On Tuesday, the NCAA’s Board of Governors unanimously voted to allow student-athletes to profit off their own image and likeness. With this historic declaration, 460,000 NCAA student-athletes will finally be on their way to greater socio-economic freedom from the NCAA.

Keep in mind, this progression in no way guarantees any defined paycheck or salary for student-athletes, rather it merely gives them the option of using their own identity for profit through sponsorships or personal branding.

It’s common sense that people should be able to use their own names and likeness to make a couple bucks. Right?

Nonetheless, such a declaration has stirred up some resistance from conservatives who view paychecks to college athletes as detrimental to the culture of collegiate sports.

North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr was one of the more vocal opponents to the NCAA policy change.

If college athletes are going to make money off their likenesses while in school, their scholarships should be treated like income. I’ll be introducing legislation that subjects scholarships given to athletes who choose to “cash in” to income taxes. https://t.co/H7jXC0dNls — Richard Burr (@SenatorBurr) October 29, 2019

It’s quite telling of Burr’s policy motivations if this is his immediate reaction to the NCAA ruling. Whatever profit a student makes from using their own identity is completely separate from the value of their scholarship. College athletes aren’t making any profit off of their scholarship, so why would we tax it?

Socially-outspoken sports writer Molly Knight replied, “Why target poor black kids while you cut taxes for the wealthiest white Americans. I think I know!”

This is deeply cynical and racist even for you. I never stop being surprised! Why do you care more about what a young college football player is doing than what a big pharma CEO is doing. I think I know! — Molly Knight (@molly_knight) October 29, 2019

Whatever few bucks the government would make off of taxing students’ scholarships is so much more petty and immoral than it is economically-productive and warranted. From Amazon to Big Pharma, Burr and his posse never fail to permit tax breaks and economic incentives to the corporations while continuing to exploit the American worker.

So why would he care about taxing college athletes’ scholarships? To put it bluntly, Burr is just another peg in the racist, establishment political elite that promotes the personification of the American dollar over its own people.