates and coaches) band together to support student-led protests against the administration for not properly addressing racism on campus. Their threat to boycott a game was enough to force the university president to resign and changes to be made.
In 1992, Black UNC football players banded together with Black students to fight for a free-standing Black cultural center and other changes to improve the lives of Black students. The fight caught the attention of Spike Lee, who showed up to support the cause. Over a decade later, the Chapel Hill campus open up the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.
Having the support of their teammates can also affect change.
In the 1940s, the Penn State football team united twice in the face of racism. In 1946, the Nittany Lions canceled a game against Miami after being told not to bring its Black players down. A year later, the Cotton Bowl in Texas demanded the same, only this time Penn State traveled to Texas with Wally Triplett and Dennie Hoggard, the duo making history as the first Black athletes to play in the Cotton Bowl.
We have reached a critical point in this country where freedoms and rights that were fought and bled for are being eliminated and/or threatened on a daily basis, so we cannot afford to tell a powerful group like Black athletes not to get involved.
Parents of these athletes must not be abashed in taking a stand either. Yes, college athletics can change the lives of many who face challenges relating to income, situation or environment. However, if an athlete has offers in one of those Southern programs, they are good enough to play for programs in others states as well, ones that aren’t joining the effort to dismantle voting rights, whitewash history and eliminate Black voting districts.
Green cannot have precedence over Black, and the latter must understand the power it has to control the former, and one of those ways is through sports.
Black athletes have been told for too long not to get involved or “to shut up and dribble.”
And we no longer live in a country where “Republicans buy sneakers too” can fly in the face of this administration’s corrupt and inhumane antics.
The time for those sentiments is over and Black athletes can lead the charge no matter the age or participation level.
If high schoolers can stage a walk out at a Portland high school over racist language, they can do the same over racial gerrymandering, especially as many of them are/will be of voting age this year.
College sports is big business, so one way to create change is through economic action. Its worked in the past and it can work again now for if Black athletes refuse to play in games and/or refuse to play for certain teams, revenues for programs, universities, states and media networks will be impacted, and that will force changes to be made.
Jaxson Dart had no problem showing his true colors and supporting a man whose administration is attacking the very people who block and make catches for him, so what would happen if those same people chose not to do their job?
You have that power Black athletes. Remember that.
