At the Final Four on Saturday night, Duke lost to Houston after the Cougars’ second half intensity propelled Houston to a stunning, come-from-behind victory for Kelvin Sampson’s team.
But, thanks to T****’s racist, hate fueled orders that’s sweeping across the country, the Final Four defeat might not be Duke’s only loss.
Before the start of the game, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared in a post on X that he was going after people from South Sudan.
“I am taking actions to revoke all visas held by South Sudanese passport holders and to restrict any further issuance to prevent entry into the United States, effective immediately, due to the failure of South Sudan’s transitional government to accept the return of its repatriated citizens in a timely manner,” write Rubio.
Afterward, sports fans immediately questioned how Rubio’s declaration would affect Duke freshman and South Sudan native, Khaman Maluach.
While Maluach played in the game, it’s a nerve-wracking situation for him, the team and the university.
“Duke University is aware of the announcement from the Department of State regarding visa holders from South Sudan. We are looking into the situation and working expeditiously to understand any implications for Duke students,” said Frank Tramble, the vice president of communications, marketing and public affairs at Duke, to CNN.
This is something we warned last year could happen to sports as hateful executive orders and the anti-DEI movement, created solely to harass, demean and oppress all non-straight and non-white people in the U.S. under the second term of T****, is impacting people across the nation.
It began as states like Florida, Texas, Iowa, Alabama, South Carolina and others inflammatorily claimed DEI was a discriminatory ideology and eliminated DEI programs from schools and universities despite the success of these initiatives.
DEI critics claimed it was a discriminatory practice that harmed white and Asian people, yet we all know that’s a claim meant to stoke anger.
It has become a coded term for “Black”, and everyone with even the smallest bit of common sense understands this.
MAGA supporters have weaponized the term to effectively attack education. Now the White House is surgically targeting specific universities such as Ivy League institutions, Johns Hopkins and others in traditionally Blue states, and threatening to withhold federal funds if they don’t eliminate DEI programs or address anti-Semitism.
So far, it’s led to the resignation of women presidents in particular, including UPenn’s Liz Magill, Columbia’s Minouche Shafik and Harvard’s Claudine Gay, who was Harvard’s first Black president.
We have been imploring schools to unite and fight back, but even more so, we have written consistently about the need for sports and Black athletes in particular, to stand up to this hateful movement because it’s affecting students and will soon impact sports.
Alabama shuttered its DEI programs, and athletes said nothing.
Ohio State and Michigan recently followed suit, and athletes have remained silent.
But now, with the uncertainty of the residency status of Duke’s Khaman Maluach, who could be a first-round draft pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, the discriminatory and punitive movement of this administration has officially arrived in the sports realm.
So what happens to international student athletes? Are they supposed to compete with one eye on the sidelines looking for ICE?
This is a serious situation that college athletic departments and schools need to address for it can affect them financially, competitively and morally.
And sports, which is supposed to be played on the field, will now be played in the field of public opinion and in the court, expect the latter won’t be the hardwood type.
With hundreds of millions of dollars being threatened, students living in fear and now athletes being involuntary targets of this administration’s horrific policies, it’s time for schools and their athletic departments to fulfill one of their basic missions.
To support and protect students, which includes their athletes.
