Thursday on MS NOW’s “All In,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) reiterated the Congressional Black Caucus’ call for “black athletes to abandon SEC schools” over redistricting efforts. Host Chris Hayes said, “You know, there’s been calls for, the CBC, Congressional Black Caucus has called for athletes, to boycott the SEC conference where, you know, schools like Ole Miss and Tennessee and the states that are that are contemplating this, Gamecocks in South Carolina, the SEC, in sort of opposition to this is a kind of interesting point of leverage. And you echoed that today. Tell me about why you think that makes sense.”
Jeffries said, “Well, we are proud to stand with the NAACP that has appropriately called for black athletes to abandon SEC schools when these schools are in states that are targeting in an unprecedented fashion, black political representation. And our view is that if there’s no representation, there should be no athletic or sports participation. And this comes from a long line of, you know, African-American athletes rising to the occasion. You know, this is a Muhammad Ali moment. This is a Bill Russell moment. It’s a Jackie Robinson moment…”
