Naacp Leaders Ridiculed for Issuing ‘Silly’ Travel Warning for Florida, Even Though They Live and Vacation There

Leaders of the nation’s most prominent and storied civil rights organization are being criticized for a recent travel advisory warning Black Americans to avoid the state of Florida, issued even though a number of the organization’s leaders live and vacation in the state and Black Floridians perform better economically than Blacks in other states. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People warned against visiting the state in the wake of Governor DeSantis’s reforms to the teaching of grade school, race-central historiography, and his installment of conservative opponents of critical race theory at a prominent liberal state school’s board of trustees. The advisory, which was issued on Sunday, says the Sunshine State and Mr. DeSantis have “engaged in a blatant war against principles of diversity and inclusion” for the purpose of placating “a dangerous, extremist minority.”“Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals,” the statement reads. It asks Black Americans to “please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”The organization’s president, Derrick Johnson, said Florida is “failing to teach an accurate representation of the horrors and inequalities that Black Americans have faced and continue to face.”Congressman Byron Donalds, the only Black Republican of Florida, called the advisory “dumb” and “silly” after it was issued. “We’ve got to get past this stuff,” he told Fox News on Monday. “We can’t be using race to weaponize our politics and weaponize our media. It’s disgusting and it’s got to stop.” In the past, Mr. DeSantis has called the potential for travel advisories warning against visiting Florida “a joke.”The chairman of the board of the Naacp, Leon Russell, who is quoted in the letter, has lived in the Tampa area for his entire adult life, the Daily Mail reported. Another executive, Karen Towns, is a frequent visitor to the state. The advisory erroneously states that Florida “will not teach … accurate African American history” and “does not welcome the contributions of African Americans.” According to a 2020 study from the congressional joint economic committee, Black Americans fare better economically in Florida than many blue states. The median household income for Black Floridians is just more than $41,000. That is higher than household incomes in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and other states. According to one study of Census data by the Migration Policy Institute, about 15 percent of new Floridians who relocated from inside the United States in 2021 are Black, compared to 65 percent who are white. Between 2010 and 2020 Florida saw a net gain of just less than 60,000 Black American residents via migration, making it the fifth most popular destination for black in-migration in America during that time period.

Naacp Leaders Ridiculed for Issuing ‘Silly’ Travel Warning for Florida, Even Though They Live and Vacation There

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