This July, the 91st MLB All-Star game is scheduled to be hosted in Atlanta, however in light of recent voter restriction legislation passed by the governor, the director of the MLB Players Association said players are ready to discuss moving their annual event out of Georgia. The bill supported by the Republican-majority state legislature drew national attention Thursday, with President Joe Biden describing it and similar attempts in other states as “un-American,” and that it “makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.” Tony Clark is the executive of the Major League Baseball Players Association and he said that players are “very aware” of this new legislation that has been passed that places restrictions on voting that many people believe will make it more difficult for black voters to reach the polls. 

Georgia is a state that has a reputation for being one of the beacons of voter suppression in the United States, going all the way back to Jim Crow. This past November, Stacy Abrams found a way to mobilize black voters in Georgia so much that she flipped the state blue. The When Fair Fight and New Georgia Project, organizations founded by Abrams, registered over 800,000 voters and put Biden over the top by over 10,000 votes in the presidential election. Abrams spearheaded a movement that was 10 years in the making and accomplished what most people would deem an impossible task. The 2020 election was the first time Georgia had voted for a Democratic President since Bill Clinton defeated George H.W. Bush in 1992. 

As diversity and inclusion grows within management of professional sports organizations, it will become increasingly difficult to oppress people of color because of the new perspective and platform that it provides. Lebron James and business partner Maverick Carter are now becoming the first Black partners in Fenway Sports Group. Diversity among minority and majority partners in ownership groups around MLB is low, however they will now have a person of color in the room with a huge platform to help implement change from within. “I think anytime a player perspective can be brought to a room full of non-players, there’s value,” said Clark, who played with the Red Sox in 2002, midway through a 15-season, six-team major league career. “Even from another sport in this instance.” 

History tells us that the only real way to get people in power to implement change is to hit them where it hurts: their wallets. Money makes everybody straighten up. When dollars are down and ownership starts to see that they aren’t getting that cash flow they’re used to, all of a sudden black lives really do matter. They will fight tough at first and hold on to those old racist values, but eventually and inevitably they will have to come to their senses.