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Despite Florida being one of the best states for black business owners, the NAACP has decided the state is irredeemably racist, and has issued a travel advisory against it.
The NAACP points to several of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s policies — including recent legislation to prohibit colleges from spending public funds on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts — and the state’s “seeming quest to silence African-American voices” as examples of “the hostility towards African Americans in Florida.”
Donna Jackson
Donna Jackson, the director of membership development for the Project 21 black leadership network, is having none of this. She says:
While the NAACP claims to represent the interest of black and brown people, it certainly doesn’t consider the financial interest of these same Americans.
The NAACP issued a travel advisory claiming the new DeSantis law is racist and harms black Americans. However, it failed to mention in its statement that Florida ranks number two for black-owned businesses.
That being the case, I think the NAACP is more concerned with its elite white liberal donors than it is with the financial prosperity of African Americans who will be negatively impacted the most by its travel ban.
According to the Florida Chamber of Commerce, there are more than 250,000 black-owned businesses in Florida which collectively employ 77,136 Floridians and represent an annual payroll of $2.63 billion. That ranks it as the state with the second-most black-owned businesses in the country.
Mike Hill
Project 21’s Mike Hill believes the NAACP’s politicized publicity stunt will be seen for what it is:
I have lived in Florida since 1985. First stationed here as a U.S. Air Force officer, I’ve owned a successful insurance and financial services business over the past thirty-three years.
Florida has proven to be a state of opportunity and prosperity for me and my family, including my three grown children and their families. People continue to move to the Sunshine State at a rate of over 1000 per day.
Reasonable people will ignore and brush aside the ill-advised NAACP travel advisory, which is full of the left’s radical ideology and cliches.
Marie Fischer
Project 21’s Marie Fischer is incredulous:
When I saw the warning issued by the NAACP, I thought it was ridiculous.
I am a new Florida resident. I am a woman who is black and Jewish and have never felt a more comfortable, safe and accepting environment in my life.
The NAACP’s reasons for the travel ban have nothing to do with minority status and everything to do with progressive status.
Here in Florida, African American history is a graduation requirement for all high schools, so to say Black History is being erased is completely false.
The state’s restrictions on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) are because DEI maligns groups and ethnicities who do not fit the NAACP’s idea of victimhood. Many DEI programs tend to perpetuate racism, causing more hostility between races and ethnicities instead of bringing us all together.
In an era when our public schools have fallen even further behind than our global counterparts — and black students nationally are less likely to be proficient than even their hispanic, biracial and white peers — the NAACP needs to concentrate on true education and knowledge for all, so that students can truly compete instead of being stuck in their feelings.
Emery McClendon
Project 21’s Emery McClendon identifies critical race theory (CRT) as part of the problem:
The NAACP is barking up the wrong tree and is chasing its tail once again by issuing its unwarranted travel advisory for Florida based on Governor Ron DeSantis’s attempt to block CRT in that state.
CRT is neither responsible nor true black history; it’s fake socialist Marxist propaganda.
If the people at the NAACP took the time and effort to do their research, they would agree with Governor DeSantis and join in his efforts to remove CRT and DEI, and to promote truth, in our educational systems.
Apparently, all the NAACP wants to do is cause division and racism at a time when Americans need to come together.
Charles Butler
Project 21’s Charles Butler says race isn’t the only issue at play:
Governor DeSantis has been under attack over the anti-woke legislation and the black history AP course changes in Florida’s schools. He has been disparaged, mischaracterized and slandered by people who haven’t read the legislation. When they do read it, they generally agree with his measures to exclude the queer agenda from the curriculum.
By supporting teaching immorality and the debauchery of the queer movement as mainstream, the NAACP has literally sold its soul to the devil.
Read the legislation, then draw your own conclusions. Until then, do not believe anything in the media about Governor DeSantis and the good people of Florida being racist.
Rev. David Lowery, Jr.
Project 21’s David Lowery, Jr. is blunt in his assessment:
The NAACP is no longer a relevant civil rights organization.
Its so-called travel ban is simply a political stunt to keep black folks on the proverbial plantation and voting for progressive policies that consistently go against their interests.
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a black conservative congressman representing Florida’s 19th congressional district, echoed their point on “Fox & Friends“:
This is silly, and it’s dumb. It’s political. It makes no sense. We should be focused on making sure people actually have the opportunity to achieve, which Florida is actually doing and thriving in way better than other states, let’s say New York or California or Washington state….
The only hostility I feel is this inflation hitting my pocketbook…. The price of food is up, the price of gas, which is still up, and the fact that fentanyl is coming into every community in our country, because of Joe Biden. Maybe the NAACP should be focused on that, because I know that’s hostile.
Author: The National Center
