Naacp Warning That African Americans Should Avoid Florida Comes After Decade of Black In-Migration to the Sunshine State

A battle is erupting in Florida between the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Governor DeSantis, after the civil rights organization issued a travel advisory, citing Mr. DeSantis’s policies, warning African Americans to stay away from the Sunshine State.The Naacp issued its warning just days before Mr. DeSantis is expected to announce he’s standing for the Republican nomination for president. The feud, if that’s into what it develops, caps a decade in which Florida was one of the most popular places to move for black Americans.“Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals,” the Naacp travel advisory states. It implores African Americans thinking of traveling to Florida 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 Naacp president, Derrick Johnson, said that the state is “failing to teach an accurate representation of the horrors and inequalities that Black Americans have faced and continue to face.”The advisory was issued in response to Mr. DeSantis’s policies curbing diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools and laws like Florida’s Stop Woke Act, which restricts instruction on race relation, diversity, and oppression, among other subjects.“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,” Mr. Johnson said.Although Mr DeSantis has not responded to the recently issued travel advisory, he discussed the prospect of a travel advisory in March, calling the Naacp’s consideration of issuing one “a joke.”“What a joke — what a joke,” Mr. DeSantis said. “We’ll see how effective that is.”One of the most prominent advocacy groups for hispanic and latino Americans, the League of United Latin American Citizens, issued a similar travel advisory on Friday. LULAC’s president, Domingo Garcia, called the state’s new immigration law “hostile and dangerous,” adding that “As a result of this for only the second time in LULAC history, we’re issuing a travel advisory for anybody traveling to Florida.”The advisory comes after decades of explosive population growth in Florida, much of it fueled by migration from other states. According to an analysis of Census data from a liberal think tank, the Brookings Institute, Florida was the third most popular destination for black Americans moving within the United States in between 2016 and 2020.For comparison, only Georgia and Texas were more popular destinations for black Americans moving to a new state. For white Americans, Florida was the most popular destination, followed by Texas and California.According to the Migration Policy Institute’s tabulation of Census data, about 15 percent of new Floridians who relocated from inside the United States were black in 2021, compared to 65 percent who are white. That means that the proportion of new Floridians who are black is higher than the proportion of America that is black, which is 13.6 percent according to the Cenus’s estimate.In absolute numbers, between 2010 and 2020 Florida saw a net gain of just under 60,000 black residents via migration, making it the fifth most popular destination for black in-migration in America during that time period.For Comparison, Texas was first, gaining 236,000 new black residents, Georgia was second, gaining 190,000 new black residents, North Carolina was third, gaining 121,000 new black residents, and Nevada was fourth, gaining 83,000 new black residents, according to Census data.Mr. DeSantis’s personal impact on these migration trends, however, is probably fairly modest if he had any impact at all. Mr. DeSantis took office in 2019, so most of this migration would have happened under Senator Scott, who served as governor from 2011 to 2019.Beyond the fact that Mr. DeSantis’s time in office coincided with only the tail end of the time period that the 2020 Census covered, most of his policies that the Naacp and other groups have objected to were not passed until 2021, 2022, or 2023, after data for the last Census was collected.

Naacp Warning That African Americans Should Avoid Florida Comes After Decade of Black In-Migration to the Sunshine State

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