In its press release announcing it had sent a letter to every professional sports league in the country urging all free agents to boycott Texas, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attacked the state, its legislators, the state’s governor, and its attorney general:
As we watch an incomprehensible assault on basic human rights unfold in Texas, we are simultaneously witnessing a threat to constitutional guarantees for women, children and marginalized communities.
Over the past few months, legislators in Texas have passed archaic policies, disguised as laws, that directly violate privacy rights and a woman’s right to choose, restrict access to free and fair elections for Black and Brown voters, and increase the risk of contracting coronavirus.
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.
Nothing was said about protecting the rights of unborn black children or the rights of people, including black and brown people, to decide for themselves about accepting masks and vaccines. Nothing was said about making voting laws safer, protecting the rights of all Texans, including all people, including those of color.
It didn’t matter. The letter was pure propaganda:
The Texas government has … empowered vigilantes with the authority of the law, going to far as to offer a $10,000 incentive to sue all who aid women in exercising their constitutional right [to murder their unborn child]….
As a result … Texas families will not receive the care they deserve.… By passing this law [SB 8, the “heartbeat” law], Texas legislators have created a healthcare institution that isn’t safe for anyone.
Even though free agency won’t apply to most professional athletes until after the season ends, the NAACP continued, “We are pleading with you — if you are a free agent and are considering employment in Texas, look elsewhere.… Texas is not safe for you, your spouse, or your children.… Texas isn’t safe for anyone.”
The letter was delivered to the National Football League Players Association, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association, the National Basketball Players Association, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and the National Hockey League Players’ Association.
Manning Johnson would recognize the ploy immediately. A black man born in 1908, Johnson joined the Communist Party USA in 1930 and left the party in 1939 after seeing its true purpose: to divide the country by race.
In his book Color, Communism and Common Sense, published in 1958, he called out the NAACP:
The fact that the reds have never contributed anything tangible to the progress of the Negro is overlooked though the reds have collected millions of dollars as a result of race incitement.
Like the Communist Party, the N.A.A.C.P. has collected millions of dollars through exploitation of race issues. The bigger the race issue, the bigger the appeal and the bigger the contributions.
Yet one cannot find any report of any of this money being spent for factories and shops to provide jobs, land and home construction, specialized training for talented youth, hospitals, convalescent homes, classes in sanitation and personal hygiene, care and upkeep of property, combatting crime and juvenile delinquency, centers to aid Negro youth in preparing to meet stiff employment competition in science and industry.
It is then no accident that the N.A.A.C.P. is dubbed “The National Association for the Agitation of Colored People.” The record speaks for itself. Millions for agitation; not one cent for those things that win the respect and acclaim of other races and national groups.
Since its founding by communist W.E. Burghardt DeBois in 1909, the NAACP has remained true to its purpose: to incite division as part of the overall agenda to turn the American Republic first into a democracy and then into a communist dictatorship. The present letter is just more proof.
