NAACP advises against visiting Florida over ‘hostile’ DeSantis polices, gov slams move as ‘stunt’ - New York Post
The NAACP issued a travel advisory discouraging tourists from visiting Florida to protest Gov. Ron DeSantis’ policies, which the civil rights group claim are “hostile to black Americans” — just days before he’s expected to announce his candidacy for president.
“On a seeming quest to silence African-American voices, the Governor and the State of Florida have shown that African Americans are not welcome in the State of Florida,” the stunning travel advisory released Saturday said.
“Due to this sustained, blatant, relentless and systemic attack on democracy and civil rights, the NAACP hereby issues a travel advisory to African Americans, and other people of color regarding the hostility towards African Americans in Florida,” the group added.
The statement cited several of DeSantis’s controversial policies, including a law he approved last Monday banning colleges from spending public funds on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
The Florida governor also signed the Stop WOKE Act, curbing how schools can discuss race during required training or instruction, and blocked an Advanced Placement African American Studies course in the state’s public schools because he said it lacked “educational value.”
“Let me be clear — failing to teach an accurate representation of the horrors and inequalities that Black Americans have faced and continue to face is a disservice to students and a dereliction of duty to all,” National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President and CEO Derrick Johnson said in a statement.
“Under the leadership of Governor Desantis, the state of Florida has become hostile to Black Americans and in direct conflict with the democratic ideals that our union was founded upon,” Johnson added.
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The governor has defended the law against explicit or separate diversity instruction.
“DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination,” DeSantis said during his bill signing.
DeSantis criticized the proposed travel advisory when the Florida chapter of the NAACP requested that national leaders take it up in March.
“What a joke,” he said then. “Yeah, we’ll see, we’ll see how effective that is.”
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