On Saturday, the NAACP issued an official travel warning for Florida, claiming that under the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state has been “hostile to Black Americans.”
According to the civil rights group’s advisory, DeSantis’ administration in Florida has “engaged in an all-out attack on Black Americans, accurate Black history, voting rights, members of the LGBTQ+community, immigrants, women’s reproductive rights, and free speech” while “simultaneously embracing a culture of fear, bullying, and intimidation” by elected officials, as per Newsweek.
DeSantis’ “aggressive attempts” to obliterate Black history and curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in Florida schools, according to the NAACP, prompted the organization to issue its warning.
When Jeremy Redfern, the DeSantis press secretary, was prompted for comment, he said, “this is a stunt,” as per Newsweek.
The teaching of critical race theory, which acknowledges that institutional racism is a part of American history and challenges the assumptions that permitted it to develop, has been outlawed in Florida under DeSantis.
The governor claimed that the idea would teach kids that “the country is rotten and that our institutions are illegitimate.” Additionally, he signed legislation that forbids teaching that implies a person is favored or mistreated because of their ethnicity or skin tone.
A new Advanced Placement course on African American studies was also stopped by the DeSantis administration because, according to the Florida Department of Education, it “significantly lacks educational value.”
DeSantis’ actions, according to the NAACP, are “in direct conflict with the democratic ideals that our union was founded upon.”
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“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,” said Derrick Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the NAACP.
In cooperation with the American Federation of Teachers’ Reading Opens the World initiative, the NAACP said it donated 10,000 books to 25 primarily Black neighborhoods throughout Florida after the DeSantis administration rejected the AP African American studies course.
The majority of the donated books were titles that were forbidden by the state’s increasingly onerous restrictions. To ensure that everyone has access to representative literature, the NAACP continues to urge neighborhood branches and youth councils to establish community libraries.
The NAACP has previously issued travel warnings for various states. After Missouri approved Senate Bill 43, which makes it harder for employees to show their protected class, such as race or gender, the NAACP issued a travel advisory to persons of color in 2017.
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The NAACP said that the new law permits unconstitutional discrimination, despite the governor’s claim that it aligns Missouri’s litigation standards with those of other states.
DeSantis, who is anticipated to declare his candidacy for president in the coming weeks, signed a bill earlier this week prohibiting public colleges from using federal or state funding for diversity initiatives. This is part of a larger effort to reshape Florida’s educational system by regulating how institutions approach issues like race and gender.
The Stop WOKE Act and other contentious Florida laws are also included in the recommendation. The advice claims that Florida has “criminalized protests, limited educators’ ability to teach African-American history, and engaged in a blatant war against diversity and inclusion.”
